The Melting Pot

Keyan and I were so glad to be home but I was pretty depressed to wake up Saturday morning to thunderstorms.  BUMMER!  One of the nice things about Cincinnati is that it was still in the mid eighties and sunny!  We used the day to clean up the house (even under the girl’s beds!), do laundry, unpack, and catch up on Mommy being gone.  I was feeling somewhat frustrated though at our lack of something to do.  I have written many times about the limitations we have not only because there are so many of us but mostly because we have a child who is medically fragile.  We can not just pick up and go spend the night at a hotel, we can’t go to Crazy Bounce or the Aquatic Center, we have weather limitations, temperature limitations, and just plain ‘ol energy limitations.  Don’t get me wrong, I think we do a pretty good job at keeping the kids busy and exposing them to as much as we can, but some days, it is just depressing to realize that this is not how you envisioned your life….basically, I was having a pity party for myself…and it felt sort of good!

 

The kids had been very hungry for fondue which we make here at home every once in awhile so I was planning on doing that for supper but as I thought about the shopping, chopping, cooking, and cleaning that was required, it made me even more depressed.  That is when we decided to treat the family to a restaurant in Grand Rapids called “The Melting Pot”.  We put on nice clothes and went and had a four course meal that was all fondue…although it was all VERY good, I could have just had the chocolate dessert fondue and been just as happy!  The kids tried a bunch of new foods including sushi grade tuna, lime chili shrimp, Asian dumplings, ect, and we all got to spend three hours experiencing something new and enjoying being together as a family.  And don’t have a heart attack..we called ahead and did some research on the menu and while it is not a place that we could afford to eat all of the time, we managed to do it fairly reasonably all things considered.  It felt good to be all cozied into a booth, laughing, talking, and reconnecting after Keyan and I had been gone. It may not be a typical family outing, but it was a great family outing for the Hogan Clan!

 

 

 

And just in case any of you are worried about the fact that Keyan doesn’t eat…she did just fine using her fondue forks as drum sticks and telling us all knock-knock jokes…she cracks herself up!  She doesn’t care what she is doing, as long as she is not stuck in a hospital room!