We’ve had an amazing, fun day; and our
third annual amusement park trip has been another best-ever-so-far kind of
event – so far! ;^)
Our house was departure central before dawn
this morning; and we have quite a gang with us.
From our family, we have Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Nick, Aunt
Deborah, and their kids. Uncle Mark and
Aunt Grace are staying behind so we have a doctor in town and because Aunt
Grace is down to weeks until her lab opens for business and needs the be
there. The Stone, Draper, and Seager
families are all on the trip this year too, and in addition to Dillon and
Stephanie; we also have teen kid care assistance from Alicia and Erin. While Kyle’s busy training with his college
football team and couldn’t come with Erin, Doug is spending the two days with
Alicia, and Jenny spent as much time with her brother, Alicia, and Erin as she
did with us today. Finally, Rebecca was
given a little surprise when Claire managed to negotiate two days off for Lucas
with his Dad despite how busy they are on the farm right now; so he was able to
come with us too.
We played musical vehicles a bit while
getting ready to leave, and Michael and I got to do the trip with Rowen and Tim
while the twins were with Naomi and Aiden.
It was a bit crazy, but we managed to be on the road on time; and we
were at the amusement park shortly after it opened. There was a sprinkle or three of rain during
the trip, so we opted to spend most of our first day here at the water park –
though we hit a bunch of rides later in the day; and didn’t end up getting more
than a couple of spits of rain that didn’t slow us down at all.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I have spent most
of our day with Rebecca and Lucas; though we all had family play time too. We played with the older teens for an hour or
so too while Alicia and Erin were getting a break from helping with toddlers
and babies; and we spent nearly another hour just playing with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi,
and Aiden on some slides and in the wave pool.
Thrill rides might be more exciting for all of us, but I don’t think
that most of the boys in our group would have seriously traded girls in
swimsuits and playing in the water on a hot day for the rides – and not just
because we’ll be doing that all day tomorrow.
This place is going to have a special place
in Rowen’s heart forever thanks to her first kiss with Tim here, and there were
more than a few kisses being shared by couples in our group; but I don’t have
anything particularly hot to report from any of the junior couples
tonight. Some of us are four to a room,
and in our case, Rowen and I have Ehlana and Naomi with us while Michael, Tim,
and Lucas have Ethan and Aiden with them.
Roommate swaps are not an option for us!
There aren’t any actual swaps going on with the college-age teen
couples; and they’re paired up in rooms this year – including Doug and Alicia.
I guess there isn’t any reason to do a full
recap of every splish and splash today; so let’s just do a quick review. We spent the couple of hours before lunch
going on the water slides in various groups; cooled off in the different pools
when needed; and had lunch at a pool-side cafe.
We split the afternoon between more water play and the water-feature
rides; and then we moved on to the main amusement park to go on some thrill
rides before and after a pizza dinner.
Michael and I did some family and kid rides too; but it was the thrill
rides that were the coolest – and I really loved getting to do another sky
coaster ride. There’s just something
about free-falling that makes that one of my all-time favorite rides; and it’s
especially awesome to do that with Michael – and Rowen and Tim; since they love
that ride too.
We didn’t all stay until the park closed –
one or more of the parents with the youngest kids left for our hotel after
dinner and also took care of getting all of us checked in. The rest of us played on and then met up with
them again once we were booted out of the park with the rest of the stragglers
leaving the park after trying to hit as many one-more-last-rides as we
could. Rowen and I were kept busy
getting our luggage to our room and taking custody of Ehlana and Naomi while
the boys did the same with Ethan and Aiden.
We met up with them to go to one of the hotel restaurants for a bedtime
snack; and then split up for the rest of the night – though Lucas went to hang
out with Rebecca, Jenny, and some of the older teens for a while first.
The twins, Naomi, and Aiden were all tired
out by then, though; so we got them ready for bed and off to sleep. Michael and Rowen switched rooms for a little
while so that we could have a little couples-cuddle time, but as I already
mentioned; there wasn’t any hot factor going on for us – our junior chaperones
made sure of that! We’re also all ready
to get some sleep too so that we’ll be ready for the second-half of our
amusement park adventure – and the long drive home after we’re done playing; so
I’ll keep the rest of this short.
Rowen and I have been chatting since she
got back, and while a recap of our day was at the top of the list; there were a
few girl-chat things to discuss too – like when Rowen stopped Tim and kissed
him in exactly the same place where he first kissed her last year – even though
we had just randomly been there in that spot at the time. Though we were away from home, we didn’t
escape football talk with so many boys along, and while Erin doesn’t plan on
trying out for the college cheerleading squad; she did let Jenny talk about the
high school squad this year. You might
be surprised to find out that Rowen was actually quite interested in the
cheerleading talk – particularly when Erin talked about her own cheerleading
career being entirely motivated by wanting to be around Kyle – even before they
started dating.
I’m sure that Tim will be happy to find out
that Rowen wasn’t interested in Jenny’s primary motivation – meeting boys.
That brings me to a bit of news that I’m
tempted to skip reporting. Let me start
by saying that I am sure that Jenny likes Jonathan a lot. She also has no intention of staying attached
to him when they’d only see each other for a few days between now and next
summer; which is why she had no problem flirting with boys today – and there
were a handful of them interested in her today.
She also had fun talking about the potential for finding her next
boyfriend through being a cheerleader and traveling with the team – or with visiting
teams for home games. If Garth was
hoping for a reconciliation this year; he’s going to be disappointed; since
Jenny made it fairly clear that she didn’t expect to be interested in any of
the guys on our team this year.
I should probably amend that to Jenny not
being interested in any available guy of suitable age. There are guys that she’d be willing to
consider dating if they weren’t already taken.
My point in including that in this report,
though, is mostly to include a different perspective on teen relationships from
mine. Sometimes I can’t relate at all to
Jenny about this, but she is practical and honest with the guys. Yes, she’s already left some broken hearts in
her wake, but she also hasn’t met her match either, and just because her
choices wouldn’t work for me; she’s happy and I guess that’s all that really
matters.
The only other teen news that I’ll mention
is about Rebecca and Lucas, and that’s just to report that they are both really
enjoying getting to spend two days together.
Since they’re both working a lot and don’t get to hang out together
nearly as much as Michael and I can; I’m really happy for them. As with other farm-town kid couples; it’ll be
much easier for them once we’re back at school again – not that I’m trying to
rush through the rest of the summer to get there.
Okay, it’s time to wrap this up and get
some sleep. We’ll be spending the day
playing on the rides, and while napping during the drive home is an option for
some of us; I’m sure that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I will end up spending most
of that time chatting and keeping ourselves entertained. It’s supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day
too; so we should be in for another amazing day. I’ll let you know how that works out with my
next update, but for now, I’m out of here; so, until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
