Our Weekend Away! (From what??)

Earlier in the week when I realized the first day of school was only 2 weeks away and we hadn't been on a trip as a family of five, I decided to plan an impromptu mini vacation.

So began the contemplating of where we should go..... The Hawk wanted to go to an indoor water park 5 miles from our house. The Kangaroo was hoping for any place with giant roller costars, the Monkey had no idea what a vacation was and Dad wanted to go to the Ohio State Fair. The indoor water park is about 110 degrees inside and is packed full with so many people that I feared either the Monkey would get lost or the humidity would cause irreversible damage to my hair. Unfortunately Eli is a 1/2" shy of being tall enough to get on the roller coasters he fantasizes about and come on, the Ohio State Fair. Dad has obviously never been there. Each year I tell him the Ohio State Fair is nothing but 12 variations of the egg scrambler (a ride he refuses to go on because it makes him feel so sick), really smelly horses and cows, and we can't forget, hog calling contests. That, for me, is not a good time and certainly is not "time away." My thoughts were a Chicago Cubs game or Kelly's Island, neither of which were possible.

After much deliberations, we settled on the Six Flags park, Kentucky Kingdom, in Louisville. It was only 3 1/2 hours away, the tickets were reasonable (for an amusement park at least), the Kentucky Derby is in Louisville (the Hawk likes places associated with sporting events), and Kentucky Kingdom included amusement rides and a water park. There were a few other amusement parks closer, however they support "highway robbery" and therefore weren't an option.

So, off we were to Louisville, Kentucky. The drive down went well because the Monkey slept most of the way (even though we payed dearly for that later in the evening) and the Kangaroo only asked if we were almost there every other mile. The Hawk was even quiet. I brought along his summer homework books and threatened to make him do a page if he got on my nerves.

We spent the entire day at the park on Saturday bouncing from kiddie ride to kiddie ride. Since the Good Lord skimped on growth hormones when making the Monkey, Dad and I had to take turns cramming are long legs into the rides so that she could have some fun. We also spent some time in the water park swimming in the wave pool and watching the animals play on the kiddie slides. The Monkey refused to wait her turn to go down so at one point she came down laying backwards right behind the Hawk and her head was somehow completely under water on the slide and then landed head first in two feet of water. While it was a little scary it was also kind of funny seeing her coming down that slide like she was. After she landed she got right back up laughing and started back up the stairs, but not before we told her "NO MORE BIG SLIDE" (believe or not, she listened).

Then back to the hotel we went. On our way back, we drove up and down many streets looking for some ice cream. One big difference between Louisville and our neighborhood is the number of ice cream shops. We have several within a few miles of our house, but after 30 minutes of driving and trying desperately to keep the Monkey from sleeping, we settled on root beer floats from Wendy's (not my first choice).

When we got back to our hotel the bed-time battle began for another night. As hard as it was to keep her awake in the car you would have thought she would fall right to sleep in the hotel. Dad and I were looking forward to a quiet evening watching the Olympics in bed while the animals slept peacefully next to us. Instead however, we spent the entire evening telling the Monkey to quit moving and the kangaroo to stop crying for more space. You should have seen their bed and how much space he really had compared to the other two. Just ridiculous. Once they all finally did fall asleep, long after eleven, Dad and I had had enough and went to sleep ourselves. We knew we would need a good night sleep to get through the drive home.

The Monkey screamed as loud as she could for at least two hours of the drive, the kangaroo kept crying because his face was on the receiving end of the Monkeys backhand time and time again, but the Hawk still feared that homework and kept his mouth shut. I hadn't realized how effective the threat of homework was to him.

As tired as I am from being in such close quarters with them all weekend, we really did have a lot of fun. The Monkey had her hands in the air from the time we got in line for a ride until we got off it. The Hawk said many times that we needed to stay in kiddie land since that would be best for the Monkey when really he was terrified of the "big" rides and wanted an excuse to stay away from them, and then the Kangaroo turned blue and was shaking uncontrollably after only 5 minutes in the water (since he is so skinny, he chills very quickly). Also Dad didn't have his fish tanks or PlayStation football games to distract him resulting in his undivided attention all weekend, which I always enjoy. So all in all, the weekend was a big success, even though it wasn't much of a break or "time away." Our time away will come in two weeks when Dad and I spend the weekend at John and Martha's house in Erie, PA (John & Martha are the owners of a Bed & Breakfast we're staying at in Erie).

Here are a few pictures from our day at Kentucky Kingdom.

Here is my proof that the Hawk is terrified of rides. We are only about 10 feet off the ground.

One more thing, this is what my beautiful Monkey looks like as I write this. I can't believe she's mine.

Thank you for reading! See you next time.