So, Mother's Day turned out to be far more exhausting than any of us expected. Originally, we'd invited my mom to come to town for dinner and Fairy Girl's piano recital, but unbeknownst to us, Mom had some kind of federal jury duty and never responded to our invite. With those plans on hold, we just did the usual--went to church in the morning, then headed over to Montana Mike's for some chicken-fried steak and a rugby scrum with the 500 or so other people waiting to be seated.
After lunch, we headed over to the First Protestant Church for Fairy Girl's piano recital. First Protestant is the oldest church in New Braunfels, founded in 1845 just ahead of Sts. Peter & Paul a short distance away, and both churches share the lovely German limestone architecture from the late 1800s. I'm a little more puzzled by its denomination--their website indicates they once were United Church of Christ, but broke away a while back are essentially independent these days. The whole history of the church puzzles me, as the UCofC's predecessor denominations didn't exist at the church's founding, and in 1800s Germany you were pretty much limited to either Lutheran or Catholic. But that's neither here nor there. I'm happy to say Fairy Girl rocked the house with a great rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus & Lucy." We all went home happy.
We didn't stay home for long, though. After changing into shorts, we were off again. Cryptically, The Wife and I loaded the kids into the van without telling them where we were going. Various guesses centered around the San Antonio Zoo were offered, but it wasn't until we pulled into the Six Flags Fiesta Texas parking lot that the light bulb went off and the young'uns got excited. We splurged on season tickets, you see. The Bug was especially giddy, since the last time he'd been to Fiesta Texas, he'd only been 6 months old and was denied entrance to all of the rides. We started off with the Road Runner roller coaster and much fun was had by all. Sadly, most of the Wyle E. Coyote and Roadrunner figures spicing up the ride with various ACME trap gags were missing or removed for repairs (a polite euphemism for "It's broke and we're too cheap to fix it"). Still, the coaster is a fun one, a perfect starting point for the rest of the park, where wild rides are guaranteed to give everyone the thrills they seek. Except mom and dad. You have to understand, The Wife and I, when we were first married, went to the original Six Flags in Arlington and rode the double-loop Shockwave roller coaster over and over again, reveling in its stomach-churning antics. Five years back, when we had Fiesta Texas passes before, we rode everything and had no problems. This time, to our dismay, even the relatively mild rides induced nausea. We have vowed to never be those stick-in-the-mud parents who refuse to get on any of the cool rides, but our bodies are betraying us. We're simply getting too damn old when the Scooby-Doo Ghostly Manor is our favorite of the day (mostly because of the air conditioning). A parents, we are now officially pathetic.
Dinner on the way home was at a fine, upstanding establishment that incorporated not just Taco Bell, but also Kentucky Fried Chicken. Wow. We had the singular good fortune of having a new trainee take our order, and the shouted phrase "Hey Raymond! How do you...?" shall henceforth echo throughout my family's annals of history. Because Raymond, you know, holds the key to keying in a Nacho Supreme with no sour cream, or substituting chips and queso or cinnamon curls in a kids meal. Yeah, we do indeed live the high life. Happy Mother's Day for another year.
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