A Full Saturday

Earlier in the week I had this idea that I was going to take Johnnie to Universal Studios today and we can finally finally finally go to the Jurassic World ride. He is already nearly 3 inches past the height limit that kept him from doing the ride the first time a couple of years ago. But somehow I did a muscle test on whether we should go and I got a negative answer. So I nixed the plan with no replacement plan in mind. I was probably overcompensating for the fact that he is leaving for Hawaii on Friday and I wanted to make sure this last week before he leaves is indelible as far as his experience with me. Ahhh, a little parent insecurity there isn't it LOL... Anyway today was a Lisa work day and so I was at her house to pick up Johnnie before 8 AM. He was in his room waiting for me to pick him up, Lisa was on the phone, i didn't know with whom nor did I care really. I was just there to pick up Johnnie. He declared that he still needed to take a shower and that he was hungry. And so the morning turned into what looked like a normal weekday at my apartment, with Johnnie taking a shower and then with us picking up breakfast at McDonald's. I suppose breakfast at Elysee has already lost its luster with Johnnie and the routine of breakfast there on a Saturday has been broken after 6 1/2 years. And that's ok. It was then that it dawned on me that Johnnie actually had 2 invitations for this morning, one for his friend Otis at camp who was having a birthday party, and one for the Mar Vista meet-the-new-families-of-new-kids at Santa Monica Airport park. Johnnie didn't seem too excited about either, preferring to watch Wild Kratts at home I think. And so I chose for him. We went to Santa Monica Airport Park for the Mar Vista meet-and-greet. And MAN there were a lot of families there! Immediately Johnnie found 3 classmates from his kindergarten room. Eden, Hudson, and Rose. And so it was that we spent the morning there and Johnnie ran around with his friends all morning long. 

If the Mar Vista Event was all we did today, it would have been enough. But Lisa made sure it wasn't. Apparently Heidi, Jared and her boys Daniel and Jacob were coming over after their parents got done with their dental procedures. I dropped Johnnie off by 2:30 PM. And I stuck around until Lisa came. And she actually invited me to hang out. And so I hung with them for dinner. Lisa had leftovers from Panini Grill, I bought a cheese pizza for the kids. And so I caught up with Heidi and Jared, not having spoken to either for a couple of years now. And when they left I did too. It had been a really long day.