Lame Parks and Cool Art

A couple weekends ago, upon waking and drinking a gallon of coffee, I looked out the window and thought, "WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY! WE NEED TO GO OUTSIDE AND DO SOMETHING FUN!" (And yes, my thoughts were in all-caps because I did drink a gallon of coffee.)

So, I got the kids dressed, threw on their shoes, packed up some bribery fruit snacks (never leave home without 'em) and off we went to the IMA 100 Acres. I talked it up big the whole drive there, and I think I had them both sufficiently excited. I kept telling them we were going on an adventure!

In my head, this was a great idea for the following reasons:

1. It was seriously the most perfectest weather ever. Sunny, and not too hot, not too cold. Not a cloud in the sky.

2. It is free to get in, so even if they were not having it, we could turn around and come home, no problemo.

3. There are 100 acres of land for them to run around.

4. There are cool, random pieces of art interspersed throughout.

Now, I am no dummy. I know the way of the world and my children better to expect that this jaunt would be as magical as a scene from the "Sound of Music." So, in addition to my wonderful imagination and scenes of singing children dancing in my head, this is what really happened.

1. Upon seeing the first trail, Sam takes off in his standard "light jog." Some people prefer walking to get from here to there, but Sam likes to take that up a notch and jog wherever he goes. For an instant, my mind jumps to two hours into the future when he starts wailing,"Mama hold you!!!!!!" Surely, that won't happen?

"Come on Sam! Let's try to get rid of her!"

2. Seeing the first colorful bridge was so EXCITING! A red bridge. Oooooooh! Seeing the second, lost a little luster. And then, it was just another freaking red bridge from which I had make sure Sam did not fling himself off of.

Red bridges are EXTRA fun.

3. My kids love to throw crap into bodies of water. Whether it be a ponds, pools, puddles, toilets. It's like some sort of reflex. I indulged them for a few tosses, but then when Sam was scavenging around for the biggest thing he could find and I started hearing louder ker-plunks. Peace out fountain, and sorry to the couple in the "splash zone."

4. In my head, we were going to walk around and see everything in its entirety, stopping for appropriate amounts of time at each attraction. However, I didn't take into account the yellow-sideways-bench-thingies that totally captivating my children. If I would have let them, they would still be playing on them today, weeks later. Jumping off, walking down, climbing up, repeat, repeat, fight, scream, jumping off, repeat. Boys.



The yellow-sideways-bench-thingies. Hours and hours of fun.

 5. I remembered there was this really cool area with bright colors mimicking a basketball court, but had no idea where it was. On a last attempt after three meltdowns, I put them in a car and tried to find it. We did find it, however, I ended up getting lost coming out of there. Abe started freaking out because he knew we weren't going the right way. We made it home, though. My sense of direction isn't totally horrible. Just mostly.

Crazy basketball court.

As we were finally heading home (in the right direction), AC in full blast, the last of the bribery fruit snacks being doled out, and a tear stained Sam sitting comatose in his seat, I asked Abe if he thought we went to a cool place. He said, "That park was kinda lame."

Really!? Because, I don't really recall walking through the woods when I was a kid and stumbling upon art installations, or magically apearing whimsical basketball courts. I mean geez. Kids these days.