Earlier this week I wrote about the marriage conference Katie and I attended last weekend. I don't know if I included it at the time, but the actual name of the event was A Weekend to Remember. Like I wrote in my last blog post (A Marriage Conference - Lessons and Reminders), it indeed was a weekend Katie and I will remember and benefit from. I received some hints of it while we were at the conference, though, and I'm certain of it now after some debriefing with the boys, that the real weekend to remember didn't happen in Hershey, Pennsylvania. That weekend actually took place in Chesterfield, Virginia where the boys were hanging out with grandma and grandpa. I should have known that's how it would turn out when the first thing we saw when we pulled into grandma and grandpa's driveway to drop the boys off was grandpa waxing down the rails of a couple of old wooden sleds in the back of his truck. I've watched some of the Winter Olympics. I haven't witnessed one athlete preparing their world class bobsleds and skeletons with near the passion and precision grandpa was putting into his vision of launching the boys on a wild slide down the snow covered hill in their back yard. I know technology has its downsides, but they are all forgotten when you're driving on I-95 between Virginia and Pennsylvania watching your sons's gold medal sled runs on your phone, especially when those runs are powered by their grandfather sprinting (as fast as grandfathers can sprint) down the hill ahead of them holding a rope connected to the sled they are less than firmly planted on. Throw in a little of Ian's out of control laugh and all subsequent 2014 Winter Olympics viewing is rendered boring. There was also a snowball fight for the ages. The boys have remained in awe at just how far and hard grandpa can throw a snowball. Of course, they have to build up his throwing prowess if they want their stories of evading every single snowball he launched at them to sound the least bit impressive. Somehow I knew there would be a snowman involved. I actually hoped there would be. Every snow we'd had up to last weekend had been far more useful for shutting school down for weeks at a time than building a snowman that would stay together any better than a sandcastle during high tide. I also should have suspected when grandma and grandpa helped the boys build a snowman, there'd be a good chance the snowman would look like he'd feel more at ease at a local off-track betting parlor than in anyone's front yard. In addition to a snowy weekend, it also happened to be Valentine's Day weekend. Grandma is awesome about helping all of her grandkids remember their parents during the holidays. She builds thoughtful grandchildren, which always results in some cool surprises for mom and dad. And again, with technology, you don't have to wait until you're 4 days into missing your boys to receive them. We're grateful grandma and grandpa gave us the opportunity to get away for a wonderful weekend and at the same time guarantee the boys had their own weekend to remember. I asked Ian after we got them home from grandma and grandpa's house last Monday what his favorite part of the weekend was. He said it was going to see The Lego Movie. I found that a little surprising because Ian isn't a huge movie fan yet. So I asked him why he liked the movie so much. He said, "because in the movie someone says - King Tut, what? That rhymes with butt." Well doesn't that just make perfect sense. Ian Cartwright, never the one to miss an opportunity to exploit the word butt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |