Linking up with Hallie Westcott for 50mm Friday.

On Wednesday, I posted the photo on the left with the message, “It’s all fun and games…until somebody gets hurts.” Then, I left you hanging. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photographic record of the “getting hurt part,” but I do have a story.

So you all know by now that our niece came to visit us last weekend. Seven year olds have an endless amount of energy…so, we thought we better come prepared with plenty of activities. We started by hitting up Frankie’s Fun Park on Friday afternoon. I had a bunch of leftover fun passes (from two years ago) so we had plenty of time and money for any attraction or game she wanted to play.

I think we started with a few arcade games…with the intent to win as many tickets as possible so she could go home with a cute prize (which, she did). After about 20-30 minutes, we decided to try laser tag. For those of you who’ve experienced laser tag…it’s pretty fun, but probably not designed for seven year old girls and ladies like me who have to tote their camera bag with them everywhere (it looks like a purse…and I didn’t feel comfortable leaving it in a room while we played – that just didn’t seem safe). All that in mind, neither one of us (me or Alyssa) got hurt playing laser tag. But wait…

At this point, the game is over and we’re all motioned to go back to the debrief room…take off our laser backpacks and leave. Easy enough…right? So, as we’re walking out of a dimly lit room, I turn around to check that Alyssa is behind me. I see that she is, so I turn back around and walk right into a huge metal sign!  How embarrassing! Who walks into a stationary object? Me!

Thing is…I remember each moment from the point of running into that sign. It went something like this:

My husband and Alyssa were great though…he went to get me something to drink (blue slushy to be exact) and she rubbed my back and told me everything would be alright. Had it been just me and my husband, we probably would have gone home at this point…but we had Alyssa, so we decided to ride Go Carts.

Alyssa was old enough to ride two of the three Go Cart attractions. I was initially going to take a breather, but decided I should push ahead. Round 1 – my husband was going to ride with Alyssa in a double cart while I jumped in a single’s cart. I won…feeling a little better even with the growing goose egg on my head. Round 2 – we move to the Rookie Track. Alyssa is old enough and tall enough to drive her own cart…and let me tell you, she couldn’t have been more happy to be in the driver’s seat. One teeny tiny problem…the guy running the track told her how to push the gas pedal, but forgot to tell her how to use the brake pedal. So, when it was time to come in…I was first, she was behind me. That’s right…SLAM! As if the goose egg on my forehead wasn’t enough, now I had whip lash. I tell ya what, if we’re going to have kids of our own (and we fully plan to), I’m either going to need to start training for a marathon (ya know, to get my energy up) or start wearing a bubble suit.

On Saturday, we decided to do something a little less active – the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, downtown. Much like Frankie’s, I didn’t have a ton of light to work with inside the museum, but I was able to capture a few moments…like the one above. Alyssa couldn’t quite understand why she would want to grab the statues hand, but she went along with it.  Inside the museum, there were four levels to explore. We spent most of our time walking through like we were in some sort of race or competition…so much to see, so little time. We (my husband and I) might have to go back sometime so we can fully appreciate all that the museum (and surrounding museums) has to offer. Either way, we had a great time.