Once in the Year

When May rolls around, we know that something wonderful is right around the corner:  our annual trek to Kings Dominion for their HEAV-sponsored Homeschool Day!  This is something that we literally look forward to all year; and if I had a dollar for every time during this past year Tobin, in particular, asked, "When are we going to Kings Dominion?", I would have been able to buy the tickets for all of us and have gas money left over besides!  :)

Last Friday was the long-awaited day, and what a blast it was!  Here, in bullet points and lots of pictures, is a report of our day.  :)

* This was Moriah's first trip of any length, and she did fabulously.  Slept, ate, rode (in the van and in the stroller) like a champ.  Perfect!

* Because we were riding in the Big White Van that has a cassette player (remember those?), Jeff pulled out some old tapes for us to listen to.  On the way, he introduced the boys to Carman, which brought back SO many memories for me.  Between the music and our destination, I was swept back to youth group days when Carman's music was so popular...and when I went to Kings Dominion (and to Busch Gardens, another amusement park in Virginia) with my youth group.  Ah, memories!

* I tried to pack light for our trip, since it was only for the day and not overnight.  Still, I ended up with FIVE bags: a bag of snacks to eat in the car, a bag of books and entertainment items for the ride, a bag with extra clothes for all the boys in case they got wet on the water rides and wanted a dry set of clothes to ride home in, the diaper bag with everything Moriah might need in it, and a small backpack to hold just the essentials when we went into the park.  Besides that, there was a thermos of Quick Refresher and our big double stroller.  So much for packing light.  It's a really good thing we have such a big van!  :)

* As we were driving, I spent some time reading to the boys from By the Shores of Silver Lake (by Laura Ingalls Wilder, of course!...as if anyone doesn't know that).  ;-)  What is it about those books that make them so enjoyable?!  The amazing part is that I didn't even cry once when I was reading it, and I ALWAYS cry when I read those books!  :)

* Since this is our third year doing this, we've developed some familiar routines.  For example, we always start our day by walking to the left in the park, going to the kiddie rides and the roller coaster formerly known as the Scooby Doo, and then walking across the park and under the Eiffel Tower to get to the log ride and that section of the park, etc.  We don't need the map much anymore because we're starting to remember where things are.  :)  We also have the routine of staying at the park for several hours, then taking a break to leave the park and go across the street to Burger King for lunch, then returning to the park until it closes.  (By the way, previous posts from 2010 are here and here, and 2011 is here.)

* As soon as we got there, Jeff, Josiah, and David started riding the roller coaster formerly known as the Scooby Doo (which I, by the way, always enjoy going on, but didn't get to this year because both times we were in that section of the park, Moriah was hungry and needed me).   I needed to nurse Moriah, so I sat on a bench to do that (the same one I sat on to nurse Shav when we went in 2010).  :)  And Jeff's mom (who was a trooper all day, never complaining about the walking or anything else) helped Shav and Tobin to ride on some kiddie rides.  It was super helpful to have her there, especially when I needed to nurse Moriah and couldn't be available for the boys.  

* Tobin tried to make their airplane go up, so he pulled on the joystick as hard as he could, but it still barely lifted off the ground.  Murphy's Law as it applies to rides like these states that whichever airplane you choose will not work and will never gain altitude, even though everyone else's does.  ;-)

* This was the first year that all four boys could go on the bumper cars, and they ALL enjoyed it.

* I wasn't sure how Shav would do, but he got the hang of it very quickly.  Sometimes he would find himself stuck in a corner or sandwiched between other cars and he wouldn't seem to know what to do, but we would call to him, "Turn your steering wheel!", and he would, and then he would be unstuck.  :)

* I couldn't help myself:  I HAD to take pictures of Moriah while I was waiting for the boys.  :)

* This is a yawn, not a cry.  ;-)

* She was so patient and good, so content to hang out in the stroller and be wheeled around wherever we wanted to go.

* This is the only picture taken of me on that day.  :)

* David is always eager to be involved in whatever is going on, so when Tobin and Shav went on this little car ride, David wanted to go, too.  Of course, it didn't do anything exciting...

...and it didn't take too many turns around the circle before his happy smile...

...turned into a look of sheer boredom.  He's so dramatic about everything that we couldn't help laughing a little at him.  :)

* Shav, with his look of intense concentration, and Tobin both really enjoyed the ride though.  :)

* The rest of us enjoyed watching them!  See Grandma Fisher there in the background?

