Some friends of ours from church thought it would be fun to take the kids down to King's Island for opening day. After blocking out all the terrible memories of riding in the van for more than 10 minutes with our children, we happily said yes. So on Friday afternoon, we hopped in the car and after what seemed like an eternity (about 4 hours in real people time), we arrived.
The ride down was full of it's own adventures. Not leaving until almost 2 p.m. left me dreaming that my children would blissfully nod off and sleep most of the way down, but that wasn't the case. Dominic has been battling a cold/cough for a while and he tends to get a little phlemy (if that's a word). Needless to say, he coughed most of the way, and at one point I was holding a Rubbermaid bowl to him so he could toss his cookies & phlem (really french fries, mandarin oranges and chicken nuggets - WENDY'S), but we continued on.
After a rough night in a hotel room with 3 children three and under, we got up this morning wondering if today could get any worse. Luck was on our side and today was WONDERFUL! (Besides the tired kid meltdowns in the car on the way home!)
Christina rode her first roller coaster. It's called Little Bill's Giggle Coaster, and it's all she wanted to do when we first got there. I rode with her and the giggles really do come pouring out with every "hill"! She had a blast. I think Daddy was a little bummed her first coaster wasn't at CP, but once he saw how much she enjoyed it, he was thrilled. We were suckers and bought the pictures, I'll have to see what I can do to get them on here.
KI put in a new coaster this year. While we didn't ride, it was well worth standing and watching it run. We stood on a bridge and watched it come over head and down into some water. Dominic was so excited and would literally shake with "wow's" every time that we could have stood there all day. It was definitely a highlight (not the ride, Dominic's excitement any day!)
Ethan was a real trooper. He spent a majority of the day in the stroller. He did get to ride the train in the "boys" seat with Daddy and Bubba. Mommy and Sissy sat in our seat and "checked out our boys" so we had fun. Ethan did actually fall asleep and took a nice little nap in the stroller which was really cute (Christina and Dominic NEVER did this so it was a special treat for me). Other than his blow out poopy diaper that left him without any shorts on, I'd say he had a great day.
I did say shorts in that last sentence. It was absolutely beautiful today. It had to be in the high 70's and plenty of breezy sunshine. The kids wore their sun screen, and Dad and I are both wishing we would have put it on ourselves as well.
Anyway, here are some highlight pictures:
Dominic & Christina driving their car on the bridge. They thought this was the coolest!
Again, in the "carnival" (that's what it sounds like when Dominic says convertible).
Ethan asleep in the stroller. He missed out on the Lazy Town helicopter ride with his big sister and brother, but I'm sure he enjoyed his zzz's.
Christina saw Dora from up on the helicopters and told Bryan (after they had waited a half an hour) that she no longer wanted to ride, she wanted to go down now and meet Dora. Being the good dad that he is, he said no way in heck after he'd waited with them, but he made sure when they got off, they got to go meet her. Christina let Dora know she was coming by yelling to her from the helicopters the whole ride. This picture has Dominic, Christina, Daddy, Dora and Hunter.
You can't see it too well in this picture, but Dominic had a cheese & ketchup mustache from his chicken bites and french fries he was dipping in his sauces. Christina was just being her cutie patutie self.
Anyway, we're home after a long exhausting day. So I think it's time to hit the sack, the kids are zonked, and I think I'll be asleep before I make it upstairs!
