Antics at the Provo City Library -- A Family Tradition

Okay. Ever since we were wee little tikes, we were taught that the library was a quiet place. We use our "indoor voices". We can all picture in our minds the librarian telling us, "Shhhh!".

Well, I'm afraid I have failed in this regard.

My children have these little, for lack of a better word, "traditions" at the library. They do them without fail every time we go. I'm sure the security officers get a kick watching my family on the cameras!

It all starts when we drive down the hill to the underground parking lot. All hands go up in the air and everyone yells, "Weeeeeee!" and then laughter.

Then we all pile out of the van and Max yells,

"Mama Mia!!!"

at the top of his lungs so it echoes down the corridors of the parking lot.

(For some reason it's always Max. Why? Who knows!

Don't ask me where "Mama Mia" came from either!)

After that, even louder laughter.

We then enter the doors to the foyer of the library. The boys, with Jake as the leader, all scunch down and walk under the little metal sign right by the doorway that says, "Welcome to Provo City Library."

Then the real craziness begins...

The floors are made of slick cement which makes for an excellent floor for pretend speed skating. I think Lee started this "tradition"! They (even Elisabeth at times if nobody else is around) pretend to speed skate across the floor to the stairs--one arm swaying as they go!

Now, even more laughter!

We then split up. Lee and the older children go up the stairs with the old books to return them and I take Emma up the elevator with the stroller. We meet at the book return and I take Max, Emma, and the infamous purple basket to find our books. The rest go about on their own. It usually takes Max about 2 minutes to find his books. He just grabs the first books he can find. Then I have to say,"Let's take our time and find books we would like to actually read because you need to practice your reading." I get a big sigh and we find our books. Now he wants to play the stupid "Magic Schoolbus" games on the computers but I always seem to distract him with letting him choose one of the coveted 2 DVD's you can check out. Then, after about 10 minutes tops, we're done.

Now we head over to the adult section and I attempt to find a book. That's when I start getting the loud "talking".

"Can I read my books now?" Max pipes out.

"Book! My book! Now!" Emma yells.

"Shhhh! Just wait a minute!" I snap back.

Then the fits begin!!! So I give up and find "the bench" we always sit at (the one that is the family's meeting place) and "read" until everyone else is finished. After what seems like 2 hours, we finally track everyone down and wait in the check out line.

By then, Emma is sick of being in her stroller so I have to let her out or she'll scream the rest of the time. So, Max and Emma are running around, Cole takes off to the bathroom for the third time, Scott rummages through the basket wanting to hold "his" books, Lee's talking on his cell phone, Jakes reading one of his books, and Elisabeth and I are trying to keep Emma and Max from escaping. We finally make it to the check out desk and plop down our purple basket filled what seems like a bazillion books and the librarian has to comment on almost every one...

"Oh, who's interested in photography...My son's working on this Merit Badge...This is the cutest book!"

(although last night she and Lee just talked about her spider bite...

another story for another time!).

When we are finally done checking out, the mad dash to the stairs begins with the laughter starting up again!

By the time I make it down the elevator with the stroller and Emma, the rest of my family has broke into their speed skating mode with boistrous laughter! Max started a new antic last night. While the others were skating, he fell onto his side and spun around with his feet kind of like a breakdancer. (Only time will tell if this will become a "tradition"!)

Even more laughter!

By this time, I'm always shocked and amazed that security doesn't come and kick us out! Then the boys file out back under the little metal sign and out the door to hear Max yell one more

"Mama Mia!"

for the road and once again the roar of laughter is heard echoing through the corridors of the parking garage. We all pile back into the van and drive through the parking garage to the exit where Lee always pretends like the van won't make it up the hill. Everyone screams and then somehow it makes it up and out of the garage and the laughter continues.

We then count the many manholes from the library down 100 East to Center Street. (There's 42!) By then we've calmed down and everyone is reading or talking about their books.

I have to say, at the time it's embarrassing, but going to the library is one of my favorite things to do with my family. I apologize to anyone who may come across us there. I'm sorry for our loudness and craziness but...

you just can't stop family "traditions"!