Getting The Most Out Of An Unconventional Weekend

G & C Munching On Some Ice CreamIt’s Monday morning and damn if we didn’t just have a great weekend – though a little on the weird side.  At this point I’m a little sunburned and a little chafed (damn you protective webbing on the swimsuit… damn you to hell!!!) but man was it fun.

Friday:
After work and dinner on Friday night, we needed to take Mom’s truck to the Nissan dealership so they could work on it Saturday morning.  After that, we decided to do some shopping so Dad could have some supplies for the weekend’s activities.  We hit up Lowe’s and the  boys got to drive on quite a few lawnmowers, check out the blowers and edgers and generally have a great time.  Before we knew it it was WELL past the boys’ bedtime but we said, “Screw it, it’s summer” and opted for late night Dairy Queen before going to bed.  I think my tweet (at 10:33 PM) sums it up perfectly:

Terrible parenting on display. (@ Dairy Queen) http://4sq.com/c3PuHg

However, I will say this. Based on the joy on the boys’ faces while they were eating their DQ, I’ll be a “bad parent” every day of the week.  Guess I’m not a bad parent after all 😉

Saturday:
Saturday morning was reserved for working in the yard.  G and C are always up for helping dad, so out we went to trim the trees.  If you’re read this blog in the past you know they’re HUGE fans of any power tool or lawn equipment (lawnmower, blower, edger, etc.) so they were a tad bit disappointed that I was trimming the trees with a hand tool, but they quickly got over it.  Mom was out there helping us as well and though the job took about 4 times as long as it should have (thanks to some “help” from the boys) we had a great time.  The trees got a long overdue “haircut” and I was happy to knock something off my “honey do” list (which continues to grow by the way).  After lunch and nap we decided to take a trip to the zoo and we discovered something very important… evening is the PERFECT time to go to the zoo.  There’s almost nobody there, it’s no so damn hot and you can park nice and close.  The parking thing may not sound like a huge deal, but when you’ve got a 2 year old who weighs as much as  a small walrus and he decides, “You should carry me”, that kind of stuff comes into play big time.

After the zoo closed (yep… we were that family that closed down the zoo) we were already on that side of town, so we decided to go to one of Mom’s favorite restaurants Carrabba’s.  I’m happy to say that the boys were very good until the very end of the meal where C decided he’d rather make modern art with his spaghetti than eat it.  Note to self… stick with pizza or chicken fingers for the next couple of years.  Spaghetti is just too much of a reach. We decided to continue the weekend of kid-dom with a stop at McDonald’s on the way home to pick up a shake for the boys.  This was a little bit earlier (9:48 PM) but still WAY past bed time.  However, hearing G say, “Daddy, I sure do love milkshakes”, totally made it worth it.

Sunday:
Mom had decided (unbeknown to me) that we’d be spending the day at Wildwater Kingdom (formerly Geauga Lake’s water park).  It was like a billion degrees outside yesterday so you can imagine how few people had the same idea (please recognize the sarcasm).  As I get older, I find that I’m essentially an albino when it comes to sunburn so even though I applied some sunblock I can HEAR my skin creak this morning.  We headed over at around noon and the boys had a blast.  Not sure why, but the G-man is terrified of deep water this year (deep being defined as anything over 3 feet) but he did manage to do quite a bit of sliding and absolutely LOVES the big kid slides.  Per Mom’s plan, we headed home for lunch and nap time (which Super Dad partook in as well).  Even though the sky was looking rather ominous, we headed back to the part around 5 for another round of water park fun.  We just about made it to our chairs when the heavens opened up.  I’m not talking a little rain here… I’m talking thunder, lightening, wind and rain akin to Raiders Of The Lost Ark.  As we sat there eating our $5 slushy (which only half of us were eating cause G wouldn’t try it and Mom hates chewing ice) Mom and I just looked and one another and laughed.  Couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.  After about an hour or so, the storm passed and the park re-opened.  I’m SO happy that we stayed cause we had an absolute BLAST!!!

We had the place essentially to ourselves.  Mom and Dad got to go on a couple of the “adult slides”, we hit up the tidal wave pool (which we’d missed during our morning trip) and the boys got to slide… and slide… and slide some more.  I simply cannot tell you how awesome it was to watch C’s face as he slid down.  Eyes and mouth WIDE open each and every time.  Even the G-man with his recent predilection toward tantrums had an awesome time.  Once again, we closed the place down and as we walked toward our car (which was the only one left in the parking lot) it was clear that everyone had a good time.  We closed out the weekend with one last trip for ice cream (three days in a row) and it was home for a shower and bed time.

Final Thoughts :

  1. This post is much longer that I had anticipated.
  2. I’m not sure when it happened, but I can no longer be in the sun.   See The Final Wedding Weekend for additional proof.
  3. The “protective webbing” in a swimsuit does nothing of the sort.  It should be renamed “the chafing webbing”.  Good lord.
  4. Busy weekends like this are what memories are made of.

3 thoughts on “Getting The Most Out Of An Unconventional Weekend

  1. I cannot believe you didn’t call us to join you for dinner. You were practically in our backyard. On second thought, it might be a good thing you didn’t. Ellie threw up Sat. at 8pm and preceded to puke every hour on the hour for the next 24 hours.

    However, next time you are this way…Call for petes sake!

    1. Aw crap… I didn’t even think about it. Will DEFINITELY let you know the next time we’re out your way. Sorry to hear that Ellie was sick… hope she’s feeling better!

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