Morning Running and playing hookey

I have gotten out two mornings this week....GASP! I know, I know, I am NOT a morning runner, even though I do all of my long runs fairly early in the AM.  In the past, I have trained in the morning to beat the Kansas heat, but my little one is a night owl, so I can't get into bed as early as I hope to most nights.  Well, with my hubby laid off this week (Thank GOD it is only a week as many of the guys have been sitting for months), I decided to try and get to bed as early as possible and get up early.  Since he wasn't leaving for work, I could get up a little later (if you call 5 AM later) and get out the door by 5:30-6.  While I do kind of feel like a zombie, I have enjoyed getting my run done, but, unless I can get in bed earlier next week (would have to get up at 4 or 4:30 to go out by 5 to be back), I will be switching back to night running.  Next week does look nicer for somewhat cooler temps (if you call highs in the low 90s), so I should be able to get out no matter what.

Now on to playing hookey:)  We had a fairly easy schedule planned in the lab and two of my three kids said they could handle it, so I headed out after my lab meeting.  I wanted to surprise andrew at preschool and take him to do some fun stuff with daddy and I.  Well, our plan kind of started out rough as I didn't get gone as early as i had hoped, and he already got served and ate lunch.

This was as we were leaving.

This was about five minutes after we left.  Oh well, daddy and I got to have a car picnic while he snoozed.  We wanted him to get at least an hour of sleeping in before we woke him up, so we drove around and just sat and talked.  Yes, guy looking at us like we are crazy, we are sitting in a vehicle with it running to keep our sleeping toddler cool and happy.

From there we headed to the Flint Hill's Discovery center.  I have blogged about it before, as they have a really neat play area for toddlers.  Sadly, it is no longer free to play up there and we had to make a decision whether or not we wanted to pay over 20 bucks for basically a slide.  In the end, we decided to pay the money, as it was a nice cool place to hang out and was for the most part deserted.

I sent my mom a joking text that we paid 22 bucks for him to play with the same trains we have at home.  

This was down in the tunnel that has the slide. I am extremely claustrophobic, so it is amazing I made myself get in there.  

They also have a model train down the museum part that we had to go watch.  It was nice to be inside versus outside I guess.  We did end up going out to the lazy river/splash park outside.  We as always, weren't prepared with any towels or even shorts for me (i have to wear long pants in the lab), but we made do and Andrew just got into the water in his shorts.  We couldn't stay for too long, because I didn't have any sunscreen on me, and I bet he would burn like crazy with his fair skin.

Even the gift shop had a train so we walked away with a cool choo choo for his collection.

We also stopped for ice cream, because that was really the only way to bribe him away from the splash park.  Glad that we have a baskin robbins on this side of town now.  I LOVE their rocky road ice cream.  One scoop fills me up plenty.  Apparently, little red decided to wear his.  I am happy to say all of the chocolate stain came out of his shorts and he of course washed.  Since he had so much fun at the splash park, we put on our suits and headed over to our city park's pool.  We haven't really gone much this year or last year but he LOVED it and I see us getting a pool pass next year for sure.  I had to laugh, he didn't realize that there were steps going down into the pool and went in at a run and went straight under water. I was right there to retrieve him and the life gaurd was also right where he went up but we got him up and out quickly.  He just coughed a little and then laughed and went on his business.  We managed to get him to go under a couple of more times and he wants to swim so badly, so I guess we need to get him back in lessons ASAP.  

It really ended up being the perfect day and I am hoping for an early bed time from him tonight:)  I have two more early week runs this week, a 3 mile recovery run from today's 6 mile tempo run, and then my 15 mile long run.  After this week, I will probably be surpassing my longest run ever (I did a 25 K last year) so I am looking forward to the challenge!