We had a little surprise when we got there...the alley was completely filled and there was an hour long waiting time. So, we put our names on the list and headed over to Costco where we ordered a cheese pizza, hot dogs, and a chicken bacon wrap. We sat there and ate our yummy dinner while watching shoppers laden down with carts heaped full of cleaning supplies, food, and all of those other miscellaneous Costco finds. When we were done eating, we headed back over to the bowling alley.
The kids were laughing at the funky shoes, and Taylor wanted to know if he really had to wear them. Ahh...I remember the embarrassment I felt the first time I put on one of those hideous shoes. I don't know what happened over the years, perhaps a spike in self-confidence, or a dip in fashion sense...or even a mixture of both, but I really don't care what those silly shoes look like anymore! Actually, I think they're "awesome possum" and maybe will start checking out the D.I. on a routine basis so that I can buy my own stylin' pair.
Really, I should have taken pictures of Andy's shoes. Given that he has a shoe size of 14, I was really surprised when they actually had a size that fit him. Go figure! How many size 14 bowlers could their possibly be? That was worth the money right there, just to see him wearing a pair of those things...huge colorblock bowlers. Nice.
Well, after we finally got everybody programmed in, and everyone found the "perfect" ball to use for the evening, we started in on our fabtabulous game. Andy was wearing his Superman t-shirt...which turned out to be bad luck or something. He bowled one of his worst games ever, which was still twice as good as mine.
Taylor kept taking a turn and then going out in search of a more perfect ball. He never did find one that he thought was the right weight with finger holes the perfect size. Still, he didn't do too bad, he beat me.
Matthew was awesome. He would put his ball up on his shoulder and strut up to the beginning of the lane, get into a strong stance with his legs apart, and then huck the ball forward like a shot put. We let him do it that way a few times before trying to get him to put it on the ground between his legs and give it a nice big push. There were a group of teenagers to our left, and one time Matthew went to take his turn and actually dropped the ball and it went down their lane instead of his and promptly went into the gutter. The guy whose turn it actually was laughed and hurried and threw his ball down the lane before Matthew's could reach the end. He did hit a few pins, but then their game was paused because the poor computer was confused as to why there were two balls down there instead of one.
Brooklynn was really cute too. She used the gutters along with Matthew and Lainah and she did really well. She bowled with a pretty pink ball. She sort of lost interest about halfway through the game and was more interested in the soda that Andy was buying for the kids. She made several bathroom visits.
Rachey also bowled with the pretty pink ball, and did really well. She and Taylor were more into the game, and Rachey did beat him. He bowled faster but she bowled straighter. She was also really interested in the soda after a while and I think I'll have to call and see if you can just buy a 1/2 game of bowling...sort of like golfing 9 holes instead of 18.
I found my nice medium-weighted ball of swirly orange. I have a really funky bowling technique that I've never been able to get rid of. So, I send my ball down nice and straight, but it does a weird back roll think before it starts rolling forward again. I know, weird. It's all in the way I send it off my hand. Usually I can do pretty well, but I was miserably off and only got one strike.
And now Lainah. Lainah was the sweetest, cutest little girl in the entire bowling alley. She would need help each time carrying her pink or yellow ball down to the end. Then, I'd put it on the ground for her, and she'd squat down on her little two year old legs, and push it as hard as her little two year old hands could push it. Then we'd stand there and wait. And watch and wait. And blow as hard as we could...and wait...until her ball finally reached the end. Amazingly enough, Lainah bowled a 3 strikes and won the game with a score of...get ready...116. Yep, we are lousy bowlers! She was so fun to watch. She would jump up and down and say "hooray!!!!" and clap at her ball until it reached the end. Then she'd skip back to the seats to wait her next turn. Too cute.
At the end of the night Tay and I were discussing our amazingly low bowling scores, I pointed out that had we been golfing my score would have won, and we decided that we could choose only one thing in this life that we were really really good at....it would NOT be bowling. :) What a fun night!
