CEDAR POINT!!

We went to Cedar Point this Sunday...so much fun!!


First the night before I tried to update my iPhone to version 4.0...pain in the butt...I was still trying to do it before we left...finally got it by having to restore my phone to factory settings (that's seriously stressful) and then backing it up again...took 4 hours!!  I was soooo grateful that I didn't lose any of my apps, songs, media or phone numbers, etc!!

Then our awesome sitter/dog sitter/ house sitter Jessica came over and got her instructions for watching the beasts....she did a GREAT job by the way...Thanks again, Jess!!


After that we loaded up the car and got ready to leave....Thank Heavens we have our new Jeep Commandeer...or we would never have had enough room for all this crap!

While this was going on....Brian was leaving a little art work in the kitchen;

Thats Zach and Madalyne on the Blue Streak, me taking a pic, Brian eating a corndog and Andy holding Jack and a balloon :-)


Here's a view of the car packing from in the car...

Kids are excited...Brian is wondering how he's going to see out of the back window...obviously..he's not!


We were about halfway there when I took these pics:
Zach making gum teeth:

Madalyne excited!!

Brian thinking, "Why do you insist on taking pictures of me driving...while using your flash"??!! opps....sorry:

Me and Zach (in the background still working on making gum teeth)

Side note:  The chances of this happening are soooo slim...and yet they did:  Andy, Jack and the trailer left from South Bend, we left from Goshen...Andy and I started texting and realized that we were actually only 3 miles apart on the Toll Road...crazy!  So we met up at a rest area in Ohio, had lunch and then went tandem from there...worked out really well!


We got to the campground at Cedar Point, checked in and started setting up;

Madalyne was helping soooo much that we decided that she and Zach should take a break and go swimming.....ok.....actually...Brian kindly took the kids swimming before Andy and I lost our minds!

How cool is is to go swimming with the Mean Streak going behind you!!  The pool at the campground also had a small splash pad that the kids loved!!

Madalyne was getting her groove on!!


The kids and Brian swam for awhile, Andy and I set up the trailer, put away food stuffs, etc and took Jack for a walk....then it was 5pm and we could go into Cedar Point with our Starlight passes!  
This is also where we make a fatal mistake.....the kids saw the first line and wanted to go in...it was for the Magnum....we rode it....we got off with two crying kids and one of them desperately trying not to vomit!!  All we heard about for days is how they were going to ride everything that they could....they've both been on other roller coasters at Cedar Point...but maybe the second biggest one there was a bad choice for their first ride of this visit....big opps!!

Poor Baby!!!  Needless to say...we did not ride the Magnum again.....


Here's what I don't understand though.....I mean, I really don't get it...they get sick riding a 30 sec roller coaster but then they LOVE those sickening swings that go around and around and are held on by just a couple of cables.....bleech!! At least it dried them off though...we were forced to ride all of the water rides right before this.....

Cedar Point now has this cool area of Christmas lights that are programed to light up with music as you walk through....we walked through the lights and then met up with Andy and the kids (he watched them while we rode the Maverick---the single most awesome roller coaster I have ever been on---it Rocks)...then we watched the big screen show they do with fireworks...

THE SECOND DAY!:


We were woken up bright and early by Jack :-)  Brian and I took him for a walk and watched the sailboats that were already out on Lake Erie at 6 am!!
And somehow...Brian got this scary photo....

This is how I found the kids...they may have been a bit tired....poor Madalyne...hope Zach didn't have gas....

after breakfast....I got ready to go into the park and Brian took the kids for a walk on the pier...

this was on Monday...the day we had ride and slide tickets...so we all wore our bathing suits into the park....we knew water rides were coming again.....yippee...(I'm saying this sarcastically) 
First though...we told the kids if they did not behave they were staying here...all day ;

I love this picture...who doesn't have this picture if you have ever been to Cedar Point???


So we spent the morning at the park...Andy took the kids again, and Brian and I rode the Millenium Force...the kids rode the bumper cars, Iron Dragon and other stuff....then we rode the water rides...again and again and again and again and again (you get the picture)....till it was lunch time and we were all SOAKED completely through to our bones!!!


so we went back to the trailer to eat lunch and then to go to SOAK CITY!!

they are not normally allowed to have pop...so this was a big deal!!

After lunch...we got ready and headed over to soak city...we spent the majority of the time there in the WAVE POOL!!....the kids LOVE the wave pool...it almost took an act of God to get them out of it!

