Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Aunt Leah's wedding weekend!














Ryan's sister, Aunt Leah, got married this weekend in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We left Friday morning with my sister Michelle in tow to help with the kids, and drove down to start the festivities! Friday was a long drive, a rehearsal at the aquarium, and a celebration dinner at Aunt Leah and Uncle Anthony's house. The food was delicious- shrimp and steak kabobs, salad, sweet potato rolls, and cajun rice. Mmm, mmm! The kids played in the coolers on the driveway "fishing for ice" (and cans, if you must know) but at least it kept them occupied for the greater part of the evening. Our accomodations were blessedly free since my sister has a good friend with a beach house, and everything went smoothly. I played flute for the wedding, and Ryan was a groomsmen so my sister was a lifesaver. The kids enjoyed dancing, especially Olivia who literally danced the night away, and the boys loved browsing the aquarium checking out the alligators and sharks. At once point, Jack was missing and we found him at the "touching" station with a blonde worker on each side of him! He's his Daddy's boy, that's for sure! He loved exploring the ray tank and the hermit crabs and starfish.
Sunday was Ryan's employee day at Kings Dominion, so we spend the day there (after another long ride in the car) and the boys rode their first roller coasters! I was shocked to discover that Jack was more of a thrill seeker than Sam, but they stayed true to my expectations in the bumper car arena. Jackson sat with his hands at 10 and 2, diligently going AROUND all the other drivers, and deliberately staying on the outskirts. Sam, however, took great pride in his battle cry as he rammed EverY.sINGLE.Kid. in a bumper car. He came out yelling "Mommy, I crashed into EVERYONE, I was bam, bam, I was crashing all over the place!" He didn't like "the mountains" on the roller coasters, though. He thought they were scawy.
Jackson's favorite ride was the Scooby Doo haunted house, and we had to run back across the park for him to ride it one last time before we left for the night.
Olivia was a trooper, and wasn't scared of a single thing, person, ride, etc. She rode her first merry-go-round, and a number of other small kids rides without blinking. In fact, after the first ride she screamed when we took her out because she wanted to go again. I'm sure I can find some pics of me at her age riding the rides, since apparently that was right up my alley!
There was no time for adult rides, and even thought I love roller coasters, I was okay with that. It's funny how easy it is to just WANT to do everything for your kids, isn't it? All in all, the weekend was a success.



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