Last weekend, I was was supposed to go to Chicago for my sister's temple endowment and bridal shower. We worked it all out so that I would leave early Friday with Jonah and return on Sunday, leaving Isaac and Carter to have a boy's weekend. I was so excited, however, late Thursday we got a call informing me that due to weather my flight was cancelled. In fact all flights were cancelled and the earliest I could get in was Friday afternoon, which meant I would miss the endowment.
Instead of making a short trip even shorter, we made the sad decision just to stay home. It was really sad. I even made a failed attempt to get on a flight Friday morning, while waiting on hold with an airline ticket agent, but had to tell the cab to turn around and take me back home after a block - which confused him and my doorman.
We didn't want to just sit home and waste one of Isaac's precious vacation days, so with some quick Googling, I booked us a car and a room at an indoor water park 2 hours away in Connecticut. On the way up there, we stopped at a children's museum. Carter loved their "science" section that had a series of vacuums, tubes, water and conveyor belts where the kids could experiment with plastic balls. I don't know who had more fun, Carter playing or Isaac watching Carter play.
After that we stopped for lunch at Arby's, which is a big deal for us, since there aren't any in the city. Funny enough it was the same Arby's we stopped at a few years ago on a trip to Connecticut. It made a special impression on us, since there were a couple of drag queens working there and guess what- at least one of them still does!
Carter was so excited to go swimming and the hotel did not disappoint. They had a fun play area for the little kids, a lazy river, a basketball hoop set up in one of the pools and a few bigger slides for those above 48". Carter was in heaven . . . for about an hour. He's such a skinny guy that he gets too cold playing in water. He was shaking like crazy, but didn't want to stop playing. But finally with blue lips, Daddy convinced him to take a nice hot shower.
I thought Jonah would have more fun than he did. He wasn't too sure about the whole thing. I tried to put him in this baby jumper, they had, but he didn't like it. He was just content to sit at the edge of the pool and splash. In fact on Saturday, I didn't even take him in and he seemed much happier with playing with his sword and shield with his toes sticking out of his pj's. (Don't worry Grandma, we got those replaced with some he fits into)
The next day at breakfast, we ran into some people at the 3-story high McDonald's Playplace (Carter was lovin' life) who suggested we go to a carnival in town. So after a morning swim, we headed over there. Unfortunately, they were packing up to leave. We were all devastated. Especially since we've been reading the Little Critter books and Carter wanted to ride the rockets just like Little Critter. But thanks to the modern miracle of GPS and wireless devices, we found another amusement park type place. We had no idea what we were in for, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was a little place that had a good twenty rides and with the iffy weather - no one was there. Carter just ran from ride to ride, exclaiming each one was "So fun."
In their enthusiasm for rides, Isaac and Carter hopped on the Paratrooper ride- similar to this one- before they realized what it was. I thought it might be the end of our fun judging by the quick glances I caught of Carter's very red, terrified face. But as soon as it was over, he came running over exclaiming how fun it was and wanted to know what we were going to ride next!
The icing on the cake was a visit from Clifford. Carter got a little fresh with him, but I'm sure it won't be the last time for poor Clifford.
So by the end of the weekend, I had emotionally recovered from my disappointment and discovered that sometimes spontaneous vacations can be the best!
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