This summer I am bound and determined to make sure we spend lots of time together as a family. I know we spend more time together than many families since we work from home, but I’m thinking quality time…not quantity. I have often felt guilty come September when the kids are going back to school and I reflect on the summer and I realize that we didn’t quite do enough. Sure there are all the baseball games and days spent soaking up the sun in the pool. But there is so much more we could be enjoying together. Even if it is something as simple as taking our bikes to Wildwood, enjoying a picnic, or visiting the art museum. I haven’t been to the art museum in probably 10 years!
I’ve been printing monthly calendars from Hello Cuteness the past couple of years to keep track of all of our kids games, practices, and appointments any of us have. (The calendars used to be offered for free, unfortunately it looks like she is charging for them now. This summer I am making it my goal to add two or more activities a week for us to enjoy as a family. These first two weeks of summer break have been a bit of a challenge because the boys have baseball games 4 – 5 nights a week and Karli just wrapped up her dance season. As soon as June is over and the baseball season ends we should have an easier time scheduling lots of family time together.
First adventure for the summer was taking the kids to Cedar Point since my niece Emma was in town and she loves to ride all the roller coasters. We went on a day that was supposed to thunder storm which worked out perfectly because hardly anyone was there. We got on all the rides within 15 minutes – including the new Gatekeeper. It only sprinkled twice for about 20 minutes in which the roller coasters did close down for a few minutes. It was the best trip I’ve ever experienced at Cedar Point though in regards to it not being too humid or crowded.
Funny thing I ended up losing my voice from screaming on a few of the roller coasters. The older I get the more scared I seem to get!
Andrew, Chase and Emma all rode the Top Thrill Dragster. I rode it a few years ago and have no desire to ride it again, I’m too chicken. They were the real ride warriors!
Riding the Magnum!
Karli and Blake were too scared to get on most of the roller coasters. We did drag everyone on the Maverick though including Uncle Don who was about to crap his pants. He does not like roller coasters and I tried to tell him that the Maverick was a crazy one, but he thought it looked mild. His face was pretty hilarious afterwards. Blake just said “I’m done” after that one. :-)
The craziest part of the day was when we were getting ready to go home and the kids asked to play some games. Karli and Emma seen these cute cows that they wanted to try to win. Of course it was the game with the 3 cups that you had to knock down with one ball. Emma went first, $5 for 3 tries. When she knocked all 3 cups down on the third try we were all screaming with excitement. Ken and I instantly thought…Great we are going to spend a ton of money trying to win one for Karli now. Sure enough Karli takes her turn and she knocked down all 3 cups on her third try as well. We were cheering so loud at this point that everyone around us was starring. Then Chase wanted to win a Pokémon character by tossing a ball onto 100 cup tops. There were only 3 red ones and on his second toss he landed the ball on a red one. I mean what are the chances?! It was crazy! I mean usually you spend a huge amount of money and walk away with nothing and these kids all won the top prizes within minutes and only $15 spent. It was a blast trying to fit all those prizes into the car for the ride home.
It was the perfect day…other than me forgetting my video camera at home. Ugh!
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