Our Trip to Mulligan's

Thanks to an amazing Christmas deal on Mulligan day passes and generous parents who sent Christmas money to use as we pleased and a lovely neighbor who agreed to watch Simon for the day... the family went to Mulligan's. (It takes a village... I suppose.) Even though Mulligan's is just down the street from us Nathan is the only one to have ever gone. It's too pricey without the great deal and most of our children are just too young to benefit much. Now, however, Brad and I are day dreaming about season passes, which aren't sold. :)

We started our day with a round of miniature golf. Kaeley was very meticulous in her putting. Nathan gave every swing his all and got in trouble a couple of times as his ball went flying into the air and landed in a different course. Alynna? Well, she wasn't impressed. Brad tried to teach her how to hold the club, but it took much effort on her part, and that was it for Alynna. Brad and I were fiercely competitive  He ended up winning by ten points and I believe that only came about due to well thought out cheating on his part. Obviously my cheating was not thought out as well.

Never mind the ropes keeping players off the course. Maybe they're only suggestions.

Here's Alynna keeping herself occupied as the family played golf.

Alynna was just shy of being tall enough to ride the smaller go carts by herself, so Brad took her on a larger cart and she loved it.

Nathan. My Nathan. He rode the Rookie Carts twice. The first game he got in trouble several times for using the car as a bumper car. The very nice attendant finally had to turn off his car and... well, give us the boot. The second time? He couldn't catch up with Kaeley, the only other player on the road, so he decided to make a quick U-turn and go in the opposite direction. That was that. The game was over. And Nathan had lost.

Here is Kaeley in pure joy as she speeds around the track.

Notice the change of expression as Nathan passes her by?

This is Kaeley screaming about how Nathan is not allowed to pass her like that.

And here is my rule-keeping Kaeley completely defeated that I wouldn't punish Nathan for breaking rules. I guess there's a rule about younger brothers passing older sisters? I wouldn't know. I never had a bossy older sister. I was the older bossy everything what with me being an only.

The look of anger changed to determination as she floored it and passed him back.

You were allowed to bump in the paddle boats, so things went better for us here. That is until Alynna paddled her boat around the house where we couldn't see her. In a minute or two she came walking along the path toward us! Fences mean nothing to the girl and neither do docks with attendants waiting to help you up and out of the boat. Again, they're all suggestions.

It was a fun several hours for the older side of the family. We ended with one game of lazer tag game. Now that was fun! After a short lifetime of learning not to shoot women and children Nathan was highly encouraged, and I might add goated, by yours truly as we split the family into a girls-vs-boys. It was precious seeing Alynna's tiny little frame in darkness with a huge lighted vest and gun. She calmly walked around in the dark trying to find the boys. Nathan followed any girl around shooting until the girl ran out of sight. It was either his fearless personality or lack of strategy that made him follow us around. The girls won by a landslide! I even had the top score! I think it's because it's a lot harder to cheat in lazer tag than it might be in miniature golf. Just saying, Brad.