Bowling night.

What could inspire a person the minute they wake up to think, "Hmmm... I think I'd like to go bowling today?"

Those were some words Jaron uttered today. I don't even know if he remembers the only time he's ever gone bowling prior to today. In any case, he really wanted to do that today and Chris was off work. Plus, we were really wanting to reward Jaron for being so grown up at his very first ever therapy session today. So we went.

(Sidenote: I'm not a fan of, nor do I anticipate ever feeling differently about, renting bowling shoes.)

Some things I didn't expect:

• Jaron is quite the little bowler. Who would have thought that his score of 117 would seriously dwarf my lifetime best score of 98? Yes, he's good. I told you.
• Chris and I could not help but chuckle as Avery, who insisted on wearing a denim mini-skirt to the bowling alley, would bend over, set her giant pink ball down centered between her legs and strain to spread her legs beyond the slack her skirt provided. She then commenced to "granny roll" the ball down the lane. On average, the ball had been in painfully-slow motion for 45 seconds or so before it made it to the pins and kind of 'leaned' into the pins as if to say, "Please?" She then would cheer and twirl, regardless or whether any pins fell. Cuteness.
• Jaron took particular annoyance to her genuine thrill. He couldn't understand why anyone who clearly stunk at bowling could be so content to stink at it. It was very hard to explain to him his sister's obvious innocence and refreshing contentment. She was simply happier twirling on the nice hard wood floors and giving high fives than bowling...
• Chris bowled the game of a lifetime. I don't know why that bugged me. He's just good at everything. Every five seconds it was like, oh another strike? Wow, babe! I guess you all know how that goes... :P
• I thoroughly enjoyed watching their amusement at my plague of gutterball after gutterball. It was truly a thing to behold. I guess I used to think I was ok, and in a totally UNrelated story, I don't think I have ever played a game without Shannon also playing a game nearby. Either way, I have lived with the impression that I wasn't half-bad at bowling for 28 years only to find out that most 5 year olds can smoke me.
• I want to go back tomorrow and do it all over again. It was so much fun!

If you are reading this expecting a punchline or a closing statement about my dislike for renting bowling shoes, you'll not find it here. That was it in a nutshell.

Take your kids bowling. It's fun!