Rat Pack

If it seems like I'm acting a little more rakish or debonair than usual, it's because we spent the weekend living it up in true Rat Pack style, at the former Palm Springs estate of Dinah Shore. There's just something about that desert lifestyle... the lush palms, the glamorous parties, the free-flowing liquor...oh wait -- my mistake -- that was milk and apple juice.


Yes, we did the trip with two other families and a total of six kids under age four, and not only did we live to tell, we managed to remain friends AND have a great time. The mercury topped out at 105 but we had a blast between bowling, a tram ride and hikes up the mountain, dinner and a band downtown, and lots and lots of swimming. We even wore the kids out enough to have some actual adult conversation time in the evenings, after we convinced everyone under four feet tall to go to sleep.

Luke was of course in seventh heaven with his two best friends Hatcher and Eitan, and plenty of moms and dads around to do book-reading duty. He had a few blowouts over candy-related issues (go figure) but for the most part he was just happy to be there.

And Zach - good little Goo that he is - actually seemed to be amused by his first-ever dip in the pool. I'm searching for words to describe what it's like to watch him swim but the best I can come up with is "surprisingly buoyant." Even when you try to push his legs and bottom down so that he is standing upright in the water, he still keeps popping back up. We were saying that we could probably just set him off on his back and he'd just float around all day.

One of the things that made me happiest was how well all of the kids got along. Even Zach and Daniel (the two littlest ones) seemed to have a good time just looking at each other for 20 minutes or more, and that's how all great friendships begin, right?

We volunteered to drive Hatcher home from Palm Springs yesterday (because Julie had two kids to herself) and it gave us an interesting view of what it would be like to have three kids. Luke and Hatcher had a great time together in the back seat and cracked each other up for the first 90 minutes. But then it was amazing how quickly it degenerated from funny word games into "Stop touching me!" "He's on my side!" etc. It all came to a less-than-perfect ending when Hatcher, who was closest to the door, cracked open the car door when we were on the freeway, leading to a slightly hair-raising ride to the nearest exit, where we pulled over at a small industrial park. At that point we handed Hatcher back over to his mom (who had been trailing behind), and we set the childproof locks in the back seat not a moment too soon.

The best compliment about the whole weekend came from Julie, who said, "I'm already planning our next vacation." Where else do you think the Rat Pack would want to go?