SDC Weekend

Well, it's become a tradition on Columbus Day to head to Silver Dollar City to hang out with Josh's family from Texas, because they always drive up for the 3 day weekend. We went last year when Elena was just a tiny baby, only 4 weeks old, and had a great time. This year was even more fun!


Josh and I decided to go ahead and stay until Sunday evening so that we could relax a little more and have a bit of a vacation. The family from Texas is Shawn and Cara, and their boys, Collin and Aaron, plus Stacy and her daughter, Katie.


Friday night we had dinner at Mom & Dad's house, and celebrated Luke's birthday with Jess, Luke, and Leila. It was fun wathing Leila and Elena play together now that they are both old enough to actually interact. Laney did a pretty good job sharing her toys, too, which is nice! I think having her at a daycare definitely has some benefits. But, then again, she's not really to the age where they get really possessive yet, so I'm sure we'll have more trouble in the future! We stayed up late Friday night just telling stories and playing with the girls before we headed to bed to get some sleep before a long day at the park!

Miss Leila eating her dinner...

Playing with the bow from Luke's present... and her laptop! Leila loved the little piano, too. It was fun to watch them play, if not actually together, at least next to each other! :)

We spent all day Saturday at the park. Usually when we head to the park it's all grown ups, other than the babies. This time there were kids, and it's a totally different experience! The boys absolutely love the park, and having them around made us all feel like kids!

Two peas in a pod... the two in the middle AND the two in the front!! We all jammed in our minivan, the boys in the front, the little girls in the middle, and the big girls in the back! It was nice to have a vehicle we could put two car seats and 5 grown ups in!

Laney LOVED the park... because she got to eat and drink LOTS. Thanks to Aunt Jessica for teacher her how to drink out of a straw, now she goes crazy every time she sees a straw. But she was lovin' some peach smoothie in this picture!

And eating something else... lumberjack chips covered in cheese, I think... borrowed from Collin!

There are no words...

After we left the park, we went to this really neat place for dinner. It's called Dana's, and they're known for their burgers and shakes. They even have a burger called the Fat Burger that has a fried egg on it... heart attack on a plate, anyone? Anyway, it was a really fun place to go for dinner, and the burgers and shakes were awesome!!


After dinner on Saturday, we headed back to Springfield to watch the Tigers play OSU. We had Tivo-ed it so that we wouldn't miss any of it... though by the time we were done watching it at midnight, I kind of wished we'd missed it all!


Sunday we headed back to the park for a day of hard-core riding! There's a new part of the park that is full of "family friendly" rides. We spent a lot of time there, and Laney even got to ride on her first ride!! She rode the frog ride, and wasn't quite sure she liked it... I spent a lot of time bent over the seat talking in her ear telling her she was having a good time!

Mommy is clearly having fun... except that I was jammed in there and couldn't even get my knees under the bar, then I had to bend all the way forward to whisper in her ear that she was actually having a good time! She mostly liked it, except for one part that was a pretty big up and down, and she got freaked out every time. Oh well, it'll grow on her!

Now this was much more her style! Grandpa Looten won this basketball, gave it to Josh, and then Laney stole it! She and her cousin Aaron had lots of fun playing with it.

Since it was so nice for October, the water rides were a MUST! Even I rode the Lazy River, which is my favorite water ride. I did opt out of the American Plunge, because I really don't like the straight downhill rides, and the boat was PLENTY full with Grandpa Looten, Josh, Shawn, Katie, Aaron, AND Collin! So I stayed on camera duty and videoed while they rode. The line was so short (it wasn't that warm!) that they just stayed in the boat and rode it twice! They made quite the splash...

And looked like quite the drowned rats afterwards!! But they sure had fun!

While everyone else rode the American Plunge, Laney found her own water ride to play in: the water tree! This "tree" just kind of sprays out water, and she loved it! Notice the totally blurred hand!

Mmmm... water from a tree is delicious!
And, since I was videoing, I figured I might as well catch some adorable giggles!

Well, it was a great weekend, and pretty relaxing all around! It really is fun to go to SDC with kids, I can't wait until Elena is old enough to really ride rides and run around. I hope that she enjoys going there as much as Josh and I do! I guess if she grows up with it, she probably will...