I am not an adventurer. I wasn't before I got married, and having children has made me even less so. When you have an entire circus train to haul behind you every time you leave the house, 'adventure' really just is another word for a big old hassle that will probably cost more time, money and aggravation than it is worth.
So when the CLO sent around an announcement about a trip to Georgia for the upcoming five-day holiday weekend next month, I read it and laughed. An overnight train? With four children? No thanks, I'd rather stay home and stick pins in my eyeballs for entertainment.
But when Brandon read it, instead of laughing he looked interested.
Let me tell you something about Brandon - he's even less adventurous than I am. His idea of the perfect weekend is coming home Friday night and leaving the house Monday morning. After being gone at work all week all he wants to do is stay home and enjoy the castle all of his meetings, email exchanges, and cables have provided for him. I'm the one who hauls him on our little adventures.
I looked at him, "you're not really seriously thinking about this Georgia trip, are you? We would have to get the children to sleep on a fourteen-hour train ride twice. And we wouldn't have our car. And we would have to make the children eat Georgian food for four days."
He looked back and shrugged. "When else are we going to get to Georgia?" I was so shocked I told him I'd think about it.
I thought about it, and the deadline for signing up passed. Oh well, we can do something else that weekend, I told myself and Brandon. Then it was extended so I had to think about it again. I thought about it and got busy with sick children and life and remembered it had passed the day after.
But then it got extended a third time. In a spasm of adventuresome spirit one day while taking the children on errands, I brought up the subject with them.
"So, your father and I were talking about maybe taking you on an overnight train ride to Georgia. I'm not asking for your vote, just your opinion. What do you think?"
Thirty seconds later it was decided - we're going to Georgia. I called Brandon at work and broke the news to him. "You had to ask them didn't you? Of course they're going to say yes to sleeping in a train!"
So that's how we backed ourselves into taking four children on the overnight train to Tbilisi, staying two nights in the city at a hotel where there will be other people Brandon works with, and taking the overnight train to Baku. Did I mention that we're doing this with a seven year-old, five year-old, three year-old, and one year-old?
But I suppose in the end, as long as nobody has died, we will have taken the children on a train ride, gotten of town for a break, put Georgian stamps in our passports and most importantly, gone on a really big Adventure. Which is, after all of the bad memories have faded, what counts in the end, right?