Where a kid can be a kid

You know that phrase right? Seen the commercial. Had a headache just thinking about taking your kids there. Well, we drove an hour - seriously an hour - just to go to Chuck E. Cheese's. I suppose you could say that I'm a big push-over but I prefer to think that I must love my children that much.

A couple weekends ago, we made a trip over to Jacksonville, which is by Camp Lejeune, so that Lane could shop for tools at Home Depot. We had a great time hunting down a letterbox on the way and eating out at Logan's Roadhouse. (By the way, that was one of our favorite spots to eat when we lived in Indiana last year. The kids loved cracking open the peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor. But we were disappointed with their...um...artwork. So we stopped going and JD has been praying for them ever since to honor God with their restaurant. He really wanted to go again to see if his prayers had been answered. Thankfully this particular restaurant was better - at least where they had us sitting. That and the Christmas decorations made JD encouraged that his prayers were answered.)

Anyway, we drove by Chuck E. Cheese's that day and the boys begged to go. And mentioned it several times ever since. So I finally broke and armed with my Mom for assistance, we braved the drive and the kiddy restaurant. (By the way, my Mom fly out from CA this week to be with me while Lane is out in CA at a class. Isn't she awesome?!)

The kids had a great time there. Mom & I even enjoyed it. It was nice and clean. There were only a couple other families there. The salad bar was pretty good too. Moriah loved riding this little car with Chuck E. She must have rode that thing a dozen times. JD proudly wore his John's Incredible Pizza hat (which is WAY better than this place - not that we are biased or anything...) and ran about wasting tokens and grabbing tickets. Matt said "I don't like the tickets" but he enjoyed the games anyway. In fact he had so much fun that he forgot to eat more than one bite of his pizza (not that I blame him because that pizza is not so great, especially compared to John's pizza!). As I was strapping him in his car seat, he said "I'm hungry" and so we had to run through Chick-fil-A for some chicken nuggets on our way home.

This almost sounds like a commercial for all these restaurants. Think they'll send me any money for my endorsements? In case you do not know, John's Incredible Pizza Co. is owned by my parents. They are huge restaurants with a pizza, pasta and salad buffet and a separate kid arcade area. It is incredible! Unfortunately they are only out in California... I sure miss those peanut butter pizzas...