Family FUN Day!!

Since Monday was President's Day and that meant a day off of work for me and Phil and no school for Adam, we decided that it was time for Noah's first family fun day. We try to take a day every so often to just do something fun for and with the kids, and Adam has been begging for one since our hike to Timp Cave back in the fall. Phil usually lets me figure out what we are going to do and this was no different so I planned what I thought would be a pretty relaxed, but fun time together as a family.

The day started out like all the others since Noah came home - way too early and with him yelling at us from his bedroom. It's a little hazy in my memory already, but I know we were all too tired to begin with which never bodes well for the fun, relaxing time that I had planned. Noah was ultra-cranky all morning so we decided to get a later start and let him take an early nap before we left. The boys ate lunch and then I laid Noah in his bed at about 11:30. I did some cleaning, Phil did some working, and Adam impatiently watched TV while we waited for Noah's nap to be done. By about 12:15 the little dude (Adam's nickname for his brother) still hadn't fallen asleep. The clock was ticking and Adam was getting antsy for the fun part of the day to start to we abandoned the nap idea and decided to just go for it.

The original plan was to go the Aquarium and then to the Dinosaur Museum and see an IMAX 3-D movie about a Sea Monster. Because of the nap delay (that was useless) we didn't have time to do the aquarium first and still make it back to see the movie that Adam wanted to see. So we decided to reverse the order, but then had to wait about an hour and a half for the movie to start. The boys had a great time playing in the gift shop, while Phil and I sunk into a couch and quietly observed them to make sure that they didn't destroy anything that we didn't want to pay for. All was basically good, and we all enjoyed the movie, although Noah was completely unwilling to wear the 3-D glasses. I'm sure he spent the whole time wondering why he was seeing everything double, but he handled the theater just fine and we headed off to the aquarium. The hour and a half wait in the gift shop wore us out - me and Phil that is - and we would have gladly just had some dinner and then gone home. We couldn't do that to the boys though, so off to the Aquarium we went.

It was about a 30 minute drive and by the time we got there, Noah's early morning wake-up and lack of a nap was hitting all of us pretty hard. Nothing really eventful happened though. Adam had fun showing Noah all of the cool creatures and Phil and I managed to keep up with them. It was getting close to time to leave and I think little Noah knew that he hadn't caused enough drama during the day, so after Adam and Phil got in line to see one last exhibit Naughty Noah reared his head. He left the play area and was trying to open a door that was clearly labeled "employees only". I told him "no" and he kept going at the door handle. I told him "no" again and this time he just looked at me and said "Don't want to." and kept pulling on the door. I gave him one more chance to stop and he just looked at me and yelled "NOOOOOOOO!!!!" in his loudest voice. That, of course, prompted me to make my move towards him and he immediately took off running in the opposite direction. Fortunately for me, he's got really short legs so I caught up with him rather quickly and we immediately set out to find a time-out corner. It just went downhill from there. After the time-out and the apology, we headed back inside to find Phil and Adam. They were just finishing up and Phil said that he needed to make a stop in the restroom before we loaded into the car. He promised to hurry, so I did my best to corral the boys in the gift shop. Noah wanted no part of being held, so against my better judgment I let him wander relatively unfettered. At one point he escaped my watchful eye and I turned around to see his shirttail hanging out from below the curtain at the photo booth. That wouldn't have been a big deal except there were several other people in there and I don't think they wanted him in their pictures. I quickly reached under the curtain and scooped him up and he immediately started screaming. Phil appeared right about then and I let him know that Noah and I would meet him and Adam at the car. Noah was yelling "NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!" all the way to the door, and I did my best to ignore him. He then spit on me, and I'll stop the description of events right there for fear of implicating myself, but I'm sure any parent out there can imagine my response. By the time Phil and Adam got to the car, Noah was still mad but the screaming had stopped and we drove away. At one point Adam actually said to Noah "If you don't start being nice, we aren't going to let you be sealed to us." I honestly have no idea where that came from, and his dad immediately told him that he can't say things like that and that Noah will definitely be sealed to us even if he's naughty sometimes, so Adam then said, "Well then we can send him back to Haiti." Again, Phil corrected him, but I think Adam was just expressing his frustrations in the only way his six-year-old brain thought was acceptable. Nice family fun day.

Adam picked Carl's Jr. for dinner and we headed towards home. I can't be sure of the time, but I think Noah was asleep within three minutes of the car starting. I saw him in the rearview mirror and told Phil that he was already asleep and Phil, with a slight grin, said "I get to wake him up." About 20 minutes later we were at the restaurant and Phil enjoyed waking him up way more than you might expect. Ahhhh, sweet retribution.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Both boys scarfed down their cheeseburgers and fries, while Phil managed to put away a guacamole burger bigger than his head. As for me, I sat and watched them eat since I am suffering the consequences of not watching what I eat for the past several months. I waited until we got home and then I ate a salad. That guacamole burger sure looked good though.