Fourth

Nothing was on the schedule for the 4th of July weekend as of Friday morning. Sunday is a lame day for holidays in general, especially the outdoors kind of holidays. Matt had to work on Monday, so leaving town was out. Carey just had a brand new baby so there would be no family gathering. We were pretty much resigned to the fact that we would actually spend the holiday weekend like any other--at home.


But our lame planning skills were going to be thwarted. Matt's office advertises on our radio station and with that relationship comes a few perks. Perks like Disney on Ice tickets. Perks like tickets to Idlewild--a really fun amusement and water park about 1/2 hour from here. That's how we ended up doing something cool on Saturday.




Matt and I took turns riding rides with the kids. Norah was too small to ride most of the rides.

That's me looking totally calm as I climb into a ride with Jack and Norah on either side. A ride deemed safe for anyone old enough to walk.

See those two metal bars? That's all that's holding us in. No seatbelt. Still calm and happy...

Merr and Joel are smiling too. That's all before the ride goes 30 feet into the air and flips you upside down! In order to keep myself from falling out I had to hold on tight to the bars. How was I supposed to keep my 18-month-old from falling out?! I'm not easily flustered, but I was shaking like a leaf when we climbed out of that ride!

And the little princess loved every minute of it!

We had been at the park about 15 minutes when all of our kids insisted on buying cotton candy. Not one bag, of course. They each had to have their own.

This is what Dad's are good for, huh?

After the scary ride incident, I was ready to put the kids on something a little more tame.

I took the kids on the "rollo coaster". It was actually pretty scary. Do you think I've lost my nerve?

Sweet Norah was pretty patient waiting for her siblings in the stroller.

"Mom, can I spend all my money on drinks and snacks and stupid games that you can't win?"

"No, Joel."

"I hate you, Mom."

After that, we changed into our swim clothes and went to the waterpark side. Matt took the kids down a cool waterslide with a 25 minute wait.

They got under a huge wooden bucket of water as it tipped over...

See Matt in the middle with Norah in his arms? She didn't like it at all.

Then we took the kids over to the swimming pool for a while.

Merr was the only kid tall enough to ride the bumper cars.

The last ride we did was the "Loggin Toboggan" ride.

...And off to the concession stand for Icees and soft pretzels.

On Sunday we headed over to the local baseball stadium to watch the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra perform a free concert/tribute to the soldiers/fireworks show. It was outstanding.

Not too shabby for no plans, eh?

Happy Fourth!