Yesterday Hyrum got his Christmas toy stuck on the roof. He took his Air Hogs Millenium Falcon outside to see how high it could go. And then an o-so slight breeze caught it and pushed it south, a little more south... I was watching from the window. As I saw it move closer and closer to the house, I said "They're gonna get it stuck on the roof..." but Hyrum was still looking up at it with a big "isn't this fun?!" smile. Then, the smile disappeared and a look of "uh oh" came on his face as his jaw dropped and then he put his hand over his mouth. Kinda funny, kinda sad. It looked like it had been abandoned on Hoth... (photo reenactment)
We could see where it was from the window in my bedroom (I didn't get a picture of it before it's rescue, thus the photoshopped version below)
It doesn't matter how much parents try to warn their children to prevent situations like this... some things you just have to learn from personal experience.
So, today I went over and asked our neighbors across the street if we could borrow their ladder. They dug it out of their garage and then Joseph brought it over. He leaned it against the house in two different locations. He put it in the yellow spot, but I thought no, that will take longer, if we put it in the red position as seen below, we'll be able to quickly climb up and climb back down! Yeah, bad idea... the ladder was at it's highest setting and it seemed very unstable. Plus there would be no extra roof to break a fall in case of an accident, we'd just fall straight off the cliff of the roof. Joseph told me "No" before I told him I had second thoughts. I'm okay with that - that roof is high and scary!!!
So we chose location one and then I sent Joseph up on the roof through our ice dam area (stupid north facing house, very poor design right there... There hasn't been an ice dam there the past 3 years thanks to heating cables which I asked him to be careful not to disturb the cables if at all possible...) Boy this is a great idea... let's risk Joseph's life by putting him up on a snowy roof to retrieve a $70 toy. I did not take any pictures of the rescue, cause you can't take pictures when you're stressed and in a dangerous predicament. But just imagine us doing this in the snow and ice. I got up on part of it with him, but he went all the way up to get the toy. That's Joseph on the top of our house with a broom trying to get the toy, me on the roof at the top of the ladder coaching him, Mel holding the ladder for us, and 3+ other kids whining for a turn, to which my stressed out self said "Shut up!!"
Not sure why we did it really, would probably have been better to just let it be lost or go buy another one. Wesley really wanted to be the one to go up on the roof, like it was some fun game. Joseph was sober enough to attempt it though - "This is not a game, this is serious and scary and we gotta be careful." By some miracle he was able to grab it with the broom we tossed up to him. Then I very slowly got myself down (I was pretty freaked out - it was so nice to finally get a firm foothold on the ladder again!) and then coached him down. It was a high stress situation, and probably not the smartest thing to do. But we got it down, yay, Hyrum will think we're heroes (he was gone at a band rehearsal) We're just trying to help him out with his favorite toy. Though not sure if it was worth the risk.
Now we are ready to head up to our friends' cabin. I've tried to use our early departure to the cabin as a bribe/incentive to get the kids to clean the house. "Back to reality is starting soon! Please organize your things so you are ready! Let's get the house clean, life will be more calm if we do!!" But instead they're playing Klask and Otrio and I might as well just be nagging the walls to get movin'. Abi did help me finally finish clearing out the laundry room. Now it is officially a "clothes and cloth only" room - no more crafts or paper or glue for the kids to get in to! The desk is cleared off! I'm excited about that. Maybe I'll finally be able to sew and do mending! Off to the cabin, it is always nice for Corey and I to have time to visit with friends and the kids love it too. Happy New Years Eve tomorrow!
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