No Gravitron for You

Greetings friends and family,

Easton and I were driving around during one of our father-son outings when we passed a carnival.  Easton hasn't been to one of those in a couple of years, but he instantly was excited by the spinning equipment and flashy lights.  As we passed my eyes locked onto my personal favorite:  The Gravitron!  It's a spinning room where people stand inside the UFO shaped ride.  The whole unit spins around and sticks the participants to the wall by centrifugal force.  the floor drops out and it's magic.  I asked Easton if he wanted to try it.

We went home as planned and ate dinner with the girls.  I checked online to validate when the fair was open and the height requirements for the Gravitron.   From what I could see online it was 42 inches.  I thought, "great!  Easton is 45".  After dinner he and I headed back to the carnival where I bought just enough tickets to ride the Gravitron.  Total cost for two tickets was $6.  Before I gave the money I explained that Easton was 45 inches tall and I confirmed with the ticket guy that the height requirement was 42 inches.  He nodded and sold us the tickets.  We walked over noticing there was no line and people were climbing aboard.  I took a picture as the "before" picture in case he puked.

The ride manager stopped us on the way through and...  ugh.  48 inches?  oh, come on, give me  a break.  It was, in fact, 48 inches and not one hair less.  

I don't mind these situations.  My job as a parent is not to keep my kids from disappointment.  Guess what?  there's plenty of that in the real world when he grows up so there's no need to shield him from it now.  I did several things correctly.  On our way there I prepped him with a caution that there is a chance we may not get to ride it due to various reasons (ride closed, age/height restrictions, long line, etc.) so he had the proper expectation before we even set foot on the carnival grounds.  After hearing the disappointing news that he was not tall enough he shrugged his shoulders and said, "what else can we ride?"  I was a proud parent at that moment.  I've taught Easton and Layla this famous quote:  You can't have adventures unless you go adventuring!  and the corollary is:  "Sometimes adventures don't work out as we plan them to and that's ok."

unfortunately every single big-boy ride in the carnival was 48 inches except the Wacky Shack.

That one was our only choice so the two of us wandered through the 25 second tour of fun-house mirrors and rotating doors.  He was sad about how cheesy and short the "ride" was, but it was better than nothing.  I promised him that next year was the year of the Gravitron!  It's also a way i get him to eat broccoli and lettuce so he'll grow tall.

Kendra and I have been looking forward to this week since January 1 because of the insane amount of time and effort we've been spending on work and ministry between that day and now.  The day we looked forward to the most was a celebration of the death of overwhelming commitments.  our celebration was a date-night with our couple friends.  We went to dinner and then to the Jesus Culture concert.  I was so excited to just spend time with Kendra singing along to our favorite songs and just being together.  We showed up and found this whole group of friends from our church were there as well!

An outdoor evening concert in March can only be enjoyed in a few cities across the country.  Phoenix is one of them.  We sat in our camp chairs with a warm blanket while cuddling the night away.

There were several times we stood to sing along and worship with the massive crowd.  Kendra was standing and I took this picture of her with the night sky as the backdrop.

Watching her connect to God through worship is a regular occurrence and I don't take it for granted.  I know the prayers of my parents work because I know they prayed me out of many relationships when I was young that would not have resulted in a wife who is pursuing God and me as tenaciously as Kendra.  I am blessed and she is responsible for almost the entire measure of my blessing.  There is nothing better for our relationship than for her to continually seeking to become more of who God made her to be.

See you soon!