Honesty is the best policy

A friend of mine made me so sad today when she said she has to stop reading her friends' blogs because all the perfectness and happiness depresses her. I got to enlighten her to the truth** that her friends are lying.

We all do it sometimes. We show only the best pictures or only tell the happy stories. I don't blame them most of the time. It is not that I want a word for work account of a person's last crazy fight with their spouse, but a little perspective would be nice. I think a lot of people just blog about their "amazing" trip to the beach/ museum/ event/ party/ play land so they can feel better about the fact that they just spent $45.00 on the worst/ most boring/ or just mediocre afternoon ever.

I've been there. I have been in the middle of a "non-event" and think "but look at that one great picture I just got, and I could blog this and this and this." It is not on purpose. It is really a form of self-preservation and quite a perfect "Fake it 'til you make it" gesture. I get that. We all want our lives to be or feel a certain way, and that is totally ok. But I just beg everyone to remember that the grass always looks greener to the people on the other side, and it doesn't help if you are painting your grass. So give me a little honesty would you? For my dear friends' sake if nothing else.

In the spirit of honesty, might I provide an example:
I took my kids to the Highland Fling city festival today. I put the kids in the car at 8:45 (9:09 a.m. ) because we had to drive to Lehi on our way to pick up our bountiful basket (see different post). But the B.B. truck was late. We sat in the care for an hour. i was pretty sure we missed the parade, and I was going to have to tell Quinn that something else is in fact a "parade" to get her to stop begging to go to a parade. McKenna cried the whole way to the "Parade." But much to my surprise, we got a great parking spot at the end of the parade route just as the first float was driving by. McKenna screamed when the fire engine sounded its siren, and I seriously doubted my choice to come. Quinn stayed right by my side instead of running to catch candy with the other kids. What were we doing there? But eventually we crossed the street, found a neighbor, got a good seat and got into it. Quinn was catch candy like a pro and McKenna was watching, crawling, and sometimes dancing away from me. That girl really loves music. She loved the marching bands. Sometimes she would follow Quinn to try to find candy, but of course the candy was long gone by the time she got to it. So she would crawl even farther, and I would be dodging people and cheerleaders to bring her back. After the parade, I took the girls to the stage to watch some Irish Dancing. Some of it was cool, but it reminds of that line from Friends about Riverdance that Chandler says during the quiz show they do. Very funny. We ended up at the playground while I explained to Quinn why she could not bounce on the bouncy toys because we are going to do that next weekend at Alpine Days with Asher. Kenna ate some sand, and then we went to the booths to find some lunch. Quinn got to pick whatever she wanted ... she picked a root beer in a beer bottle with a cork. $2.50. It was pretty funny. I gave Kenna some of the "Spicy Juice" as we call it, and she was covered with dark brown root beer on her light pink shirt for the rest of the day. Nice. The girls danced and played back over at the main stage to a country band that Tim might have hated if he had been with us instead of at work. I cruised the arts and crafts booths in about 4 minutes, and we headed to the car. All in all, I enjoyed myself with the girls, forgot to feed Kenna, and I probably would have been really stressed if Tim had been there. I loved the idea of heading back to the event after naps and once Tim came home, but we were all so tired. (Tim and I, of course.) So now as I sit here having a perfecting pleasant evening at home with my family, I feel like I am missing out, but I think hard enough, I know I am not.

The girls watching the main stage.

McKenna watching the band.

Quinn eating a stick.

** Please note that I neglected my family a little to bring this blog post to you.