We’d been promising to go see Aunt Laura for months. It just hadn’t happened. And then she’d had a fall and ended up having to have a hip replacement surgery. So at that point (the surgery happened 2 weeks ago), I knew we couldn’t put it off any longer. It’s a bit of a long journey though – all the way to Idaho Falls – so I planned on staying a few days.
Once we got there, we hung out with Laura a bit (Daniel didn’t come as he has a deadline; I was mighty impressed with myself that thanks to my amazing new GPS I was able to – with confidence – drive all the way by myself to her home). We spread the drive out over 2 days (even though non-stop it would have taken about 11 hours) and the kids were amazing. I was actually dreading it, truth be told, but in the end it was really nice and I was extremely proud of my achievement.
The first day Jayden swam in Laura’s pool; he loves it there and Ethan ran around the apartment like the lunatic he is (well, crawled; he’s almost walking – been cruising for months). The next day we went to the Funland Amusement Park, which is really close to her home; she’d been telling me about it for a long time, probably trying to encourage me to come visit. It was not so age-appropriate for Jayden, (and certainly not for Ethan!) but there were some things he could do. He definitely wasn’t interested in the three rollercoasters, but there again, I don’t think he’ll want to do it even when he’s older! He’s just that kind of personality.
We were there the whole day and at one point it start drizzling a bit so we went inside and Jayden loved the Ten Pin Bowling. I actually went on the slot machines for a bit which really took me back – I used to love playing on them years ago. We had a yummy lunch and there were lots of things to do at the restaurant for Jayden and Ethan. In fact, I think that was the best part of the day!
Anyway the most important reason for our trip was to see Laura and she indeed was delighted we’d come. The next couple of days we were there the kids watched movies and played with the few toys she has for her grandchildren and Laura and I really hung out. It was good to see her. I shouldn’t leave it so long; as a kid, growing up, she was always so good to me and I’m glad I (finally) made the effort to see her.