Adventures in Bowling

It is official my son is obsessed with bowling. When he wakes up in the morning the first thing he asks is "When does the bowling alley open?" Once he knows when it opens it is an endless countdown until it opens. Once the lanes are open we have to be there before too many people are there.

B enjoys it too, but not nearly as much as P. She is happy doing an activity with the family and really I think couldn't care less about bowling. She is happy if she gets a gutter ball or if she gets some pins down. Heck she is entertained if the ball gets stuck and the guy behind the counter has to rescue her ball from the lane.

P's goal while bowling is to have the high score. He is learning to aim the ball better to get strikes and spares. He understands the difficulty of various types of splits. He is even learning the terms of the game. He approaches this like any other sport, he wants to be the best at the game.

B I think is the opposite. Her goal is to be entertained while bowling. She dances and looks cute. Her talent seems to be getting the ball to roll in reverse. I first saw her do this the other day and somehow when we bowl I know that at least one roll of the ball will stop and come back to her like a yo-yo.

Today she did it twice, much to our amusement. It is amazing to watch. She pushes the ball off ever so slowly. It looks like it will stop any second because it rolls so slow. About halfway down the lane the ball stops and then starts moving again, this time back towards B. She of course is waiting patiently for the ball to come back to her. After what seems like an eternity the ball is back in B's hands and we are left shaking our heads. The best part is that I know it will happen again.

Now P has his own little tricks that he preforms. He has bowled his ball down the gutter while the bumpers were up. It was like the ball rode the bumper like a train on train tracks. Today was another first for me. He somehow managed to get one of the bumpers to fall down and then his ball stopped halfway to the pins in the gutter.

I will be visiting the bowling lanes a lot this summer. I am sure I will have more tales to tell about the children's and my adventures in bowling. Hopefully my game will improve and I will break into the triple digit scores.