Hey--Let's Go Bowling!

Last week, Chad and I went bowling for only the third time in the almost 13 years that we've been married. We've had so much fun Wii bowling with our Journey Group friends that we all decided to give real bowling a try. Despite the fact that I was just about the worst bowler you've ever seen, we really had a fun time!

As you can see from the picture, my awesome husband has beautiful form, and he's a pretty good bowler considering it's been years since he's played. When he was a kid, he won lots of trophies in a bowling league, so he's definitely had some practice. I think his first game he bowled like a 150, which I thought was pretty good. I, on the other hand, bowled a FIFTY my first game. As my friend Paula put it, you'd practically have to try to bowl that badly! The crazy thing is, I was trying as hard as I could to roll that darn ball straight down the lane, but no matter what tips coach Chad gave me, I was totally erratic. It was embarrassing and ridiculous. Of the eight people who were bowling, I came in dead last! I just had no control at all over the ball.

My second game started just as shaky, until Chad mentioned how the ball was falling out of my hand every roll, at which point our friend Jake went and found me a new ball (yea for Jake!). My new ball had a thumb hole that fit much more snuggly (and an awesome pink color), and that's when things really started picking up! I actually bowled a couple of spares and even a strike! Chad took a picture of the scoreboard to prove it (notice that he rolled a strike that same frame). I had no idea what a difference having a properly fitting ball makes!

So our second game I was actually the most improved bowler of the group with an amazing 95! Actually I probably would have broken 100 if I'd used the pink ball for the whole game, since I actually lost a roll when the computerized scoring skipped me for waiting too long to go (I was waiting to steal Kristin's ball). I'd love to go a little more often just to see if I could get better at it!

My conclusion: bowling + friends + cheap Jaybowl = FUN! For the complete set of bowling pictures, click here!

Oh, and let me just say that when I first used the phrase "Hey--Let's Go Bowling!" with our Journey Group, none of them caught my reference to the ad campaign from the 80s. Clearly, they are all many years younger that we are! Please tell me that someone else reading this remembers saying "Hey--Let's Go Bowling!" so that I don't feel so darn old!