Grandma Saves the Day!!

3 cheers for grandma.
Oh my goodness 3 really big cheers for grandma.
Big C was a little out of sort yesterday and at lunchtime even requested going for a nap. Then he napped for nearly 3 hours. He had a fever and little appetite, so needless to say we were keeping an eye on him overnight.
The fever had died down and he slept like a log, so we thought that we were likely out of the woods. Enough so that we could send him to pre-school to play with his friends while we went to Aventure Lafleche to check out the bat caves and the family ziplining course.
When Big C got up this morning we thought that we were as good as gold. He snuggled into bed. He seemed enthusiastic about getting dressed. But then he curled up on the floor in our bedroom and threw up.

Argh.

Challenging parenting moment. Son 1 has been told twice he was going and then those trips got canceled. This was trip three...about to get canceled. Son 2 is sick and needs a lot of snuggles and love.

Don't cancel the plans just yet.

Grandma to the rescue.

Not only was she willing to take him for the day, she was willing to take an unwell little guy. What a lifesaver.
She picked him up from our place and then we were off.
This time there were minimal, yet different, traffic disruptions on our way there. However, we still arrived in time to go into the caves on time.
We grabbed our miner's helmets and were off.
Monkey was so enthusiastic about this journey, as he was crestfallen last week when the 2 of us went - he thought that was the day that we were taking him. Poor guy.
Here's Monkey in the caves climbing on the slippery, wet ladders. We got to go into little crawl spaces (at least for daddy they were quite small)Monkey was able to go through most of it without ducking) and see all sorts of little pools of water, neat caves and hear cool stories with our lights off. We especially liked the one about the porcupines that hide under the benches when those same lights are all turned off.
Here's an arm's length photo of the 3 of us deep within the caves.
Here's Monkey working his way through the caves.
We finished the course, and though the bats were gone for the summer, the trip itself was really, really cool.
Next we were off to check out the ropes course and family ziplining. Monkey had to be 48" and we hoped that he would be close enough to get in.
No dice.
They measured him right away and he tiptoed (and was caught) and stretched himself to the limit.
He, as well as mommy and daddy, were disappointed.
Ah well, nothing that getting to choose your own popsicle can't solve.
For those of you wondering, it's the LifeSaver variety and oh goodness does he enjoy it.
With a few hours now on our hands, and Big C safely in grandma's care, we decided to hit the bowling lanes. Since Merivale and Walkley left something to be desired, we thought that we'd check out McArthur Lanes.
Just like Arnold, we'll be back.
It was awesome.
10 pin rocks. Monkey always has a chance to hit lots of pins and the bumpers are set up for the kids. Yeah, for the kids.....
Here's Monkey hurling his number 6 ball down the lanes.
and mommy getting in on the action.
I think that we spent about as much time laughing as we did bowling.
It was phenomenal and we're certain to return.

We went a did a little shopping at one of Mommy's new favorite spots to pick up great deals and found the MACKDADDY Playmobil deal!!! She found a Playmobil pirate ship, it is either the 3053 or 3750 or maybe even 3005/3050 (north American vs European something about firing cannons...) for $3.99 WOW! This thing is worth way more than that. It is so big that it doesn't fit in the kitchen sink! It is missing quite a few parts but we'll order them for him.It may not get all the parts right away since the rigging is all tiny ropes and will likely be hard to manipulate at this stage (younger brother included in possible destruction risk...).

To cap the day off we went to Montana's for nacho's a burger and kids pizza. Monkey loved the kids menu, it's such a smart set-up, and we had a great dinner.
Thank you grandma for making our holiday. To end it off, Big C decided that he wanted to come home rather than stay with G&G. When Monkey heard that there would be a free shuttle to take him to the grandparents house he was packing his new little backpack and standing by the door to act as a stowaway in Grandpa's car.
Thank you grandma for making our holiday. Have a great time with Monkey on his sleepover tonight!