We arrived in Columbus battling the throngs of obsessed golf fans travelling to see Tiger and Co. play at the Memorial Tournament, conveniently located 2 miles from the zoo. As we got out of the car, Mason spotted the MetLife blimp circling over the golf course.
Inside, we rode too many rides that spun us around in cirles and not enough rides where I could sit motionless and close my eyes. Come to think of it, I didn't ride any of those. All of the children appeared to have fun even amidst the occasional gnashing of teeth that comes with the confusion created when a child's brain is stimulated (by armadillos, bearded dragons, etc) to the point where it constantly hits the override button on the automatic nap mechanism.
Henry, Baxter and Mason pet a bearded dragon
Once all of the kids agreed that there would be no napping, we headed to Graeter's; quite possibly the best ice cream in the known universe, all hyperbole aside. I treated myself to what should have have been called 'Entirely Too Much', while the kids and Noel dined on waffle cones packed with real, honest-t0-goodness churned milk and butter fat. Soooo, tasty.
By the time we got back to the hotel at 5:30, or so, we had had transformed from Happy, All-America Family to the Walking Zombies. We had completed the Columbus Zoo Death March and were now running on empty. In our wisdom, we got the kids Happy Meals and took the back to the room. It didn't occur to us immediately that having an open chocolate milk container next to the bed would be a bad thing. Then it happened.
My drink was on the night stand next to Mallory's milk. She wanted a drink of daddy's drink and proceeded to knock her milk over in the process. At this point, it was (just) spilling onto the night stand that separated the beds ... and dripping onto the carpet.
Tired, I overreacted and jumped up to get a towel. I reset Mallory's milk, grabbed the drink out of her hand and ran for a towel. Mallory was startled and began crying. This is when she reached for my drink and knocked the chocolate milk right off the night stand. A spray of chocolate milk erupted from between the beds covering both sets of sheets, the comforters and the carpet with chocolate goodness. I think, at one point, Noel yelled out, "This is a catastrophe!" Hindsight says it wasn't but in the moment, it looked fairly dire.
Two changes of linens later, we were ready for night-night. Ahhhh, sweet pillows of Fairfield Inn. Oh how I love your down awesomeness. Then we were out.
The next morning we were up and at 'em and heading for Middletown to visit my Grandmother. She was happy to see us and we talked family and politics, her two favorite subjects. She is convinced that Obama is delivering us to Hell in a hand basket and I wasn't about to disagree (not that I wanted to). She was delighted to see the great grandkids. While I was sitting there, watching Mason on the opposite couch, I realized that I was that age when I sat on that very cushion. How time flies.
After a visit and Mallory tried on Grandma's latest crochet work, we were back on the road to Indianapolis. What a great weekend, chocolate milk and all.
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