Background information for this post: With the exception of one evening in February, Garth and I have not been out without the kiddo since he was born (14 months ago!). We don’t live near family or have a good babysitter, so we spend more of our post-7pm evenings at home, watching movies in our room while we eat dinner and pray that Jack stays asleep. We sure miss going to movies and having late night ice cream binges.

Such an opportunity came this Friday night when the daycare that Jack frequents offered date night childcare (totally worth the $3 an hour!). We decided to take the mini and go to our favorite theater where we could watch Iron Man 2 and eat pizza and guzzle root beer right from our seats. We started the evening off by taking Jack to the park right before we dropped him off in his jammies with a sippy sup full of milk. We then drove the 6 or so miles up to the theater where as we were parking (in a no parking zone) something funny started to happen. The control arm on one of the wheels came loose (this happened once before when Garth was driving to work- he had a few guys help him lift the car off the road onto the shoulder.) With 10 minutes left until the movie was to start, we headed to Sears (in the mall nextdoor to the theater) to get the supplies to fix the car. $100 spent on tools that we already owned and an hour or so later, it was apparent that it was not a quick fix. We called friends to find a ride home and one interrupted a date to come pick us up. By the time he (and his date) reached us, we were walking along the highway, waddling pregnant lady and carseat-toting husband.

At home we switched cars and went to pick up the kiddo. We had about an hour before the childcare ended, and we hadn’t eaten, so we thought we’d salvage part of the evening and have a bite to eat at our favorite fast food place- but they had just closed the lobby. *sigh* So we drove through and ate our late night dinner in the parking lot of the childcare center- just before going inside and paying our $12 to pick up our sleepy Jack.

Our mini is still in the theater parking lot. It was the worst (and most expensive) date night ever.

I am already laughing about it.
Garth is contemplating selling the mini.

Maybe next time we’ll play it safe and ride our bikes.

xo
elle

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