DadJack.com Blog

Doesn’t it suck to get back to the grind after a long weekend?  The kids and I had a great Labor Day weekend.  It started with some swimming pool time… Hours and hours of swimming, but that’s what they love to do.  Friday night we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Pit Fire Pizza ….  As a special treat I always let the kids get a Jones Soda (I don’t like them to drink soda, but at least it’s made with real sugar and not loaded with chemicals), which Bing promptly spilled all over himself, the chair and the surrounding area (They were so nice, they replaced the soda free of charge and undertook the mop up and de-stickyizing {not really a word, I know}… I felt so bad, I offered to clean it and pay for the replacement!), Bing was less than pleased, he doesn’t like to be dirty!  After we walked the NoHo neighborhood and stopped into Cold Stone for some ice cream (Where Bing again coated himself – this time with strawberry ice cream)… Their smoothies aren’t bad too!  Saturday we returned to the pool for more dive sticks, jumping and playing “whale” (The kids hold onto my back and I swim under water – the name of the game is not good for the self esteem!)  It was then off to the bowling alley, Bing has been wanting to go for a while now…. Bing bowled a strike and Lucy got a spare (Or a “square” as Bing excitedly explained it to Grandma).  Sunday Angela Channel and Ethan had their “End of Summer Party” (Which was kind of an unofficial Angela Channel birthday bash – Happy Belated Birthday to her!).  There was a kiddie pool, bounce house and Wii…. If they had a rollercoaster I think the kids ultimate fantasy would have been Fulfilled.  For Angela Channel’s actual birthday we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo.  What a nice zoo, the kids loved it… When Bing woke up this morning he told me “I miss the zoo.”

When you drive home from Santa Barbara you pass so many beautiful beaches, and on a holiday weekend the traffic moves slowly.  I was in the back seat of Ethan and my sisters car, wedged between two car seats holding sleeping kids.  As I sat there, the sun setting on the last day of summer, I watched as we passed the remainder of beach BBQ’s and fun in the sand.  Lucy’s head leaned against the window, her hair glowing orange from lowering sun, her eyes shut, resting from the day of otters and snakes, lions and penguins.  She looked so peaceful.  I remembered that feeling, of being maybe 7 or 8, riding my bike in the late afternoon warmth, knowing that tomorrow I would be sitting in a class room wearing the brand new Tough Skins and terry cloth shirt my Mom had bought me a week earlier… The sadness that the freedom of summer was ending, trying to squeeze a couple more hours out of it.

Tomorrow will be Lucy’s first day of real school, and she is nervous, excited and scared of the unknown… Just like we all were.  And tomorrow is my first day of having a “big girl”, And I’m nervous, excited and scared of the unknown… Just like all parents are.

Rock on, Jack

P.S. CRN has now started re-running the show the next day from 6a-8a on CRN 6, so if you get us on your cabe you’ll be able to hear us while you get ready in the morning!