A Seinfeld Reality

On Wednesday, Jake defended his final project and completed his Master's Degree from Virginia Tech. (Way to go, honey... I'm so proud of you!) So that afternoon we attempted to have a fun, celebratory outing. We changed the family into swimsuits and headed to the local water park in Roanoke. When we arrived, it appeared that the park had been emptied, and we found out that the park was temporarily closed for the "storm." There was not even one drop of water around, no lightning, no thunder. We drove around town for 30 minutes and went back to the water park, only to find out that it was still closed (for the impending storm) and unlikely to reopen that day. Sigh.

So with some very disappointed children, we headed to the mall. We changed the family out of swimsuits (in our parked car) and went inside where be bought some consolation treats (cookies and brownies). Not five minutes after Jacob said he didn't have to pee, he peed in his pants and all over one of those kiddie rides (the helicopter). We tracked down a janitor while guarding the scene from random unsuspecting children. When we headed back to the car, to change Jacob once again, Jake noticed we had a screw in our tire. Sigh.

Off to Sam's club we went. Thankfully, it was only about 5 minutes away. Unfortunately, killing time in Sam's club with 4 kids, right before our big move, was not a whole lot of fun. There was nothing we needed to be buying in bulk with our impending move, and new toys/books/movies are the last thing we want to accumulate at this point. At least the kids enjoyed playing in the stacks of tires... well, most of the kids. Here's how it often went between Jacob and Will:

What a booger. Sigh. While we were exploring the store Jacob managed to fall flat on his face -  specifically, his nose. We thought it might have been broken, but fortunately he recovered quickly. At least there was an upside to getting the tire repaired at Sam's... it didn't cost us a dime! We didn't realize that Sam's has free tire repair for members, so it was a pleasant surprise. Smile.

By this point, it was dinner time, so we headed to TGI Friday's. Also by this point, the kids had hit their 'good behavior' quota and were less-than-good for our meal. Will was cranky and fussy due to hunger, and had to go outside while waiting for our food to arrive. Will's full cup of water got knocked to the floor. Addie and Jacob literally fought over some mandarin oranges. Addie's cup got knocked to the floor (but fortunately, her lid stayed on). Jacob would not sit still or stay in his seat, which earned him a trip to the car. Sigh. At least Bella was our good girl! 

By the time we finally made it home, it was time to get the children to bed. Jake put the boys down and I was reading to the girls in their room. We thought our adventure was finished for the night. We were wrong. Jake had taken the camera out on our back deck to capture some photos of the storm (that finally arrived, well after the park hours) and as he closed the door behind him he heard a click. It turns out, the door handle broke. Yep. Broke. After Jake pounded on the door to get me downstairs, I took the doorknob off, but the part that sticks out into the door frame would not retract. At all. So I took the pins out of the hinges, and the door still would not open. Solution? I hauled our Little Giant ladder outside, in the lightning storm, and Jake climbed down. 

After the girls were finally asleep, and Jake and I were relaxing on the couch, all we could do was laugh. As Jake says, it felt like we were in a Seinfeld episode. As I like to think, God must have been in need of a good laugh that day, and He thought we would be good sports. We were. Smile.