Missed, but Made-Up

The vagrant teens, awkward tweens, and tiny tots of Naperville are back in school, which means several things:

• My morning run has an elevated danger level due to newly licensed high school students 
• The morning commute is about 10 minutes longer due to frequent bus blocks and back-ups
• And the morning conversations in Starbucks have shifted from packing children for summer camp, to prioritizing after-school activities.  

Naperville and its child-centered culture never ceases to amaze me. Kids rule in just about every sense of the word, and their parental supervision-less presence is everywhere: PDA-ing down the river walk, bicycling in packs down the street, posing like Beiber with their Beiber-esque hairdos at the skateboard park, and just hanging out on every last inch of every last block of the downtown area. But, even with the freedoms and confidence that I lacked as a child, their parents still hold the reins on one thing - their after school activities. And one amazing thread seems to dominate this conversation - that mom doesn't have time for her kids to do everything. So the consensus is to let the kids pick one or maybe two things to do.

Really? One thing?
Yeah right.
I'm thinking - With three kids, demanding full-time jobs, involvement on boards, committees, and councils, and a staunch commitment to fitness and nutrition, my parents had a lot on their plates. However, every school year, we were encouraged to do it all. And we took full advantage of that. We were all Renaissance kids - experimenting and excelling on the fields, courts, keys, stages, and studios.

My parents enabled our participation - they chauffeured us, outfitted us, and cheered us on, never missing a game, performance, exposition, or experiment. And if one of them couldn't be there, the other one was, making up for the lack of the other parent with claps and cheers that were louder than all the PTA moms combined. Whether it was my mom or dad that missed the event, he or she always felt bad about it and wanted to make up for it.

I'm certain it took personal sacrifice and stress at times, but they wanted their kids to experience life to the fullest. And let me tell you, bouncing from field hockey, to piano, to jazz, to tap, to the theater, made it full (and a whole lot better than just hanging out.)

To this day, my parents encourage us to do it all, and they still show up to cheer us on everywhere at just about everything we do.

I thought this characteristic, especially after hearing the yummy mummies grunt about going to baseball games and art shows, was unique to my family. That is, until I met Peter's friend, Tom. And then I met Tom's wife, Tia. They are a pair, that embrace life and all of its excitement as much as my parents. They do it all, and never, ever want to miss a good thing.

So when Tom missed Peter's 80-foot Lake Cumberland houseboat bachelor party - a party that if you are as odd as my fiance and his groomsman was unmissable - he was bummed. So like my parents, he felt that he had to make up for it in some way.

This weekend, Tom and Tia (TNT), joined forces with Brendan and Margaret (of Best Day Ever fame), and turned a stormy Saturday into the Best Day Ever part 2. After an 18 mile run on the lakefront and breakfast at Uncommon Ground, we were crowned with trucker hats, whisked away in a mini van, and sent off to do some micro brewery research, all while being cheered on all day long by the fun-loving group.

 We stopped for tours and tastings at Flossmor Station and Three Floyds.

And capped the day off with charades and probably one too many rounds at Revolution Brewery.

It's Monday morning and I'm feeling really blessed to not only have family members, but great friends that will always be there to make sure Peter and I lead the Best Life Ever.

Lo.