Last weekend, we were trying to decide what we could do with the boys as an activity outside the house. Sometimes we bring them to a play structure or a public park, which allows them to burn off some excess energy and doesn’t cost anything. The latter makes me sound pretty cheap. But getting the former accomplished is no easy task, especially when having Nathan and Alexander together is like mixing oil and water. Unfortunately for us, Nathan has developed a taste for the finer things, preferring the likes of the trampoline gym or indoor climbing structures that cost half a fortune.
It presents an interesting challenge, considering we’ve pledged to do something with them outside the house every weekend. Although it wasn’t raining, we had received some snow in Regina last Friday, which cooled everything overall. Temperatures on Saturday morning were in the single digits, which meant that there was a significant chill in the air. Although i don’t hide from the cold, I don’t enjoy being in it unless I have to. And being idle while standing outside makes the cold all that much more penetrating. My wife likes the cold even less, dressing warmly even in the summer months.
We decided to try dressing warmly and bringing the boys to candy cane park. An outdoor play park, it features a number of different ares of play, including a giant, concrete sculpture of a Canada Goose featuring all the different wildlife found around Wascana lake and has a slide and different tunnels. It a pretty fun place to play, especially since it also has a rubberized surface all over, preventing serious injury when kids tumble and fall. The idea was to let them play for a while and grab them some lunch from somewhere that they could takes bites from as they played.
I thought the colder weather would allow for a quieter amount of people but i was quite wrong. In fact, i was surprised at how many people were either wearing shorts or sandals, making mu theatrics about how chilly it was seem a little excessive. It didn’t take long for both my wife and I to start shivering and being uncomfortable. Since my wife is usually colder than I am, I offered to have her drive back home for something warmer and grab lunch for the boys while she came back. She happily accepted.
The boys both made friends and played at their leisure. When my wife finally came back, she had happy meals in hand and the boys started snacking away. The sky had turned completely cloudy and we had some concern of rain, so we coaxed Nathan to the car with the promise of hot chocolate when we got home, which he fully took advantage of. Alexander didn’t seem to care either way, content to follow wherever we took him.
Once everyone was home and fed, we took advantage of Alex going down for a nap to close our eyes for a short period of time. Weekend naps are the best, and Nathan actually left me alone long enough to enjoy one, this time. Even if it was a bit on the colder side on Saturday morning, we managed to find a way to get some enjoyment out of the day. I’m sure as permanent, warmer weather starts kicking in, we’ll be enjoying more things like swimming and splash parks. ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 