Things my teens can do but I can't

Our second world traveler came home last night (well maybe I should say U.S.A. traveler).

Bud, my 18 y/o son, flew into O'Hare at midnight after being gone for 3 weeks.

He was returning from his first big adventure away from home.

these three yahoos.....that's my yahoo, Bud, on the right....

drove this little car....without incident....

from Tennessee to Vancouver Island, British Columbia (they actually picked Bud up in Chicago)....so they could drop yahoo #1 (Caleb, on left) off at college.

And they did it with very little planning. They decided they would drive until they got tired and then camp.

I think this might be the route they took.

I'm just kidding, I just wanted to play with Google and Photoshop....I know, not my most impressive work. I still need help with my computer skills.

Right now you're probably amazed that I would let my high school senior go on a trip like this. Actually, I'm pretty amazed too. I never claimed this was a "how to" blog on teen parenting....it's just where I make fun of them. Helps me to regains some pride after all the eye rolling, ect. ect.

Maybe it's because I'm getting lenient in my old age.

Maybe it's because he's my second (and compared to letting Nae go to Sudan for 3 weeks it was a piece of cake).

Maybe because dear Hubby and I are feeling really guilty for making him move his senior year.

Yeah, that's probably it....

Now he's home safe and sound. Bud came home with stories of sleeping on rocks and floors. Of getting lost and trying to figure out the public transportation system in Vancouver (I'm so proud...sniff, sniff).

But what struck with me most from his stories are the things they did while lost or trying to figure things out. Things that, if I were doing them, my kids would NEVER let me forget. If they were with me, they would curl up and die from embarrassment right there on the spot.

Here's an example. Bud and Caleb go to the grocery store in British Columbia. The check out lady asks if they would like to buy grocery bags. They assume she means those heavy duty recyclable bags so they say 'no thanks'. So she rings up their items and leaves all the stuff they just bought laying there. And they all just stand there looking at each other and the food and each other and the food. And then it dawns on them that you have to purchase the plastic bags to put the food in. So they look around and in a corner a few feet away, is a pile of garbage. They go over there and rifle through it and pull out some old, grubby banana boxes, walk back over and put their groceries in them.

Never! I would NEVER get away with that if my teenagers were with me. But Bud tells the story like they are geniuses for solving a complex problem.

I will just have to wait for them to have teens of their own...then I can laugh at them too....

I think I hear my Dad laughing right now.