The City Mini-vacation

My mini-vacation to The City was nice. Thursday night we arrived and checked into the Renaissance – thanks Halliburton – it was a nice place. We met up with one of Toby’s coworkers and headed to the Stockyards to eat at Cattleman’s. I love going to the Stockyards to shop, but we were too late for the stores. Still, a steak at Cattleman’s makes you feel like a real cowboy. Later we walked around Bricktown, which was pretty dead on a Thursday night. We did go into Tapworks and had a sampler tray of English beers. Too bad that I did not have my camera with me. I would have taken a picture of myself and sent it to Buck with a "this one’s for you."

Friday, Toby went to an accountant’s school while I went to play with the Grand Baby. We went to the mall with about a hundred other mothers with strollers and babies. Going up and down the elevators was a real challenge with kids and strollers. The Grand Baby thought the elevators were awesome. Of course, she abandoned the stroller to walk like a big girl and got to push the elevator button – what a treat! As a promise for being so good, we took the Grand Baby to the play area for small children. It was one of those well-padded playgrounds with a long couch surrounding the area meant only for toddlers or kids under five years of age. The floor had about a four-inch pad under the carpet dropping off at the edge of the couches. At one point the Grand Baby had me by the finger and was leading me to the slide when I stepped off the edge of the padding and rolled my ankle. It was one of those "one minute you are standing up, and the next minute you are on the ground" type falls. I hit the ground hard and threw the Grand Baby down with me. Of course, there was a man sitting right there witnessing my fall. He asked me if I was okay (probably hiding a laugh) and said it was a good thing the floor was padded – Fine; thank you very much. The Grand Baby was fine, too, but she had this look on her face like, "Booboo, why did you do that?" She came over and put her little arms around my neck and hugged me for several minutes while I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes or were the tears for my ankle? I really was fine and the Grand Baby continued to play, but I was glad no one else saw my silly fall.

We ate out Friday night with my son and family and another family with small children. Dinner was wild, and not nearly so fun. Playing with the babies after the meal was more fun. By Saturday, I was worn down. My sinus cold was not helping matters. We left The City around noon and headed for home. A big dog nap did wonders for me. It is always good to get home and sleep in your own bed. I remember thinking my own dad was such an old fogey about wanting to go home to his own bed. On one visit to my parent’s house when my kids were little, Dad said that it was time for everyone to go home because "Grandma was tired". We really teased my dad, because it was not Grandma that was tired, but it was he that was ready for everyone to go home. Now we use the line, "grandma’s tired" whenever needed. I guess I am my father’s daughter.