Mommy Meltdowns: What are the odds?

Ian received as part of his Hanukkah presents from his Nana and Papa a remote controlled airplane. All through Winter, Ian has been begging us to let him fly it. We kept saying we will go when the snow has melted, the ground is dry and the sun is shinning. Also, we have to wait until there is nothing on the calendar that requires us to be doing something else. And, on Easter Sunday, there was literally "nothing" on the calendar. Jeff made sure of that and wrote it in weeks ago. So off to Popes Head Park we went to ride bikes, have a picnic, play on the playground and of course, take Ian's remote controlled plane for its inaugural ride.

It was a gorgeous day and the conditions were perfect to fly the plane. Unfortunately the plane was a piece of crap (sorry Dad & Rita if you are reading this, but it was) and even though it said it had a 100 foot range, in reality, it was more like 10 feet. The plane was made from this lightweight foam and any kind of gentle breeze would take the plane out of the range and make it sail on its own. Flying the plane became more like a game of fetch and Ian got a great workout running after it over and over again.

Jeff and Ian made sure to fly the plane in only big open spaces, but 3 times the plane flew into trees. It was quite humorous trying to get the plane out of the tree limbs. I came up with the idea of throwing sticks and rocks trying to shake the plane loose. Most of the sticks we threw at the tree ended up getting stuck in the limbs too. The first 2 times it finally came free and the plane fell to the ground. It was the third time when the plane flew into dense bushes/trees that neither Jeff or I could find it. It just disappeared. Completely. We must've looked for it for about 10 minutes and it was nowhere to be found. The plane was red in color and you would think it would stick out, even a little bit against the green (with leaves) or brown (without leaves) background. How strange.

Fortunately Jeff and I had already decided we would be buying Ian another remote controlled plane for his upcoming birthday. He was having so much fun with it and we can only imagine how much better the experience would be if the plane was better quality.

Losing the plane happened towards the end of visit to Popes Head. It always amazes me how fantastic this park is and how little it seems to be used by other Fairfax County residents. The park is a little off the beaten path and not readily visible from the street. My mommy friends and I love going to this park, because you don't have to worry about cars and there are wide open spaces for the kids to play, a fabulous playground and a great trail to ride bikes. Even on the weekends the park is hardly ever crowded and at the most maybe one or two other families will be using it.

We were there for approx. an hour before anyone else showed up. This family had the same idea as us and brought a picnic to enjoy this gorgeous Sunday. Turns out the husband's name was Jeff and the wife's name was Robin. I kid you not. And, they had a little boy and a younger girl. Pretty wild. What are the odds that the only other family at the park with us would have the same exact names as Jeff and I? Oh, and they had as much luck as getting their kite off the ground as we did with the plane staying in the air.