Monday Nights - Family BBQ Pool Night!

I have always thought of the family things we would do when we have kids.  I have always been a fan of Family Game Night where we get pizza a play board games all night.  This reminds me of the Saturdays when I was a little.  My dad and I would stay up really late playing Monopoly (funny how when your a kid 11pm seems soooooooo late.)   Chinese Take-out and Nextflix Night.  I mean who doesn't love Chinese and a movie?  Picnic in the Park... (you have to ask? Hello... Cheese and Wine?! - and not for the kids).  I have even added one to my list (after our holiday celebrations with the Nelson-Montet family)... The Backyard Drive-In.

Now I know it's a little early to pull out the board games.  And Ainsley's Netflix attention span consists of the opening credits of Psych and then she is off to something else.  So we will have to hold off on those two "Nights" for a while.  

But I never dreamed that this past Memorial Day Monday we would start a new family tradition.  We don't get a lot of "Family Days" to start with.  I mean a restaurant manager and an actor/ teacher at a theater don't exactly scream 9-5 jobs.  So I was excited that we had Memorial Day off together. A simple wish to grill some hot dogs and go swimming... At first I thought it was impossible.  That is one of the downfalls of living in a high-rise apartment - No Grilling!  But after not wanting to go without the taste of a grilled hot dog I came up with a pretty good substitute... our George Foreman Grill.  So I grilled up the hot dogs, tossed the potato salad and baked beans in my lovely Whole Foods bag, grabbed a few beers, and voila!  I had a BBQ dinner to go. 

We all changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the 7th Floor.  There we had our dinner as the sun was starting to descend into the west or what I like to say "It's sinking into Kendell".  And then afterwards we went swimming.  

Ainsley loves the pool and I love taking her to go swimming.  Partly because once we get back home I give her a bath and then she is out for the night.    

I was expecting to enjoy ourselves and have a wonderful Memorial Day 7th Floor BBQ.  What I was not expecting... was it to be something that we enjoyed so much that since then we have done it 3 more times (not just on Mondays).  So now we have a new family night that I don't have to wait till Ainsley is old enough to not eat the houses and hotels in Monopoly... or have to pause the movie every 10 minutes to rewind to find out what we missed because the baby is excited talking to the cats.  No... this is something we can do now... and enjoy being a family!