Family Fun

 This week was Martin Luther King Day. That meant that the kids were off of school on Monday and Jeremy was off of work. Somehow, despite there being no school and the district office being closed, I was still scheduled to work. Not one to be left out on a party, I took the day off so we could call hang together. Originally, the girls wanted to go to the mountains and sled for the day. Merrick had practice in the morning though and Jeremy was still not completely well, so we opted for something a little closer to home.

In the morning, Merrick went to practice and the girls busied themselves roller skating around the house. Inside only roller skates might be the best idea I ever had as a mom, especially since we live in a cold and rainy climate.

Once Merrick was done with practice, we loaded up and made the trek out to Hillsboro to try a fun center that we have never been to. I was originally drawn to it because, according to their website, they had arcade games, bowling, and a batting cage. Unfortunately, once we got there, we discovered that it has to be over 50 degrees for them to open the batting cage.

The lack of batting cages was a disappointment, but we didn't let that stop us from having a great time. Everyone found games they enjoyed playing and we played while we waited for our lane to be ready for bowling.

Once it was our turn, we headed out to the lanes. We reserved for an hour and we were able to to play almost a game and a half in that time. The first game, not to toot my own horn, I had a great come from behind win. Two strikes in a row definitely helped. The first game decidedly did not go Merrick's way. He made up for it though by winning our second, partial game.

We ended the day with more arcade games and prizes at the prize counter. It always amazing to me how you can so easily turn $50 into $1.75 worth of candy at the end of the day. That's ok though, the real prize was a day of family fun.

The other excitement of the week was Carrigan's first middle school dance competition yesterday. It was a long day for her. She had to be at the bus at 5:50am and didn't get home until about 5:30pm. She danced her heart out though, had a great time, and her team won first place for middle schools. It was a long day of performances, but her team was supposed to preform at 1:30pm. We decided to make the long drive out to watch her and planned to show up at 1pm, just to be safe. We arrived at 12:50 only to find out that they had already preformed. We had missed it. We were devastated, but luckily she still has three more competitions this season so there will be more chances. At least that's what I'm telling myself.