Boys' Night Out

This weekend, John and I split up the kids - I took Mikayla up to Michele's to hang with Nati and Ellie and John kept Brayden home (it worked out nice as Traig had a sleepover anyway). John and Brayden will be taking those crazy college boys out on the boat again today (yes, they have very good wet suits) and Brayden wanted to be there with them all (he'll be dressed in snow clothes...). Mikayla and I will return home in time for church on Sunday.

So, last night, John took him out on the town. They started out at Red Robin, stopped off at an arcade, went to the Dollar Theater to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth", went out for ice cream, then ended the evening at Travis and Stephanie's. John sent me some pictures from his cell phone to illustrate how much fun they were having. Brayden must have felt like HE was at the center of the earth!

John did share a story about how pleased he was with a choice Brayden made at the beginning of the evening. Brayden was given two quarters to play on the "crane game" where you try to get a stuffed animal. Apparently Brayden was very successful and snagged a really cool penguin on a surfboard. He was very pleased. However, when he walked into the lobby, he saw the "Toys for Tots" contribution bin and decided to put it in there. He told Daddy that some of those kids have barely anything, and this stuffed animal would be played with a lot more by them than him. Every now and then we see these snippets of his character come out, and man, does it make me thankful.

The only downfall to the whole evening was Mikayla finding out about it. (THEY got to go to Red Robin?!!) She had a blast with her cousins, so it wasn't really a big deal at all, but something tells me that I owe her...