First Day of My Staycation

I left work for a half day unexpectedly on June 28th and was out a full day on June 29th.  I had a vacation from work planned for the whole next week in which I had grand plans of not doing much but mostly relaxing and pampering myself.  None of those things happened.  But one thing was for sure.  The whole damn week was HOT!

Monday, July 2nd started out as just, well, Monday, however my nephew Keith was dropped off to my house around 5 pm and I'd be taking him for the night.

We did fun things that would rival any auntie's house.  We went out to eat for dinner at Bulldog in LoTo in St. Paul.  Auntie Dana took Keith to the bar.  It was so hot and the bar's air conditioning was broken!  Despite that, Keith said his favorite time with me was going out to eat.  He loved trying all different kinds of tater tots. 

Ok, so this photo is staged.  I hope I'm not the only one that thinks a 9 year old "cheersing" beer with M is funny.  I did text my sister this picture saying that Keith and M are enjoying beers together. 

His real drink...a Kiddie Cocktail

Ok, so he ran around Mears Park too.  He did do some kid things while he was with me. 

After dinner we stopped at Wal-Mart so we could pick up some fireworks.  He didn't know we were getting them and he was super excited to find out that M would give us a fireworks show later that evening.  He picked out an ice cream and pop and was on his rotting teeth way.  

Another classic photo I texted to my sister

Since it wasn't dark enough yet for fireworks, we went to the park for a little while and gave M a break from us.  He was swinging on the swings and gave me a nice pose.  The second photo on the swings below was his reaction that I happen to catch when he heard fireworks and thought that M was blowing them off at our house without us.  It was so funny to catch his expression.

Here's the extent of our fireworks show.  Cool enough for him though. 

M wasn't off for the week like I was so he was upstairs winding down while we were downstairs watching a movie.  Keith picked it out.  It was called the Billion Dollar Hobo from 1977 with Tim Conway in it.  We didn't finish the whole movie but I thought it was a weird choice from a 9 year old.  It was kind of funny.

After the movie, we went upstairs to my computer/craft room where we crafted for awhile.  Keith made his dad a birthday card and one for his grandpa Keith (my dad).  He knows that grandpa has cancer and created the card below with no help from me.  

We went to bed around 11:30 pm which Jamie says is late for him but that kiddo can sleep.  He didn't get up until 10:45 the next morning.  We went out for a late breakfast at Perkins.  I asked him what his perfect day of food would be and here's his answers:

Breakfast: 3 chocolate chip pancakes stacked with 4 french toast sticks with powdered sugar, bacon all around the pancakes and Propel to drink, any flavor.

Lunch: Beef Ramen Noodles with blue Mountain Dew

Dinner: 12 tacos; 6 crunchy and 6 soft, the kind that his mom makes.  He would have beef on them and then he said "the salad", cheese, salsa and no tomatoes.  He would have a strawberry banana or mango smoothie.

I love kids answers to questions!

While we were at breakfast, I asked him if he wanted to go to JCPenney.  I had a free $10 coupon so he could try and find something there that he wanted.  He was so excited and that instantly earned me 17 hugs, but he urged me not to use them all in one day and to save them for later in the year. He ended up a getting a NERF water gun.

Finally when we got back to my house, I made him a smoothie in my fancy blender and he loved it.  I even gave him a smoothie cup to take home.  We packed up his stuff and picked up his grandma (my mom) from work and drove them back to her house so he could wait for his mom to pick him up.  

We had a great time together.  I asked Keith to rate his time with me and he said it was a 9.75 out of 10.  I'll take it.