We played in the wave pool, went in both lazy rivers a few times, went back to the wave pool, played in the play area with the big bucket that dumps on you, went back to the wave pool, slid down some of the big slides (I didn't...not so good for the ankle), went back to the wave pool, went to the play area with the little slides, went back to the wave pool....then it was time to go back into Cedar Point!!

So we went back and ate a snack, cleaned up and got dressed in the first dry clothes we had on in over 24 hours....seriously..I'm pretty sure I saw mold growing on Andy....and headed into the park.....the first ride we went on was the paddle boats....Zach really really wanted to ride the paddle boat...groan.

But look how excited he was in line;

Madalyne was all cool about it though...

everyone was chill on the paddle boat...while the guy told the worst jokes ever!

Then we were off to ride the train....groan, and the Iron dragon again, and then the Gemini...Madalyne was all about riding the Gemini....

Until we got to the actual time to get into the seats...notice ....Uncle Andy is in the red train, Zach and I are in the blue train...poor M got freaked out and she and Brian walked through...:-(

but that's ok...one day she'll do it....:-)  or maybe she won't...whatever.

So after this, Brian and Zach rode it again...and then Zach got pukey again....so we decided to eat a bunch of fries with cheese and everyone was all better!

Then we went up front and looked at stuff, rode some more rides, bought some "prizes", Brian and Andy rode the Raptor..then it was closing time!

We went back to the trailer for dinner and then bed....by now it was after midnight and the kids were wiped out!  We grilled some hamburgers, ate under the stars (and Andy's really really big christmas awning lights---they are awesome), and hit the sack.

NO ONE MOVED FOR HOURS!!!

we slept like rocks.

we woke up around 9 am...Brian and the kids headed to the pool for one last swim...Andy woke me up for real around 10 am and we realized we had minutes to clean everything up and pack!!!

PANIC TIME!!

We did manage to get it all cleaned up, packed up, kids and Brian out of the pool and everything ready to leave the park by 11:35 (we were supposed to be out by 11)..it was a minor miracle!

Then we rode out of the campground together...happy, tired, sunburned and hungry!!!  so we stopped at the first rest area, ate together, gave Uncle Andy great big thank you hugs and kisses and then headed our separate ways home.......

WE HAD AN AWESOME TIME!!!  It was great being together, having fun with Uncle Andy and riding all the rides and eating all the bad for you food....:-)

we won't be back next year though....maybe the year after...the kids need time to really want to ride everything...and probably time to heal from the Magnum disaster.....

-Wendy

P.S.  Brian went to work on weds...I have no idea how....I slept off and on for over 24 hours (I didn't feel well though) and Andy slept for over 12.  The kids slept for 8 and complained that they "never have anything fun to do"......ugh.

P.S.S.  I go back to work tomorrow and work 3 in a row...then Madalyne starts soccer...she's hopefully going to play on Middlebury Magic...I'll keep you posted.

One of those "filler" posts..or 10 things from the last 5 days...

Events over the last few days;

1. I worked...

2. Brian worked...

3. Zach played, swam, played some more...

4. Madalyne played, swam, played some more..

5. We went to the Blueberry Ranch, we drove 45 mins to get there...we were 2.5 mins. late (they closed at 5)..they wouldn't even let us BUY already picked blueberries...we won't be back.

6. But...we did get to go to Outback..since we were already out there..and if you can't snack on healthy blueberries, well then,Aussie Cheese Fries make an awesome substitute!

7. I've now been awake for 29 hours...I'm getting a bit weird...but the house is almost clean, I made zucchini soup from scratch with veggies from the MAD GARDEN, the laundry is done, the dishes are done...and most miraculously of all...the kids are still alive!...and so are the dogs...but just barely.

8. Murphy almost had to change his name to Murpy...Brian caught my misspelling right before I hit the laser thingy, dog tag maker thingy to print at PetSmart.  Thank Heavens!!  How embarrassing would it be to run around the park yelling, "Murpy, here boy, Murpy..come to Mommy"!!!

9. The kids asked Brian if they could get their bathing suits on to swim...Brian said, "Not now"...somehow that translated into..two kids jumping in the pool in their clothes..."But, you said we couldn't put our bathing suits on" <----Glad I was at work for that one!

10.  Madalyne broke down in tears and had to be PICKED UP off the floor of MACY'S...by me...because..."I'm sooo sad Mom, I'll miss you when I go to college".....she's 7.

(then when I thought about her leaving for college, I had to hide my tears...she kills me)

I'm going to go eat dinner now...and try really, really hard to not fall asleep with my face in my zucchini soup!

