One of the very few perks of friends leaving Santiago? Swimming in the hotel's pool that they are staying in! Hamilton's and Whitt's, THANK YOU for the wonderful afternoon and the insanely intense lifeguard! Everyone had to don swim caps, which is the norm down here... Luke didn't mind one bit. He saw everyone else put one on and went right along with it. The question is, what or who does he remind you of in this picture? He cracks me up!!!
And now I'll share a shocking funny purely for the record. All of the kids were happily swimming and probably being a bit too loud, when Luke yells out, "Mom!!!! I have to pee!!!!" This was a very long and narrow pool. The only ladder to climb up and out was on the opposite side of all of the chairs, where I was sitting. The nazi lifeguard had just stepped out to get some water weights for an elderly couple she was coaching in the pool. "Hurry Mom!! I don't wanna pee in my bathing suit!" So I start heading around the pool with a towel and say, "Ok, Luke, go ahead and climb out of the pool and then you can go pee."
I'm about 15 feet from him, when I look up and see that he has successfully climbed out of the pool, has pulled his trunks down to his ankles, and is standing right on the edge, peeing into the pool. Just like some fountain stone statue. I gasped and almost screamed, but thought better of it, as that would draw the attention of the nazi. Thankfully no one was at that end of the pool, so I rushed over and scooped him up in the towel, realizing that when I said, "...then you can go pee," he took me literally. Lesson- I'm-not-sure-what-number- learned.
And let's end with this funny. The morning of our flight home to the states for our month long family time, Karen and I decided to go for one last jog together. Most of these morning runs, Lucy had accompanied us. We sweat, talked, huffed and puffed and laughed most days, in addition to dealing with Lucy's crazy tendencies to say an excited hello to every.single.dog that passed us. Something I'm trying to work on with her. We get plenty of practice with all of the strays down here.
This particular morning started out freezing and about 20 minutes into it, things really started warming up. We had stopped to say hello to some friends and then I asked Karen to hold the leash so I could take off my jacket. In that moment where the passing of the leash went from my fingers to hers, a stray dog appeared out of NO WHERE, and Lucy took off. The leash lost us both and the next thing I knew, Karen was sprinting like I have never seen her sprint, after these two dogs. I tried to keep up, but it's hard to sprint when you are laughing at the image in front of you.
And then suddenly I realized Karen's panic. I didn't have time to search for Lucy all day today. I was leaving on an airplane in just a few hours. I started down one path, knowing that Karen had gone the opposite way. For 30 minutes I yelled and searched and asked people if they had seen Lucy or a woman chasing after Lucy. I prayed and prayed I would find her, so I would be able to get home and get packed for our trip. I figured I needed to start making my way towards home so I could get my keys and search by car when, when I turned a corner, and found Lucy calmly sitting in some bushes, with her leash wrapped around a tall sprinkler head. Someone (an angel I'm assuming, because I had asked every single person if they had seen a beagle dragging a leash behind her) had obviously found her and picked up the leash and put it around something so she couldn't escape.
I picked up the leash and she started walking right by my side like nothing had ever happened. I sent thanks up above and as we were walking home, I heard some hysterical honking. I looked up and there was Karen, in her car, with her disheveled hair from running so far and so long, looking for my dog. What a friend. She almost started crying with relief as we climbed in her car.
So, our last jog wasn't quite what we expected. But for some reason, I'm not surprised. Karen didn't have very lovely feelings towards Lucy that day...I don't blame her. I didn't either. I think Lucy can tell. She seems a little ticked being held by a woman who doesn't really like her. Cracks me up!!! Thank you, Karen for tracking strangers down, for getting in their cars to search, for calling friends to see if they could help, for running like the wind. You are a true friend.
Lucy might not appreciate all of that effort, but I sure do!!!
We made it to California! And it felt so good! We we were more than ready for:
