Life, then and now

This weekend we had a great family outing. We have not done much of that for the past seven months of winter. First because the weather is too cold, all you can do is go to the mall or indoor. Second because hubby worked almost every weekend. Now the weather got nicer, (well it’s not that nice today) we decided to go to the zoo on Saturday.
Saskatoon zoo is very tiny. There are only few animals. But it is close to our home, a five-minute drive.

We had a great time. We walked around looking at animals. The tigers fascinated us as always. We played at the park and watched a goose sitting on her eggs, talked about the birds, watched the buffalos eat, eat and eat some more, then we watched the monkeys jumping from branch to branch then we ate ice-cream. The weather was great to be outdoors.

On Sunday the kids played downstairs with the neighbour’s kids. This does not happen often here. Then we drove to the dam; it was a 1-hour drive so hubby and I got to chitchat. . It was another perfect family day. We looked at the dam, and talked to the kids about it, we played at the park near the lake, and watched the geese swim, and yes we ate ice cream before driving back home.

This was the best weekend for us in a long time. See why I hate winter!

This got me thinking about how our weekend would have been pre kids. We would not have gone to the zoo; we would not have driven to the dam. We would have probably gone out on Friday night, stayed out too late and slept most day on Saturday missing out on a beautiful day. Then on Saturday night we would have gone out with our friends for dinner, to a club, or just hung around at someone’s house playing cards and goofing around until the wee hours of the morning, again sleeping in on Sunday and missing out on another nice day.

Not that the no kids thing was bad; it was just different. We used to have lots of fun being carefree and spontaneous. I loved every minute of it. But then we had to grow up and move to the next stage of life.

It would be great to balance the two. Doing all the fun things with kids, then having some kids free outings and doing adult things every once in a while is great. Unfortunately living in Saskatoon without any family or friends has not allowed venturing out alone without the kids.

I cannot wait until we are back home (Ontario) and we can leave the kids at my mom’s for a night or two every month or so and spend time alone doing adult things.

And sometimes, I wish I could leave my three boys with mama, and go somewhere alone for few days. I would have to leave them with mama otherwise; I will come home to a very messy house and I will need a vacation after I am done tidying up their mess. Mama will keep them under control while I am gone on my dream solo vacation. I think I would go to Veradero, Cuba. One can dream eh??