Adventures In Babysitting

After the reunion, the girls and I hitched rides with Leslie & Magan to Boise. Tod, who had been in Taiwan all week flew to Boise and met us. He went to two new cities in one week. Taipai and Boise. He said they aren't even comparable. Taiwan was so foreign he felt like he was on a distant planet. He loved both.

Anyway, it was wonderful to see him. We've never been apart that long since we first started hanging out. I kept staring at him. I was astounded at how handsome he was.

One night Leslie, Mitch, Tod & I went to dinner and left the very mature and capable Ana in charge of four little ones (Lily, Ella, Addy & Edie). We gave them explicit instructions not to make messes and not to open the door for anyone.

We had a splendid evening. Les & Mitch took us to this fab restaurant called Barbacoa (not to be confused with the popular Utah chain). It was incredible. A feast for the senses in every way.

Check out the guac train! Custom blended wok-a-mol-ay. Mmmm.

I'm not a big steak fan. I never order it. Holy moly, though. If you ever find yourself at this establishment, GET THE STEAK!!! Honestly one of the tastiest things that has ever met my tongue.

There was absolutely no room for desert, but we couldn't resist ordering the fried ice cream tree for the novelty, if nothing else.

Just as I snapped this picture Leslie got her third call from Ella in a 5-minute stretch. She rolled her eyes in exasperation and handed the phone to Mitch to deal with her.

Here's what I heard sitting across the table from him.

Hello. 

Someone's there? No, don't answer it. Who is it? The police? Really?

At this point Les grabs her purse and is about to run for the car (it's a 30 minute drive home). I remind her we need to pay for the meal.

What are the police doing there? No don't answer it. 

Our over active mommy instincts kicked in and we were worried about all the possibilities. What if they were baby eaters in fake police uniforms looking dinner?! Ella tells Mitch they've rang the doorbell about 30 times. He informs her to tell Ana to answer it. She does. Les and I are trying not to let our minds explode.

They want to talk to me? Okay. Hello, this is Mitch Hurst. Is there a problem? A 911 hang up? Oh, I see. I'm really sorry that happened. We're headed home right now.

Smoke starts pouring out Leslie's ears and we all go through the line up of evil children in our mind's eye to determine which naughty little girl was most capable of pulling a prank like this.

As soon as the conversation ended I called Ana's cell phone. Turns out no one was evil or naughty. Ella, upon dialing her mom's cell phone on a previous call accidentally hit 911 instead of 891, which is Leslie's prefix. She hung up immediately, but the call had gone through and the police followed up. They saw the little girls in the window when they arrived and naturally needed to verify that people were safe. The girls sat upstairs completely freaked out and not sure of how to handle it before calling us. It turned out to be quite a comedy of errors, but the littles were pumped up on adrenalin the rest of the night and refused to sleep alone.

Guess it could have been worse. At least it wasn't like the time my mom and her sister left us cousins alone and the boys burnt down the mountain!

We also couldn't miss a chance to grub at our other favorite Boise eatery. Rembrandts. I hate that this picture is blurry, but that little stinker is so cute I had to post it.