I said I’d be back Monday, but a family vacation happened. Brian and I flew home on Saturday, so all of us slept in our own beds for 2 nights before we left again. Brian actually took a week long vacation, and we left on Monday to head over to Kings Island. We planned on just hanging out in our room and relaxing that evening, but the room was not so nice. We chose to save $10 a night and opted for the Red Roof Inn, instead of the Super 8. Note to self-pay the extra $10! Anyway, we decided to head down the road to check out the Bass Pro Shop. A good time was had by all, and three out of five of us walked out with new shoes. HHmmm…..
All of us were hungry, and Wednesday was going to be Brian and my 14th wedding anniversary. We knew we’d be busy at the parks so we decided to do a nice dinner early. We found this very nice Seafood restaraunt, and the food was great. Zach had the fried crawfish, Matthew had catfish, and Brooke had shrimp. Brian ordered the calamari for an appetizer and we had a little fun with letting them eat it before we told them what it was. Evil, I know!
On Tuesday we opened up Kings Island, and left 10 hours later. Matthew was 2 inches shy of being able to ride most of the big rides, so Zach and Brian paired up and did the roller coasters. I got away with only riding Vortex, and one of the indoor coasters with Zach. Matthew kept saying “I love Kings Island!” He got to meet SpongeBob and Scooby Doo, which was truly a highlight! There was very little wait time to get on the rides, so I was thrilled with that. We pretty much walked onto everything except the Rugrats Reptar ride in Nickelodeon.
The highlight for me was finally getting to do the Xtreme Sky flight. I’ve always wanted to do it, but never could get anyone to try it with me. When we walked by and saw the sign that it was only $5 instead of $20, I took that as a sign. This is where they hook you up, and put you on a zip line that goes up 160 feet in the air, yep that’s 16 stories, and you pull the rip cord and it’s like sky diving and hang gliding. So Awesome, I’ve always wanted to do it. I convinced Zach and Brooke to do it with me. We did have to wait for a while because they only had one side running. When we finally got close, they started putting the special suits on us and asked who would be the one to pull the rip cord. Since I was the biggest, I had to be in the middle, so it had to be one of the kids. Brooke immediately volunteered Zach, and he agreed. We got up on the platform and they were hooking us all together when Brooke decided she didn’t want to do it. It was up to Zach and me now.
We started ascending, and boy was it high! It took awhile to get all the way to the top, and part of me was thinking/screaming in my head, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, RISKING YOUR LIFE AND YOUR SONS!!! But the exhilaration won out, Zach pulled the rip cord, and we were flying. Flying through the air was so awesome. We both had so much fun. What a memory.
The next day we went to the water park. Brian, Zach and I all burned the bottom of our feet on the concrete, so that made walking and waiting in line on those horrible rubber mats terribly painful. Matthew had a blast riding down those huge slides all by himself. He was making up for being a little short the day before. We stayed for about 5 hours, then went back to the room for a nap. Feeling a little rested, we decided to go back to the park until they closed. The big boys rode the racer and the Beast, while Brooke, Matthew and I made it to the Monster and the Fairly Odd Coaster. We saw the fireworks and then headed out.
I was thoroughly exhausted, and so were the kids. They almost fell asleep at dinner! We were all excited to sleep in our own beds on Thursday night, even if Brooke and I had to get up early to get her on the bus to cheer camp. Zach slept in until 10:30 on his 10th birthday, and Matthew didn’t get up until 11:00.
Summer vacation is coming to an end quickly. I wish it could go on and on. It doesn’t seem like we’ve had much time.
