Ted and I spent the afternoon with Kari’s boys today. Ted and I look forward to these days and, whatever we do, we always have a good time together. As usual, we started with lunch. History is a good predictor of the restaurant the boys will choose, so yes, we went to Steak ‘n’ Shake.
Sitting across from the boys at the table, I noticed that all three were wearing sweatshirts with orange zippers.
The best part of Steak ‘n’ Shake is always when the shakes arrive.
It was cold outside (10-12 degrees) and a dangerous wind chill advisory was posted for late afternoon through the next three days. An indoor activity like bowling seemed like a good idea. The boys were willing, so we each got a pair of ugly bowling shoes and picked out a ball.
The boys might have been overly optimistic about their superpowers. Sky and Dylan selected ten-pound balls and Teddy chose a seven-pound ball. After several frames of watching Dylan and Teddy drop, rather than roll, their balls on the alley, I suggested they look for lighter balls. (Teddy’s ball would probably have been good for Dylan, but the finger holes were too small.)
It was Saturday afternoon on a cold holiday weekend, so all the lanes were filled with families whose kids also needed lightweight balls. As a result, Teddy and Dylan couldn’t find anything lighter than what they had. Due to the large crowd, the bowling alley policy was six people to a lane. That meant that after throwing (or dropping) a gutter ball or a low-scoring ball, each of us had to wait five turns to try it again. B-o-o-o-ring! We finished the game, but no one was eager to bowl another line.
Here’s Dylan, using body language to coax his ball toward the pins.
These are our scores–but not really. The screen only showed the first initial of each name, so Teddy and Ted and Dylan and I sometimes messed up and bowled on each other’s turn.
Looking at the family scoreboards across the lanes, I saw very few scores over 100–apparently there were few true bowlers present for open bowling on a holiday weekend. The boys and I have tentatively banned Ted, the family jock, from playing miniature golf with us in the future because his score was a lot lower than anyone else’s. We might also have to ban him from bowling with us in the future because his score was so much higher than anyone else’s. The scores weren’t the important part of the afternoon, but I think I speak for all of us when I say we were ready to move on to a different activity.
The boys voted that we return to their house so they could show us all the things they got for Christmas. After that, we played Michigan Rummy, using the new chips Dylan got for Christmas. Just as Teddy was ready to quit because his chips were gone, he won several of the pots and perked up again. The Christmas toys and Michigan Rummy were the highlights of our time together, proving again that the simple things are the most fun. We were practicing hygge.