Monday, April 14, 2014

Daddy Date

Once a month or so I go out of town overnight for work.  I have a few accounts that are a couple hundred miles from our home, so I pack up and make a road trip.  During the summer I always try to take some of the kids with me on these journeys.  Since this week is spring break, I decided to take Jesi and Xander with me.

We set out from our home fairly early this morning and headed south to Nephi, UT.  I called on a doctor there and then we meandered our way to the thriving metropolis of Delta, UT.  (Actually, Delta has the unfortunate distinction of being the location of one of the Japanese American Internment Camps during World War II.)  We then sauntered down to Fillmore and Beaver and finally winded up in beautiful Cedar City, UT.  Cedar has a lot of red rock cliffs surounding it.  It's quite beautiful.  My patient kids endured an eight-hour trip with me and were still going strong.  We did have a stop at a McDonald's with a playplace as well as a short respite at a local park.  But all in all I was quite impressed with them.

We pulled into our hotel about 5:45 pm and headed immediately to the pool.  (Jesi just came over to observe me.  After a couple of minutes she gave me some instrutction with just the slightest bit of disgust in her voice:  "Dad...keep your hands on the home row!"  And she gently moved my fingers to the appropriate keys.)  We had fun in the pool and the hot tub, showered and changed and went to Wingers for dinner.  Xander LOVED their original wings.  We had to hurry out of the restaurant to run over and catch the movie "RIO 2" in the nearby theater.  We all enjoyed the beautiful spectacle it was.

Finally, since we hadn't had time for dessert before, we stopped back at Winger's after the movie and ordered a small order of wings for Xander (just for Xander, wink, wink), an Asphalt Pie (mint chocolate chip ice cream on an oreo crust with carmel sauce and whipped cream topping!) for Jesi and me to share and an order of fried Twinkies for Xander.  Yeah, I'm a great dad!

I have had a great time with these two.  I'm so grateful for the many opportunities I've had over the years to spend time with just one or two or three at a time.  And I'm so grateful for all nine...soon to be 10!!!

-Jer