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Highlight of the Week
This week has been full to the very brim. It’s been so long, but also so short. The days have simply flown by & in some ways, last weekend feels like it was months in the past instead of just a few days ago.
We left last weekend for a trip to New England to – yep, you guessed it – ride more roller coasters. We visited 3 new parks across Connecticut & Massachusetts & had a wonderful time as a family (I have a blog post coming about that trip this coming week!). Then, the day after we got home, we went to Idlewild Park & Soakzone for the 87th annual Norwin Community Picnic – it was a perfect, beautiful day. (I already blogged about that day here!)
And now we’re back on the road headed to the Lake House! We’ve literally been home this week just long enough to do laundry, empty suitcases, & repack them. The entire month of August is going to be this way (packed to the brim) and if you think we’re crazy – the answer is yes, we are pretty much are.
Yes, This Happened
- So, like I said, we visited 3 new amusement parks last weekend & the beginning of this week: Quassy, Lake Compounce (which is a sister park of Kennywood), and Six Flags New England. We had great experiences at all of the parks (look for reviews & tip/trick posts coming soon!) and we’re so thankful that we were able to make another “roller coaster riding trip” before the summer ends. Can you believe that most amusement parks (in our area of the country) have regular summer operating hours coming to an end in the next few weeks? I can’t even wrap my head around that one.
- Our first stop of our New England trip was Quassy: a small Knoebels-type park (meaning, it’s a free admission park – you just pay for tickets to ride rides). Braelynn rode her first “big” roller coaster there!! She has ridden every “kiddie-coaster” at every park we’ve been to this summer, but Quassy has a wooden coaster called “Wooden Warrior” that the height requirement is just 40″ tall. Braelynn is just a tiny bit shy of 42″ tall – so she was able to ride!! You’ll have to stay tuned for the full story (and lots of fun photos) when I write my post about our trip! In a nutshell: she loved it & it was a great experience!!
- On our way home from New England (it’s about an 8 hour drive), we experienced a bit of a “situation”. We were about 90 minutes from home when Leander got very quiet. He had been cooing & chattering with Braelynn, but suddenly things got silent in the backseat. Derrick & I didn’t even really notice until the smell of poop suddenly overwhelmed the car. I glanced back at the backseat & instantly jumped back there – yelling at Derrick, “We need to pull over, now!” (To which Derrick replied, “Who’s throwing up?”) Leander had had a bit of a diaper explosion & as it pooled in his carseat, his chubby little hands found it & he proceeded to squish it everywhere and he was attempting to eat it (hence me jumping into the backseat). I pinned his hands down (getting myself covered in poop at the same time) and held him there until we were able to stop. It was a gigantic mess, to say the least. We cleaned everything up the best we could, but oh wow, it was awful. It succeeded in turning my stomach completely over & I wasn’t able to eat anything the rest of the night – it was awful. Thankfully, Leander thought the whole thing was quite hilarious (and looking back, we’ll always remember our New England trip as “the one with the poop”) but oh my, let’s not do that again!
- We stayed in the most amazing hotel this trip! Since the 3 parks we were going to were in close proximity to one another, we were able to stay in one hotel for 3 nights. I love finding good Priceline deals & this one was the best yet! I found us a studio-suite at a Hyatt for just $90 a night! We opened the door when we arrived & you would have thought that we’d just entered a castle: Braelynn couldn’t stop going on & on about how “HUGE” the room was & how beautiful it was! It was amazing & I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to go back to staying in small little 2-star hotel rooms – yikes!
Feeling Blessed
I know our lives are a bit crazy. I mean, looking at what we do from the outside must look absolutely insane – carting two kids across multiple states in order to ride roller coasters & create content for a YouTube channel? It’s a bit crazy, yes. But, it’s so much fun! But, it’s also exhausting! Like seriously, I’m so so tired (mostly because on top of running around riding coasters & visiting amusement parks, I still have a business to run too – oh and keeping 2 little kids alive – ya know). I wouldn’t trade it for the world though & know that in just a few weeks, everything is going to slow way down & suddenly we’ll be wishing for another trip. So, I’ll take the “being tired” – we’re making incredible memories & working toward Derrick’s big dreams & I wouldn’t have it any other way.
