Labor Day Weekend

Punky and I certainly made the most of the last weekend of summer.  We were in constant motion for days.  I still haven't fully recovered and I'm looking forward to an extremely lazy upcoming weekend. 

As soon as I got home from work last Thursday, we packed the car and made the two hour drive down to visit family.  Punky's mouth ran the entire first hour with barely a break to breathe.  I absolutely adore our chats, but after sixty minutes I was ready for some silence.  My iPod and Team Umizoomi took over for the rest of the trip while I quietly sulked about summer ending and my dental visit scheduled for the next morning. 

The antibiotics and pain killers kept my toothache at a tolerable level for a week and a half, but I knew it would be a painful and expensive trip to the dentist.  I was correct on all accounts.  It turned out to be a wisdom tooth causing all the trouble and as an added bonus it had three roots rather than two which made for an incredibly lengthy root canal.  I was going to take Punky with me to the dentist so she could see what its all about in preparation for her first visit down the road, but I decided to drop her off at my mom's instead.  It turned out to be a good decision; she would've been bouncing off the walls if she had to sit there for so long. 

Once the novocaine wore off, my mom and I took Punky and my niece out for a nice lunch.  They both behaved like little ladies in the restaurant and they ate like they hadn't in weeks.  After I tackled some paperwork and bill-paying in the afternoon, we returned to my parents' house at five for dinner and spent the rest of the evening there. 

Tilt-a-Whirl laughter!

Saturday we headed to the amusement park for one last day of rides before we're buried in snow.   Okay, that's a stretch.  We should have at least another month or two before that shit starts, but it's still too close for me.  Anyway, Punky's godfather came with us again as well as my sister, her boyfriend, and my niece and nephew.  The kids had a great time and the adults did, too.  We were able to take turns watching the kids so we could ride the best wooden roller coaster ever.  It's truly a classic and ranked number five in the country for wooden coasters and it's a must-do at the park.  Punky cried again because she is still too small to ride; my nephew on the other hand, who more than meets the height requirement, was offered any toy he wanted if he would ride the coaster with me but he wasn't having it.  No way, no how.  Maybe next year...

My sister and I took the kids on the tilt-a-whirl and laughed our asses off while it spun in circles and gave us a physics lesson.  As kids, we had a hell of a time getting it to spin.  Fast forward thirty years, factor in our babies-in-our-thirties extra poundage and the operator's request that the kids sit in the middle, and we were in for one hell of a ride.  It was so much fun and the kids laughed as hard as we did.  

We ended up closing the park again so it was almost eleven till we got home.  I'm so glad we got there one more time this year; I think Punky enjoyed it more than our trip to Disney.  Now, due to heavy rains and insane flooding here in the northeast, the park is literally under water.  It's such a shame but thankfully it happened at the end of amusement park season instead of at the beginning of summer.  It's not the first time it flooded and it won't be the last.  I'm sure it will be back to normal by the time spring rolls around again. 

Jammin' with the band!

On Sunday we headed to the annual family corn roast at my uncle's farm.  True to form, tons of different delicious foods and desserts were enjoyed with tons of stories and laughter.  Punky was super-excited to see my uncle Mark and play his drums again.  She only talked about for an entire year.  Instead of letting her randomly beat the crap out of them, this year he let her play them while the band was playing real music.  He gave her some sticks and she tried to copy what he was doing.  She played about three songs with the band and she did a great job.  It was definitely the highlight of her weekend.  She was so proud that she jammed with a real band.  As much as I hate to say it, I see a drum set in our future.  And boxes of heavy-duty ear plugs.

Monday morning we spent some more time hanging out with Punky's godfather and then we headed to my sister's for a while.  Before making the drive home, we stopped to have lunch with a friend of mine.  In hindsight, I should have left Punky at my sister's and enjoyed a nice, quiet lunch.  She was such a good kid all weekend, no trouble whatsoever, but her angelic behavior disappeared just in time for lunch which made it next to impossible to have any sort of conversation.  

I knew she was truly worn out from the constant activity all weekend and I'm sure that played into it.  We weren't on the road five minutes and she was sound asleep.  I woke her up when we pulled in the driveway.  

It was a very long and extremely quiet drive home.  I was glad.  I needed it.