* She was a great cheerleader for the boys as they rode along.  :)

* More Moriah pictures.  (I really couldn't help myself.)  ;-)

* Just like on the cars, David started riding on the swings with a big smile, then grew more and more bored as time went on and the swings slowly--so slowly--revolved.  But even if he didn't really enjoy the ride, he seemed to enjoy the opportunity to make us laugh again.  He's a little performer, that one.  ;-)

* Like last year, we wanted the boys to be easy to spot, so we dressed them in similar (but not matching) shirts.  Red was the color of the day, and it did make it easier to quickly find them.  I don't know how many times I did a head count that day!  That's what mothers do, right?  :)

* That yellow thing David is hugging is Woodstock, in case you couldn't tell.  :)

* The one and only ride we got Grandma Fisher to go on was the old-fashioned cars.  She doesn't care for roller coasters, did NOT want to get wet, and even the carousel (which she used to love) makes her too dizzy for comfort these days.  But she did agree to ride along on this car ride.  :)  This, by the way, was probably the longest line that we encountered all day.  Most rides, we could just walk right on; but a few involved a very short wait.  We were fortunate in that way!

* I like this picture (below) because behind the car that Josiah is getting ready to drive, I can see David being measured to see if he was tall enough to drive a car, too.  He was--by a hair.  :)

* Josiah was so excited to drive, but he had an awful time controlling the car.  Of course, it couldn't get off course because of the bar running through the center of the path; but from what I was told, he kept bumping into that bar and couldn't get the hang of how to steer smoothly.  From my own experience on such a ride when I was much, much younger, I can sympathize.

* From what I was told, David did better than Josiah at steering; but whether that was because his car had easier steering or because of his own knack for it, I'm not entirely sure.  ;-)

* Another Moriah picture.  (I told you I couldn't help myself.)  ;-)

* After the old-fashioned cars, we hit the water rides for a while; and I have no pictures of that.  I was too busy having fun and getting a little a lot wet!  The ride that soaked me the most was the Whitewater Canyon, which I went on one time with Josiah and David.  When that water splashed up, it was COLD; and we had so much fun laughing and screeching about it.  Good times.  :)  The ride I went on the most was the log ride; and believe it or not, all the boys had a blast on that one this year - even Shav!  He's a wild man, I tell ya.  :) The funniest thing was that after we had come down the big hill and gotten through that splash, we thought we were in the clear and wouldn't get wetter; but there were geysers just ahead that people on the outside of the ride could put a quarter into and then have water to spray the people on the ride.  Jeff--but especially his mom!--took advantage of that to soak us.  Sometimes Jeff's mom would even get someone else--a complete stranger--to man the geyser; and she would stay further back and act all innocent.  The first time that happened, she calmly waved to us with a big smile on her face; and I thought, "Whew!  At least we won't get sprayed this time!"  And then - boom!, a big blast of water in my face.  I looked at her again, and she was cracking up.  Hysterical!  I think that was the part of the day that was the most fun for her - that ol' trickster!  :)

* Another ride that all the boys enjoyed was the carousel, and I'm so glad that even Josiah and David aren't too old to appreciate it.

* You can tell that Josiah's imagination was soaring right here because obviously he was on a war horse, charging into battle.  Or maybe he was in a horse race and had just surged to victory.  Or something equally as dramatic.  I love that boy!  :)

* We did other rides that I didn't get any pictures of, including the big swings (which Josiah and David and I rode on).  Part of the day, I wanted to take pictures to remember this adventure by; but part of the day, I just wanted to soak in what was happening and not even think about the camera.  It was a satisfying balance.

* One of the most dramatic moments of the day came when we had left Kings Dominion and had pulled across the street to prepare for the drive home with some Slurpees.  We were in the big van, so Jeff, knowing that he would need extra room for it, carefully chose a parking spot that was off to the side of the building.  There was a smaller car parked perpendicular to our van (parked in a place that wasn't actually a parking spot, as it turned out); and Jeff was concerned that it would hit our van when it backed up, so he pulled our van up as far as he could.  He and his mom went into the store, the owner of the smaller car came out, and next thing I knew, BANG, it had hit our van.  It wasn't going fast, of course, since it had just started backing up; but it was a collision, so I sent Josiah into the store to get Jeff to come out and talk to the driver of the other car.  She was very apologetic, and Jeff was gracious.  They quickly decided not to worry about it and not to involve any insurance companies, so she--with a big sigh of relief, I'm sure--drove away.  The good thing about having a not-so-new, not-so-fancy vehicle is that if the bumper gets a little scratched, you don't really care!!  :)

* After that, the drive home was rather anticlimactic; but that's a good thing.  We'd already had enough excitement for the day!  :)

* Now all we need to do is start counting down the days until next year's trip.  ;-)