An instrumental from Phil Collins from the album, "...But Seriously" for the final weekend as the
Rogerson Trio (Jen, Gabriel & I)...
This was a big weekend for Gabriel. It was the final weekend of Gabriel, the little boy and begins the transition to Gabriel, the big brother. Jen and I wanted to have an extremely special weekend that was packed with great times and fantastic events. Initially, the weekend started off great because the snow that pummeled
Murfreesboro on Friday morning caused my offices to close for the first time since opening in 2003! We got paid time off to start the weekend, but it caused a wrench in the rest of our plans for Gabriel this weekend.
For a final weekend with just the three of us, I wanted to take him to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. He really enjoys spending time at the Discovery Center in
Murfreesboro, so I know that he would thoroughly enjoy all of the activities that would be presented to him. Unfortunately, the first flakes of the falling snow created an uncontrollable urge for native
Murfreesboroans to drive into one another all around Middle Tennessee Friday evening, leaving the roads unnavigable. I decided to take Gabe and the dogs on an adventure walk through the woods as if we were adventurers. We had a blast and the dogs enjoyed the snow too.
By Saturday, the roads were even better, but Nashville's roads were still reprehensible by
Murfreesboro's standards (kudos to the local road crews because they did an
impeccable job keeping the roads as safe as possible). Gabe & I decided to go out and play in the snow, but the snow had already turned into ice, from the overnight mix we received. Unable to make a snowman, we still had a great time
pulling ice off the cars and breaking the sheets of ice on each other's heads. We finally came inside to play several hours of the new Super Mario Bros. for the
Wii.
Sunday, the snow had melted enough that we could mobilize ourselves in order to end the weekend with a finale worthy of greatness. I recalled my father pulling me around the yard on a garbage can or laundry basket lid and decided that I would attempt to do the same for him. I found a
bodyboard in the garage, and yanked him all over the yard and street. After doing that for about 2 minutes, I was exhausted and Jen had the brilliant idea of finding a sledding location. We ended up at
Barfield Park and found a great little sledding location. I decided that I would start Gabe at a nice speed and we would let gravity do the rest. Initially, we had the area to ourselves which worked out very well.
After a couple hours of sledding at
Barfield Park, it was time to finally go home for the day.
On our way home, I notices there were several of the best sledding locations that we were passing the greatest sledding location in the city of
Murfreesboro. Better yet was the fact that it was uninhabited- the on & off ramps of the interstate! We drove to I-840 and took the Beasley Rd. exit. Low and behold, others had the same idea because there dozens having a wild ride down the embankment. due to the steepness of the incline (and because I am still just a kid, myself), I took the first run down the hill. I flew down the hill about 25mph and had to walk back up the 70ft incline- well worth it! I let Gabe ride with me a few times as well. He absolutely loved the downhill journey. What a rush for a little guy to fly down that hill. We were exhausted after walking up that hill 3 times and decided to go home.
By the time we got home, the ice layer had melted, so I was forced by the smile of my boy to make a snowman, despite the hours of torment my body felt starting a 70lb boy sledding downhill. I was already in a lot of pain already, so I rationalized that I
would not know the difference by being quite sore and extremely sore. We ended up building a 5’7”, 340lb snowman, who is still standing today. That was the culmination of our big weekend. We all had a great time and Gabriel loved every minute of it all. I wanted to make this a weekend that he would not forget for a long time to come. Mission accomplished.
