Oil Change Outing

My van has had the maintenance light on for over a week and a low of 15% oil. It went to 10% yesterday, so I thought it was time to go take care of it. Plus I needed to go get the girls' violins from Corey's car (he picked them up from orchestra this morning). I told Daniel and Peter "We just have to go in for a quick oil change, and then we'll go to the 'dinosaur place'" (as Peter calls it). I pulled into Burt Bros and they did not have an open stall to park in, so I drove to get the violins and called them. They said they were busy and it would be a 3 hour wait, but to try the Draper office where they had a lube center. So we drove out to Draper. Open stalls, I figured it'd be quick. The guy told me it would be an hour and 15 minutes. Blah... he must have recognized the look of "ugh" on my face and offered "there are lots of restaurants!" Sigh, ok... so I gave him the key and we started to walk outside along the sidewalk of 123rd south. I looked at a map on my phone and there was a McDonald's was close by, but I wasn't oriented right cause I started walking the wrong way. When I noticed that it was further away now, I thought that's ok - there's an Arctic Circle with a playplace across the street. Daniel was cold, but we soldiered on. Daniel and Peter were super cute crossing the street. Here in the US, you don't seem to see many people walking around. Once we had guests from Uruguay stay with us, and as we drove them around the SL Valley, they asked "Where are all the people? You live like ants!!" But here we were today, letting people in the cars passing by see two adorable little boys. It was a trek for Daniel, but we finally arrived at the Arctic Circle only to find... the lobby was closed. Drat. Daniel was sad. Um, ok... where to go?... Let's keep walking... I think I saw a playplace over there (further west), let's go try that one. We kept walking. Peter was loving this adventure. Daniel was cold.

The other playplace that I thought I saw probably used to be one, but now it's just a big glass lobby for Cafe Rio. Darn, Daniel was sad and discouraged. We turned around and walked allll the way back to where we had come from. Passing the "Playzone" at Arctic Circle again, I asked D to pose for a picture to capture his trial. 

You're doing great, little D. You're being stretched, I know. "When we get to [McDonald's] we will be grateful for this trial. These hardships will make us strong!" Your sufferings will be remembered with those of the pioneers! Well, probably not, but hang in there anyway. Peter was a cute little angel. We were slow traveling because he just had to stop and keeping picking up rocks...

And throwing the rocks!

...and there were a lot of rocks. So repeat for a quarter of a mile. We finally made it to McDonalds! I said we should go to Chic Fil A because they had a playplace. But our covid luck continued... that play ground was closed too!!! As was their dining area. 

So we went to Mc Donalds, hallelujah their lobby was open. Yay, Daniel, you have a warm table to sit at. It also seemed to be the lunch lounge for all the high school teenagers.

And then I bought Happy Meals for my kids for the first time in my life. 

See the look on Peter's face? 

That's why they are called Happy Meals.

It goes against most of my health aspirations, but those smiles might be worth this exception. I got a call that the van was ready right when they started eating. I let them take their time. Now we werw very close to the where we had left the van, but when we left, it took 15 minutes to walk across the street and past the gas station because it was a Sinclair... and the kids wanted to sit on the dinosaur. Daniel in front.

Peter's turn in front. 

And Peter refused to leave.

We finally got to the car, and then the kids wanted to go to the Dinosaur Place. Um, no, the oil change took too long... and we went to McDonald's instead, so that's going to have to count as our fun today. "Please?!?!?" Ugh... well, I guess that was the original plan, and I want to keep my word. It was 1:00. If we go, we should still be back soon enough for when the kids get home from school, so ooookkkk I guess we can go. Down to Lehi we went to Thanksgiving Point. It wasn't crowded, and we looked at all the regular stuff that we see every time. We made a stop at the erosion table, and D&P had the place to themselves for a while.

Peter liked putting sand on the dinosaurs' heads.

We were there for over an hour. "The kids are coming home from school soon, so it's time to head home."

Daniel, I know it's a tradition to stop by Pride rock for a photo (Picture 16) but it doesn't work the same when there are just two of you. Plus we don't have a baby Simba anymore. Peter was getting too big for that last spring.

Back at home, Peter working on his Pre-K school book. 

We've noticed that he usually writes with his left hand. Super cute. 

We also love how the book is the length of his legs, and you just see his adorable feet poking out.

It was good to spend time with Daniel and Peter, and the 2+ hour oil change was worth the fun adventure with them.