Page 56 of Schooling Little Sage

“Our Little Adventure book. You made a book for us?” Sage asked.

“Not quite. This is a picture book we’re making together. Your Daddy and me have taken lots of pictures of us having fun and they’re gonna go in this book and the one I got for me. That way when we’re far apart we can look at them and ’member each other.”

Sage’s eyes filled with tears. “I love you so much, bestie. There’s no way I’ll ever forget you.”

“Ditto. Now open the rest.”

“My bestie is the bestest, t-shirt. It’s so cute. Look at all the flutterflies, Daddy.”

Sage was too cute.

“Thank you, I love it.”

“There’s more.”

“A beach hat with seashells on it, Daddy. Thank you so much, Devon.”

The boys hugged. I loved how close they’d gotten.

“All right, birthday boy and his bestie, get dressed while Daddy packs our lunches for today. Sage, make sure to bring your backpack. Daddy will wash out your new water bottles. Devon, make sure you bring the same, please.”

“Yes, Daddy,” they said as they skipped down the hall.

I packed their lunchboxes with a frozen ice pack to keep their snacks cool. Figured they’d want to get a meal at the park itself or after we left. At least this would keep them sated either way.

“Are we waiting for the car guy?” Sage asked when we stepped outside.

“Nope, I have to drive today. Too expensive to take a service this far. Hop in.” Devon had one of those fancy electric cars. Made sense living out here where they had more sun than snow. “We’ll drive to the beach tomorrow too.”

“Sage, go ahead and sit up front with Devon so you two can chat.” Chat and sing they did all the way there.

“Children’s Fairyland. Is that where we’re going, Daddy?”

“It is indeed.”

“How do I get out of this car?”

“I’d say wait for Daddy only Daddy is stuck too.”

Devon snickered at us. “The button at the top of the handle opens the door. You got out fine after the airport, silly gooses.”

Give me that antique locking mechanism on my old truck any day to this new-fangled I can’t figure it the hell out door system. My boy and I managed to escape our electric captor, and the experience was soon forgotten when we made it to the entrance.

“I’m so excited. Have you ever been here, Devon?”

“Nope. It’s my first time too.”

Security did a quick scan through their backpacks, handed us each a park map, then we were on our way. There were rugrats all over. Shoot, I’d forgotten it was Christmas break… but I’d brave the madness for the boys.

“First stop is at the closest water station to fill your bottles.” Given this fountain was just inside the entrance, it shouldn’t have taken us fifteen minutes to get to it. Devon and Sage insisted upon stopping at each sculpture to take pictures. Not just of the sculptures themselves, but with them, then with me. Yeah, our phone clouds would be begging for storage upgrades before we got home.

Yup, today was gonna be another of those days where a leash would come in handy.

First trip around the park took us two hours. At that point it was time to stop and regroup. “Boys, let’s sit and have a snack.” An empty bench was nearby, and I snagged it before another took it.

I was exhausted just watching them crawl through tunnels, ride the train, hop aboard the pirate ship and pretend to be buccaneers. They’d been through everything at least once and were deciding which areas to hit again as they snacked.

“I wanna ride the carousel again for sure,” Sage told Devon. “And the train.”