This weekend we got started on our Spring Happenings list. Our neighbor told us about a week ago about a Touch a Truck event at UCF. She is a teacher and was given a bookmark too that let four people into the UCF Women's basketball game after the Touch a Truck event so when her and her husband saw UCF, they thought of us. They asked us what we thought and if we would like to join them. We said, of course!
We have done one Touch a Truck event before and the kids thought it was awesome. That was before Will's explosion in interest in anything on wheels. We knew this was right up his (and Kenzie's) alley. We set out early to make it to the event when it opened. We knew that they were supposed to have a "no honking" hour which we decided might be better since the kids sometimes get overstimulated with a lot of loud noises. Kenzie and Will can also be sort of jumpy sometimes and if we put them into an already overstimulating environment (that they aren't used to... Disney doesn't have this effect for some reason) then it can be a bit too much.
Although it was supposed to be a "no honking" hour, there was some minimal honking going on but it wasn't too crazy. It was probably also one of the calmer times because it had just started. Before we started playing around the vehicles though we had to go potty. Will was so amazed that I basically dragged him across Knights' Plaza to get to the potty because he just wanted to go see the cars.They had a game type thing where the kids got stamps at each truck and could turn it in at the end for a prize so we picked up some papers to do that.
What we found out fairly quickly is that Will was okay with the trucks/cars themselves but not so much with a lot of the "touching" part unless we were with him. This was fairly similar to how he was at the last Touch A Truck we attended. This time he warmed up quicker and was willing to do some things on his own whereas last time he HAD to have one of us very, very close by. He was okay with Kenzie doing things with him too sometimes and didn't always need one of us. We also learned that Kenzie's current fear of heights translates into large trucks. She wasn't super into being on top of some of the higher heavy machinery.
I think the highlight of the day for me (for Kenzie) was seeing Kenzie don the fireman uniform. It was hilarious. That thing was heavy but she wanted to wear it. I don't know how she stood up in it. Will wasn't so into putting it on. At this point the place was hopping and he was less sure in the environment. He was still super enthused though with checking out the trucks. My favorite Will moment was when he was able to sit in the police car on his own. He totally thought he was so cool. He wanted to push the buttons. All the buttons.
After we checked out most of the trucks all 3 kids were getting a bit restless. We decided to get some lunch. The restaurants in Knights Plaza were all open and we decided on Dominoes. We polished off a large pizza (just our family as our friends got their own pizza). After some lunch we were initially planning to hit up a few more trucks but the lines were long and the kids were sort of done with it so we turned in our stamp papers and got each kid a stress ball like thing in the shape of a truck. Then we took them over to an open area to let them run for a bit before we headed into the game.
We have only been in the new arena (in an area other than the lobby) a handful of times and the kids have never been past the lobby which is sometimes open for other events. This was their first basketball game actually and I didn't realize that we were catching it just in time as the final home games for both men and women are next week. This game was a women's basketball game.
We walked around the arena for a while before picking out some seats. We happened to run right into Knightro who came skating (on those weird wheely shoe things) around the corner right at us. Kenzie was super excited and wanted a picture. Will... not so much. He wouldn't even give him a high five. He just wasn't having it. (Though he did give him a high five later when he stopped by our seats before the game started.)
We eventually decided to go to section 106 and pick some seats. There were no assigned ones for this game so we just randomly chose something. It was good because there was no one there basically so we had a row all to ourselves and yet sad at the same time that no one was there. Especially because free tickets had been given out. I'm sad that they couldn't draw a bigger crowd. The kids liked dancing to the music played by the band before the game. Kenzie HAD to have her picture taken with the cheerleaders that were hanging out near our section.
The game moved fairly quickly which was good because Kenzie did well through about the first quarter... and then quickly started to go down hill. Initially we thought she was just tired. Both kids were up around 6am and it had been a big morning. She spent the next three quarters getting worse and worse until we were debating on the ride home if she might be sick.
Will though... he did awesome. Somehow the kid woke up at 6am and went all day long. Then didn't nap at his usual 1pm and eventually hit a popcorn induced second wind around 3 or so. He was super happy and totally fine all afternoon which amazed us. Sidenote: He also stayed dry all day. We are getting more and more comfortable taking him out for long periods of time and removing the pull up that we use as a backup. He rarely ever has accidents anymore even when we are out of the house and out of the norm (and less likely to hit up bathrooms as often.) He's been potty trained for about 6 months now but we just have concerns taking him out to places like this or Disney or whatever without a pull up on over his undies just in case since we are sometimes unable to rush to a bathroom in enough time should it come to that. But anyway, he was golden today. Which was good because it made it easier to deal with Kenzie's less happy state as the day went on.
UCF won! It was a lot of fun despite Kenzie not feeling well. She still ate a ton of popcorn and enjoyed the cheerleaders and band even after she started feeling icky. Both kids ended up falling asleep on the way home. Once we got home, we took her temp and found out it was 100.4. Not terrible but she was complaining of a headache and didn't want to eat. We sort of expected that once we knew she was actually running a low fever. She ended up sleeping through dinner then got up and had a bit of juice and water before going back to bed. Will was fine and ate a ton then went to bed fairly easily. Now we get to play the waiting game to see if he gets sick too. Hopefully we didn't pass anything on to our neighbors. I'm hoping that since Kenzie wasn't all over them and we were outside a lot that no one else gets it.
Unfortunately, the universe seems to be against us to a point. A couple of weeks ago we were supposed to go visit Great Gran-ma (Steven's grandmother) but Will ended up sick. So we rescheduled for tomorrow but now Kenzie is sick so we will have to reschedule again. Not sure why we can't seem to get it together and go to Crystal River. Hopefully we will make it soon.
Although we are ending on a sadder/sicker note, we still had a great day and managed to get started on our Spring Happenings list. I think that Kenzie will even tell you that she enjoyed it despite not feeling great towards the end. I'm just glad we got some fun family and friend time and enjoyed something new. The kids seem to enjoy sporting events though right now I think that might mainly be because we tend to get them popcorn. Haha!
Next weekend is already planned and (as long as everyone remains well) we will be headed to Palm Coast to celebrate Grandma's birthday. Let's hope we all stay well!
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