At Last, Our Good Weekend Has Come Along.
What's so good about it? I'm sure you're just dying to know.
Simple.
It wasn't raining.
It seems it's been raining for weeks, and that the rain was accompanied by a chill that felt more like March than May. In fact, we spent last Thursday at a rainy Cardinals game where the temperature when we left (at 3:00 p.m.) was 53 degrees, and the wind was cutting through Busch Stadium like a scalpel through flesh. Don't ask. Anyway, Laurel and I drank hot chocolate during the game and did our best to huddle together for warmth. It seems every time we go to a game we subject ourselves to some sort of extreme -- cold, wind and rain this time; the Praxair explosion last time.
But not this weekend. Saturday dawned with the type of glory we damn well expect this time of year, and it was a good thing, because we were off to the school spirit festival and had laid out a lot of money for pre-purchased tickets and a ride bracelet -- more on that later.
We rode the shuttle bus from the middle school to the high school, where the festival was held. Ethan l-o-v-e-s buses. If they were holding historical bus re-enactments (whatever those would be), he would undoubtedly be first in line.
Sadly, someone forgot to tell Ethan we weren't taking the bus to his school. As soon as we left the parking lot going the opposite direction, he knew. His face crumpled. Heartbroken, he sobbed. I did what I could to console him and he eventually lightened up, but it took every trick in my bag.
We arrived at the high school none the worse for wear, and I reached into the diaper bag to get the pre-purchased tickets. I opened the envelope and my heart sank.
It was the wrong envelope. No tickets, just a broken jacked-up necklace of Laurel's. Sigh. What to do? We could either kill an hour going home to get the stupid tickets or we could spend our money on more. We spent our money on more.
The kids had a great time. Ethan rode all the kiddie rides, cracking out on the ponies, train, and 'dinosaur ride.' We got lots of photos, then moved over to listen to the middle school strings group (seeing as how Laurel will be learning to play next year). They were really quite good and should be proud of their performance.
We had soggy sandwiches and pizza for lunch, then met with friends and stood in line FOREVER for one ride while Greg entertained Ethan elsewhere. Well, to be perfectly honest, I stood in line with them but I didn't ride. Motion sickness keeps me grounded from lots of rides, and I had been on this one before and knew what to expect. I got a great photo of Laurel enjoying herself, though.
Ethan held up like a champ but by 1:00 he was just plain exhausted. We left Laurel with our friends so her good time wouldn't be cut short and we bailed to take Ethan home for his nap. Ethan left with a rock. Not a special rock, just a rock that he clung to all the way home.
The best part: when we returned to gather Laurel, Greg managed to sell those left-at-home ride tickets to someone, managing to recoup some of our money.
My man.
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