-Wendy

JULY...So Far.....

July has been crazy for us so far....I've worked a lot and so has Brian....the kids have been busy too...but those little buggers just get to do fun stuff....while Brian and I slave and slave away to keep them amused.....spoiled little monsters!


So here's July going backwards from today:


July 13th (today)
I mostly cleaned this morning while the kids played Lego Harry Potter...I'm so sick of Lego Harry Potter...I could vomit frogs.
Then we took Madalyne to Basketball Camp...I shall not be posting pics of b-ball camp because Miss M HATES it!!  With a passion that you would not believe....she cried all the way there today (her second day)...so I broke down, sucked up our $35.00 loss and told her she never, ever has to take her princess bottom back there again..after a few sniffles, I got..."Thanks Mom, can we go get ice cream now".   As I am NEVER one to say no to an excuse to get ice cream...we had "Madalyne hates basketball and never,ever, ever has to play it again Sundaes from McDonald's".


Then we went home and got attacked by KILLER WASPS!!!  I could not figure out where they were coming from at first...then I found the biggest, hugest couple of wasps nests ever...(look in the top corners...eek)!!

So we decided to never walk in our front door again.......
O.K. actually Brian used the power washer and blew those suckers down a few hours later.....sharp shooting Tex!


While we are on the subject of the front of our house...we learned a valuable lesson this year...whatever this darn plant is in the front yard..it was a LOT smaller last year when we dug the thing out (or at least..we thought we got rid of it)....apparently...it will NOT die...and to add insult to injury, it's a least 4 times bigger!!  Brian's going to have to bring an excavator home to pull the sucker out!  (except we are kind of afraid to try and get rid of it...what if it comes back next year even bigger...and eats one of the dogs.....)

But our Apple tree in the front yard looks awesome and has a ton of apples on it!

I'm not sure if I posted any pictures of us planting our first garden (and its a secret garden because its planted on the empty lot next to us....so...shhhh)
Here's a pic the day we planted May 17th.........when we seriously and innocently misjudged just how much we were planting..

O>M>G>----------> look at it now--------->

It's gone MAD!!!  The pumpkins actually BLEW-OUT the back left corner of the fence and are taking over the entire neighborhood...ok..that's a bit of an exaggeration...but just barely.  We've already gotten a bunch of little tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and one pepper...there are at least 7 spaghetti squash almost ready....and I'm not sure how many tomatoes Brian thought we needed....but he planted enough for Heinz to call us for this year's ketchup supply....seriously.


Anyway...so after spending hours in the garden weeding and then making dinner...(Madalyne had her friend Will over)...we all went outside and played soccer for a little while....needless to say...Bootsie and I weren't much help...but we did manage to step in a giant pile of dog poop..so that was great.

By the way...that's Murphy who has apparently become part horse...he's 12 weeks old and weighs 30 pounds!!!  Help me.


Then we gave both dogs a bath.....both dogs.....the kid's bathroom will never be the same.
Then Daphne vomited all over my dining room rug....3 times...it will never be the same.
Then I opened a bottle of wine and begin this blog entry....lets see if the bottle makes it to the end....or if it will be empty....smart bets are on empty....it's been that kind of day.


July 12th---


I slept most of the day....I worked the night before...I was grouchy mommy.


Madalyne cleaned up the living room for me...this is frightening..in a HOW did she do this...David Blaine kind of way:

Notice the small basket at the bottom...I mean that took some serious talent...and about 2.5 seconds for her brother to come over and knock it down...of course.


So she came upstairs to take a nap with me...which apparently means that she needs her special yellow blanket, her blankie, her every stinking stuffed Goofy ever made (all Gramma Carol's doing) and a few books...to read to me....as I'm trying to fall back to blessed sleep....

July 11th----


I worked...it was busy...very busy like it has been every night for weeks!  The kids and Brian worked hard too...playing in Brian's friend Mike's beautiful pool....all day...yeah, they've got it rough...

I'm not bitter though...not at all....


July 10th---


I worked...they went swimming again...this time at Mr's Rockwell's pool...with Brian's mom.


July 9th---Despicable Us!!


I've been working so much by this point, I wanted to have a special day with the kids....and do some things that I love to do also...so we went to IHOP for lunch (kids choice) and they were all decked out for "Despicable Me".....the kids ate cinnaminions and drank minionaides!
The twinkie things with eyeballs are "minions" of Dr. Gru (which I am now calling my sister.....but only in my head..)

