Children's Museum — Blog

I had every intention of doing a day in the life in July, but mostly forgot about it until the end of the month... and then I just couldn't bring myself to do one. When August rolled around, I decided to capture a day as I'd taken the day off to work on my rental property with my dad. It wouldn't be a typical day, but would capture a snapshot of what was happening in our lives right now. Except the day was consumed by the rental and by 3:00 I gave up, feeling defeated and exhausted.

In the days after, I decided I was just going to give up on this project. I started the year halfheartedly and decided I would give myself a pass on moving forward with it. But then on Saturday I took a whole bunch of pictures, and while it wasn't an intended day in the life, it's as close as I will get to one for the summer. My recollection of the day is a little rough as I wasn't paying attention to details, but it will give a good sense of what our summer (or end of summer) days look like.

Saturday, August 11th, 2018

Riley is 8 and a half

Jesse is 43 and I'm 46

Lucy (the) cat is 14

6:30ish - I usually get out of bed around this time. If I'm lucky, I actually sleep until 6:30, but most often, I hear Riley's door open around 6 and then listen to her head downstairs. She has been running hard this summer so she also sometimes sleeps in until 6:30.

At some point, we all head downstairs, eat breakfast, do lazy Saturday morning things, straighten up the house a bit and debate about what to do with our day. I wanted to find a beach to hang out at, but this did not appeal to Jesse at all. I see a 90 degree day (especially at the end of summer) and think "we should get in the water" and Jesse envisions staying in air conditioning all day.

9:30ish - Jesse heads off to the gym and I think about working out at home, but there are a couple packages on my desk that have been taunting me for weeks. I created a couple photo books after my sister was in town and am mailing one to my sister and one to some family friends who visited with us. I need to get to the post office and ship these off. I think of what else we can do when we are out and I realize that Riley needs to hand in her book log to Half Price Books so she can get her $5 certificate. So off Riley and I go to run some errands.

I decide to go to a post office that I haven't been to in awhile and miss my turn. I drive down the road and bit and realize I'm in the wrong spot so I use a parking lot to turn around. We find a little library there and have to stop to see what they have. Riley debates on whether she should grab a book, but then puts in back knowing that other books are in our future.

We make it to the post office and Riley announces that it's the first time she's been to a post office which seems weird to me, but also probably accurate. We then head over to the bookstore and Riley picks out about six books. She has so many unread books, but it's also hard to say no to books... plus she earned $5.00 of them just for reading over the summer.

10:30 - I text Jesse to let him know where we are and he messages me back that he just got home. Once home, he suggests that we go to The Children's Museum, which is clearly not the beach, but I agree to it. I think Riley is aging out of The Children's Museum, but Jesse and I hadn't been there since they remodeled (Riley had gone with her child care) and we wanted to see how they changed. We decide to all eat an early small lunch to get us through playing at the museum as we plan to head to a fantastic Thai restaurant afterwards.

11:00 something - We head over to St. Paul to check out The Children's Museum. It's good, but there aren't many kids Riley's age there. All are mostly younger, maybe not by much for some, but she's on the upper age side. No matter, she still had fun and it was interesting to see what they've done with the place. There is now a big slide and play area that was probably the best area for her - although we had to buy socks so she could ride down the slide. She is now the proud owner of neon yellow socks.

2:30 or so - We walk over to Raum Mit Thai for part two of lunch and it's fantastic. If only it was closer to home.

We head back home through road construction and then hang out at home. I'm certain there was some screen time for all of us... especially since this block of time seems like a huge blur.

5:00 - I ask Riley if she wants to go to the beach and then get ice cream. I knew it might be hard to pull her away from her tablet, but once I mentioned ice cream she was all in (and we all needed to put our screens down). I decide on Lake Harriet, even though there are some other beaches I want to check out, because I know they have ice cream there. I grab our suits and tell Jesse the plan. He has a headache, but decides to come with us as long as he can sit in the shade and play with his Nintendo Switch. I really want him in the water, but I'm just glad he's coming with us.

Accuweather says it's 90 out, but when we get to the beach it doesn't feel nearly that hot. Jesse gets settled on a blanket in the shade and Riley and I go into the water. It's cold, but still feels good. I've brought the Go Pro as I want to play with it in water so while I take pictures, Riley collects seaweed. We hangout and talk and about 30 - 45 minutes later, the lifeguards require that we all take a 15 minute break out of the water. After the break, we head back in, but we've cooled off in the meantime and now the water isn't so appealing.

6:45 - We pack up and walk down to get ice cream, but there is a long line. I suggest that we stop at Park Yogurt on the way home instead and Jesse agrees to this plan, but Riley is super bummed. I would have been more likely to stay at lake Harriet for ice cream, but I also know that Jesse wasn't feeling so great so off we go.

We stop at Park Yogurt where Riley and I put together our treats and then head outside where Jesse is sitting. Another family goes inside, but come out shortly after. Apparently, they smelled gas and the employees were now calling it in. We decide that's our cue to leave.

Jesse heads for a shower upstairs right when we get home. I finish my frozen yogurt and jump in the shower on the main floor. As I get out of the shower, Riley heads in for her own shower. Once we are all clean, Riley heads up to bed and Jesse and I hang out in our office. We each watch our own shows. He might also be playing a video game, and I likely was editing photos.

10/10:30 - Time for bed.

And that is a day in our summer...