Reality

When you've spent most of June sick and most of July traveling (or preparing to travel), it's only fitting that you decide to go on an impromptu three-hour road trip the first weekend in August. Because life just hasn't been crazy enough. Don't get me wrong--we had really good reason to go--it was just a little crazy. But I'm pretty sure that's just the norm for life these days...

My brother's baseball team, whom we love to support even if we don't get to as many games as we used to (darn 7:30 start times), was playing in the District Tournament for a chance at a berth to the State Tournament. So we decided to go. Spoiler: they didn't advance and we don't actually have any pictures to prove that we watched two baseball games. Moving on...

The city that was hosting the games is also home to the "famed" Storybook Land, home of the roller coaster to ride in South Dakota (at least according to a recent parenting magazine I read). I'm pretty sure it won that distinction because it is the only roller coaster in the state, but whatever. The whole park is very family orientated, including the coaster, so William actually got to ride on it with Grandma.

He was pretty tense the whole time and didn't really seem to enjoy himself, but he didn't scream or cry--and he even smiled when he got off (although that might have been from relief more than excitement). I'm guessing it will be awhile before he agrees to go on a roller coaster again though.

The park also had a really cool swing that allowed parents to swing with their children--we've never seen anything like it before and it makes me wonder why. It was pretty cool.

Now, if you're thinking "a cool park plus a few baseball games doesn't seem like that bad of a way to spend a weekend", you'd mostly be right. Because we definitely had enough fun to justify the six+ hours in the car. But here's what hasn't been mentioned: having all four of us stay in a single hotel room. We get spoiled when we visit Darrell's family because we rarely, if ever, have to stay in a hotel, and outside of those trips we don't do a ton of overnight trips (at least ones where we don't have someone's house to stay at). So when both boys are asleep by 8:30 and all Darrell and I want to do is have a late dinner, drink a few beers, and watch NCIS... We end up in the bathroom.

Candidly, it wasn't awful, as long as you aren't a major germaphobe or something (which we obviously aren't). But it definitely left us strategizing how to make hotel stays more enjoyable, especially if our family continues to grow in size. I'm thinking we should look into getting a suite--or at least making sure to remember to get the key to my parent's hotel room, which was right across the hall. Live and learn, right?