Madalyne loved her minionaide----red/white/blue lemonaide with sprinkles on the top....so gross.
But...Zach loved his too...so I guess in their world..it was awesome stuff :-)  Also...I don't know if the guy behind Madalyne was just scratching his eye...or intimating at something else entirely......

Then we went to one of my favorite places on earth; where the kids got "prizes"...(also the work of Gramma Carol....anytime we go anywhere..."Am I going to get a PRIZE"?? is the first thing they want to know)  These kids have gotten so many "prizes"...one would have thought they'd solved world hunger or world peace...but no, they are actually just unbelievably spoiled.....and that's ok.





and then to the library...another one of our all time favorite places!
and then to----



The Chief!!!  for ice cream....the single best ice cream around!!  This week's homemade flavor was Pina Colada....sooooo good!!  Interesting side note...what do you think Zach's favorite flavor would be????


It happens to be raspberry....not kid friendly blue raspberry...but red raspberry...strange.


Then we picked up Daddy and we went to see Despicable Me...in 3D...it's awesome!! The kids loved it and have been running around yelling, "it's sooooo fluffy!!!!!" for days......days I tell you,  all day...everyday.


This happened to be an awesome day!!


July 8th-
I worked the night before...so I slept...the kids made everything with Legos you can possibly think of...and left them in the middle of every floor in every room that you can possibly think of.


July 7th---I worked..it was miserably busy...


July 6th---I worked...it was miserably busy...


July 5th---We played around here...walked the dogs..cleaned..nothing fun...but good just to be together.


July 4th---Happy 4th of July!!!
I slept for the first part (because I worked 16 hours the night before)...Brian and the kids went to church...then we all got ready for the picnic, games and fireworks at our church (First United Methodist)  Brian and I volunteered to bring pies, chips and to help out at the different stations...it was hot, rainy and busy but fun!!

That's Madalyne...she was picked to go on stage as part of the magic show.....hmmm...maybe this is where she picked up that ability to stack a million toys.....

Zach and Madalyne in the moon bounce....no....Bootsie and I did not jump in....but I did enjoy some delicious pie as I watched them....

Honestly...that's about as hard as I worked the whole time.....Brian somehow got suckered into helping to put the moon bounce away....put it away....into a tiny little bag.....one of the highlights of my day :-)

Goofy kids...eating pie, cookies, cake, ice cream....it's amazing they sat still for the fireworks...oh yeah...they didn't...not even one tiny bit.

Zach with his balloon sword and turtle....really...its a sword...sheesh...

getting ready for fireworks...I swear next year...I'm going to get a bunch of those stupid glow things from Oriental Trading Co....and sell them myself...those people have a great racket going...3 glowy things for $5!!!  I think you can get like 150 glowy things for $2.50 at Oriental Trading.com.....Hmmmmmm......


Fireworks!!!

The fireworks are from Black Squirrel Golf Course and they are awesome!!


The only drawback is that we were parked less than 2 miles from our house and it took us almost 2 hours to get home!!!  I thought Brian was going to lose his mind...apparently "we should have ridden our bikes...I could have just taped that boot to your pedal" yeah...right, and we could have strapped the pies to my head.....but notice....here we go with the duct tape again!!


Then we went to Burger King (Bleech)...Burger King is the ONLY place open at 12:30 AM on the 4th (i guess really the 5th at this point) of July.  I wish someone could explain to me why it is that whenever you spend the day outside eating hot dogs, hamburgers, chips then pie and ice cream...hours later...you feel like you didn't eat a meal that day...weird....but true.


Still...it was a great 4th!!


July 3rd----I worked...one of the worst days ever at my job.....the emergency room was hopping busy...I was there for 16 hours.


Brian and the kids were having a great time at Mike's pool again....


I'm still not bitter...really....I'm not...at all...bitter.

That is either Madalyne or Snoopy's Red Baron going down the slide....

You tell me....I have no idea what's going on with this kid....but he certainly has plenty of floating devices if he gets in a jam....

Cowabunga!!!


They do have a great time out at Mike's house..:-)


July 2nd----I worked....it sucked....there's a general theme going on here....it has just been unusually busy and people are hot and cranky and possibly a bit stinky...that's all I'm saying.


July 1st....the day we took the dogs to the park...see previous post.


so all and all...its been a busy but fun month so far...and we still have camping and Cedar Point with Uncle Andy to look forward too!!  


Hope your July has been great so far!!-


-Wendy