A Late Night Snack

Last night, after everyone had gone to bed, Kerry and I were discussing the possibility of making pancakes for breakfast.

That made us hungry.

We both talked about wanting to get up, go downstairs, and eat something, but we try not to eat late at night so we each said several times, "I'm a little hungry, but I'm fine, I'm not going to eat anything."

We were both really craving pancakes by that time.  One of us (I don't remember who) said, "We should go to IHOP sometime for breakfast.  We haven't been there in ages."

"I'd go to IHOP right now if you wanted to."

We joked about it a few minutes, both of us knowing we would never do it.

The next thing I know, Kerry popped out of bed and said, "I'm going to see if the girls want to go."

I didn't even get out of bed.  I wasn't really sure he was serious, and I also thought the girls might say no.  They like their sleep and will usually choose to continue sleeping rather than pretty much anything else.

Kerry came back in our bedroom and announced, "All right, we're going!"

I jumped up and started pulling on some jeans when I heard the girls talking right outside our bedroom door.  I opened the door and they were standing there huddled together, talking.  They look at me with hopeful expressions and said, "Is he serious?  Are we really going out to eat?"

"Yep!" I responded with a grin.  They squealed with delight and took off.

We all yanked on clothes and headed for the car, the girls giggling like we had just announced an impromptu trip to Disneyworld.  

We quickly discovered that IHOP was closed* so we headed to Denny's instead.  We really wanted breakfast food and we looked like poor white trash so we couldn't go someplace nicer.

The girls were so tickled by this late night trip, they vowed to make sure they do this with their kids one day which made me and Kerry start sharing some of our favorite memories growing up.  

Kerry started talking about a favorite memory of when his mother made homemade pretzels.  "It was pouring rain, we couldn't go outside, and there was nothing to do....." 

"Did a big black cat walk in on his hind legs and start talking?" Katie interrupted.

"What.....?" Kerry was baffled.

Emily laughed, "Dad!  You just quoted the first few lines of 'Cat In The Hat'!"

We had some of the best laughs we've had in a long time last night.  I don't know what it was about doing something so common, but at a different time of day than we ever have that made it seem so hilarious but boy, did we have a good time.

"Why haven't we been doing this all along?" the girls asked.

"Well, when you were younger, by the time we got you kids wrangled into bed, we were exhausted, and the thought of getting you up and then going through all that again was not appealing.  Just wait until you have kids, you'll understand!"

But now that everyone is old enough to get themselves back to bed (stuffed like ticks, no less) this might be a more common occurrence. 

And it just goes to show......when it's too much effort to get up and walk downstairs to make yourself a snack, it's perfectly acceptable to get in the car and drive across town for moons over my hammy.