Bowling- Schaumburg, Illinois

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Watching the ball...
On the day we were set to leave for China, Austin got an email saying to stay put if we hadn't already left. So, suddenly we had a sad little boy who was disappointed not to be getting on an airplane, and a whole day ahead of us with no plans. It was threatening rain, so we decided to introduce Landon to the great American pastime of bowling. 

Wide leg stance
Landon was amused by the funny shoes we had to wear. We looked around for the lightest, smallest ball and ended up with a six pounder. It was still very big and heavy for him, and to make matters worse, a birthday party was using both of the kiddy ramps. The neatest thing about going was that our lane had retractable bumpers. Although we all could have used bumpers, the bumpers would go up for Landon and come back down for the adults. I am not a bowling whiz, but with the quality of competition I ended up winning both games. 




My boys after the games
Landon tried many different techniques to get the ball down the lane. His first, natural attempts involved him picking up his ball in both hands, and heaving it chest pass style down the lane. Of course, it bounced and rolled slowly down to the pins. It took 20-30 seconds for it to get down there, so Landon also had an attention span workout! I showed him rolling the ball between his legs, but he was not a huge fan of this technique, and it was not that much faster. But, he did take the wide leg stance from that technique and paired it with the chest pass, so every time he had a turn to play, it was hilarious to watch. He ended up being engaged and excited about the game for about a game and a half, which was longer than we thought. We had to play a few frames for him before the ramp became available and he quickly regained interest in the game. 

The joy of watching Landon excitedly wait for the ball to come back up the conveyor belt and jump around after throwing the ball was well worth the visit to the bowling alley! I'm sure bowling with Landon will only get more fun in the future, especially when he can beat us on a regular basis.

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