Pizza Picnic and the Park

Monday didn't go according to plan. First Frank came down with the flu overnight. Who knows why it took so long to take him down? The rest of us were all fighting allergies. Nicky hadn't been feeling great all weekend. Poor kid was stuffy and runny. I considered visiting the Lied Children's Discovery Museum, but they are closed on Mondays. Instead, I thought we'd spend a few hours at Pump It Up and that was the plan until we got up Monday morning. I was exhausted. Amy was tired. Nicky was congested and could hardly breathe. Running around like a fool was just going to take too much out of all of us. So, I opted for a morning swim. Nicky was happy as a clam.

Then, after showers and some lounge time. We headed out for lunch. We went to Amore Pizza & Pasta only they were closed. Apparently, they are now closed on Mondays. I wonder when that started? Amy suggested Little Caesars. I drove over there and picked up a Hot-n-Ready pizza, crazy bread, sauce and drinks. Then, I told Nicky we'd have a pizza picnic. We went to the park that was built across from my old condo. It opened shortly after we moved. It's really nice.

They have plenty of space, great playground equipment and splash pad, volley ball nets, picnic tables and pavillions. We chose a table next to the playground so Nicky could come and go as he pleased.


After I ate, I went to play with him. Amy hung back and kept an eye on our stuff. We rode the slides, climbed ladders and jumped on the draw bridge. Nicky got pretty frustrated with me when I refused to climb through the tunnels, but I was afraid of getting stuck. We played and played. Kids came and went. Came and went. It amazed me how many languages were spoken, I heard at least four. I love that Las Vegas is such a melting pot.

He made a number of friends while playing. One boy was 6. He wanted to play guards and assassins, with Nicky. Nicky just wanted to play Joker and Batman. They compromised. Nicky was Batman. The boy was an assassin (who's a good guy, by the way), they were fighting the guards who killed his family. Nice. Gosh they're cuter at 3. I don't want my favorite boy to grow up. They played. Later, we moved over to the swings. The boy joined us and his mom was pushing him while I pushed Nicky higher and higher. That's when Nicky asked, "is that his mom?" "Yes", I say. Looking puzzled, he replies, "the guards didn't kill his family?" "Nah, the boy was pretending... using his imagination... it's not true", I said. He seemed relieved.

Three hours had passed since we arrived. He still wasn't ready to go. Instead, he saw a family of four playing baseball. He wanted to play. He watched on until they invited him to play. Kinda creepy to stalk them, but his plan worked.


They invited him over and the two boys took turns with Nicky batting and pitching. He was just thrilled. The kid loves baseball. Him singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is just the cutest. Made me wish I scrambled for tickets for the Sox/Cubs series at Cashman Field. It would've been fun to take him to a game.

Then, the family was leaving for home so this was a great time to convince Nicky to leave, too. We had to stop at the dog park on the way back to the car. He wanted to see the dogs he missed his pup named Daisy. He told one lady "he'd bring Daisy on Wednesday". Again, he was super cute.

We had a fun day despite the change of plans. I got my first sunburn of the year. Co-workers thought I went to Mexico or Skiing with my time off. Nope, I was right here in Vegas at the park with my nephew.