H and I were off to have fun by 8am. I heard Grandma say, "Could you be going any earlier??" This coming from the woman that used to yell, "You're wasting the day away!!!" when I was a still-sleeping-at-11am teenage.
We decided it wasn't very hot yet and it should be early enough that there wouldn't be loads of kids at "the big park" which is a city park with a huge, three story playscape. There is also a splash pad and tennis courts so we grabbed H a towel and our rackets. We were thrilled to arrive at the park and see no signs of children anywhere. Bingo!! 8am at the park is the best time to go. We started with playing some tennis (and we decided maybe our old neighbor can give H some lessons in the fall, he was alternating between getting really frustrated and crushing the ball back at me). We then went onto the playscape where he challenged me to a race down the BIGGEST slides ever. I learned a few valuable lessons at that moment... (1) Kids are brave, (2) Running shorts go up your butt on steep slides, and (3) dew on the slides that early coupled with said shorts makes for wet underwear. Pleasant!! But this was all about play so I suggested we swing to dry our wet bottoms which H happily agreed to. We had a great time trying everything out.
We played another round of tennis before leaving the park and the only disappointment was that that splashpad apparently doesn't kick on until 10am. Makes sense but we made a note of that so we could come back sometime.
Once home, we got ready for lunch with our family before they headed back to FL. I was fortunate enough to go with just my brother to a local place with a killer Michigan micro list, so he was able to try a Bell's Two Hearted and I had Uncle John's Hard Apricot cider. We enjoyed those beverages on the loading dock along with some fantastic ahi salads. He was happy to have a break from diner food. I understood totally. It was great to spend that time with him, and I thought of my friend Jills who lives in OZ and frequently has "boozy lunches" with her friends. As an unemployed basement dweller, I could get used to these!
After lunch we said our sad goodbyes to our family and went home to Grandma's. H and I played catch for awhile but he was super tired and needed something exciting to do. At that point it was blazing hot again (love summer!!!) and so I hooked up his sprinkler and he had a blast running through it while I got steaks ready for the grill. When J got home, he even joined him in the yard while keeping an eye on the steaks. I also made quinoa and told H it's a special kind of pasta (ok that's a lie, but he's on a big plain pasta with butter kick right now) and he loved it. We had huge frozen yogurt sundaes for dessert and then J and I were able to get 2.6 miles in after H went to sleep. It was another wonderful day.
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