Carnival Tickets, $20, Melted Ice Cream, $2, Gas for the Ride, $15 (or more), Misc expenses ___$....A Day Full of Memories, Priceless...

No, I'm not writing my own Mastercard commercial...just calculating the expenses of a day that wasn't supposed to happen and feeling guilty. I was supposed to work last night, but because of the double time and a half offered on holidays, the summer holidays are very popular among my co-workers. After working the rest of the weekend, I was actually hoping to get to work. We could always use the money, but being the new kid, I was put on call last night.
Keeping the glass half full, I had a great day with my family today. We decided to drive "downriver" near Joe's work to go to one of those junky carnivals. The cost of tickets has increased without any improvement on the equipment, I must say. So we spent $20 to ride a couple of little kid rides and even Hannah rode the Dizzy Dragons and the Carousel. She was ready to get off early both times, but this child has not even a healthy amount of fear. She was just tired of being contained each time and ready to move on.
The crowd "downriver" is quite different from the land of suburbia where we live. It isn't every day we see a parent holding an ice tea filled bottle and a cigarette in the same hand. Our kids weren't phased at all and we did our best to blend in. Uncharacteristically, we left our camera at home. There weren't any other parents there carefully documenting their children's first carnival experience for the old scrapbook. It will have to be sufficient to say they had smiles on their faces the entire time. The smiles continued when we left the carnival to get ice cream and popsicles and headed to a nearby park. It was a record setting 96 degrees here today and yes, we acclimated-to-the-north-former-Texans were hot and grumpy. We aren't used to our ice cream and popsicles melting before we get to eat them anymore so each kid got to lick their blue and orange puddles a couple of times before they ended up melting all over my hands on the way to the overflowing trash cans. So we loaded back up into our gas guzzling family mobile and headed back to suburbia.
We couldn't end the day there because the kids weren't tired or cranky enough. So we drove over to the "better" sprayground with the rubber floor and let the kids go crazy. Hannah once again amazed us with her lack of fear. She ran around with the big kids splashing and laughing. I loved watching other people watching her and smiling and laughing. She's just a beautiful person. So happy and she draws people to her. It does help that she is a baby, but I just think she has been blessed with her father's personality. She held her mouth open every time she ran to the water like she was trying to drink from a big water fountain and kept bending down like a swimmer taking their marks before a race. (I think that is her version of a jump.)
Nathan had a great time too. He splashed and played and ran around like a crazy man. By the time we were ready to go, he was shivering, blue lips and all. I have vivid memories of my brother shivering at the swimming pool when we were little with bright blue lips and very pruned hands and feet, answering "Nooooooo" with chattering teeth when asked if he was cold. He never wanted to go home. Nathan didn't put up too much of a fight when we decided to call it a day. He is still not ready to turn in and he and Daddy are playing against my wishes, but they love their evening time together.
So today was a great day. We are all so exhausted and I am eager for Father/Son time to wind down so we can go to bed! I loved watching Nathan experience his first junky carnival rides, though too many Dateline episodes have made me fear the really big ones I used to love as a child, like The Zipper. Junky carnivals were a big thrill in Ft. Stockton where not much else entertaining ever went on and I cringe now thinking about riding on those creaky, throw-them-up-in-about-5-minutes rides, but I cringe about a lot of things I never thought twice about before these guys.

I also loved watching Hannah take everything in today. I love the way she calls every bird (even seagulls) a duck. I love the way she braved the bounce house with her big brother and the way her big brother took care of her in there. I'm glad we were able to get in some family time today. I may have lost quite a bit of money last night, but you can't put a price on the memories we made today.