Our Excellent Adventure with Katie and Ryan...

Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely head outside in the summer. I burn (in the shade) and don't do very well in the relentless Midwest heat and humidity. However, the Littles are MUCH more active than Meggie ever was and sitting around in the AC all summer just ain't cutting it for them. (I tell Meggie ALL the time that she was NOT good training for these two hooligans...she was just to EASY a kid to raise!)

So I agreed to get season passes to Kings Island Amusement Park if my family agreed not to force me to go there in the heat of the day. Fair trade, right?

We decided to try out the park on the last day of school. Gotta celebrate on that day, right?! I haven't been to KI since I was a kid so we invited our friends, Katie and Ryan, and their incredibly adorable kids to join us the first time we went. (They are also season pass holders.) I figured it would be easier to get the "lay of the land" with someone who has been at the park recently.

Now, we all know that I take lots of pictures. (In fact, when Meggie was getting her photo board ready for her graduation party -- which I still need to blog about, I know! -- she remarked how surprised she was that she had so many pictures to choose from. I guess she thought I turned into the Mamaparazzi after Carson and Molly arrived. WRONG! But I digress...)

Even though we are season pass holders and can head to KI pretty much any time we want to, I decided to bring the camera for our "maiden voyage" and act like a total tourist. I promised all in attendance in our group that I wouldn't bring the camera ever again. I don't think they believed me.

The kids started off slow...
...on the swings ride, which made Molly very happy! (She's not much of a thrill seeker, that's for sure.) And speaking of happy...
...look at the smile on that beautiful baby! That is Mia (Katie and Ryan's youngest) and she is, hands down, the happiest baby I have ever had the pleasure of spending long amounts of time with. I don't honestly think she ever cries. After the swings, we headed to the bumper cars. Ellie (Katie and Ryan's middle child) was super excited to be able to ride this...
...'cause she's so tiny, she's too short to ride most of the rides that interest her. Molly was also happy...
...'cause she got a purple bumper car. (It's the little things that make Molly happy.) The kids had a blast on this ride...
...and none of them got stuck in a corner, unable to get free. (Was it just me that happened to EVERY time I rode the bumper cars as a kid??)

The best part of coming to KI with Katie and Ryan was that Ryan and Kevin...
...did ride duty (getting the kids on and collecting them afterward) while Katie and I got to talk! After taking a few silly pics of my gorgeous girls...
...the kids headed over to ride the little cars. Molly immediately grabbed Hudson (or "Hug-Sit" as the thought his name was)...
...for their first official car date. (FYI, Katie and Ryan, I am a HUGE fan of arranged marriages. We'll talk later...) When I tried to get a picture of them both looking at me...
...it was clear that Hudson needs to spend more time around me so we can work on his photogenic skills. (I mean, Molly not only LOOKED at me for that pic, she POSED!) Ellie was cracking us up on this ride...
...as she just chatted up that poor girl that got put in a car with her. Our little social butterfly! (Carson wasn't on this ride...Daddy took him off to ride the big, scary rides for a while. Thankfully, Ryan handled ride duty nicely all by himself.)

After I took this picture of Meggie holding Mia...
...I decided to go straight home and make her a tee shirt that says, "This is NOT my baby!" (Katie, take that baby back from my teenager! People are starting to stare!) Ever the skilled babysitter...
...Meggie could easily snuggle with Mia and still text with her friends. What a multi-tasker, huh?! We rested on this bench waiting to watch Carson and Daddy...
...who were in line to ride THIS frightening contraption of a ride.
Molly was a bit nervous for her big brother. In this picture...
...Carson and Daddy are in the last pair of seats (if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can pick 'em out). While I wouldn't ride that thing for anything in the world...
...Carson's exact quote was, "THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!"

We next headed to the log flume ride. Katie and I decided to sit this one out with Mia and Ellie, but everyone else headed into the line. I stood in just the precisely perfect picture point (we saw "Mr. Popper's Penguins" on Friday...if you've seen it, that will make you chuckle) to capture my family's reaction. I practiced on numerous other riders, catching the perfect shot every time. However, when my husband and dear children hit the big hill...
...THIS was the shot I got?!?! Ugghhh!! Needless to say, that splash...
...soaked my family to the bone! (We're not sure if Meggie is sad about getting soaked or about that atrocious farmer's tan of hers.) After that ride, the Littles grabbed the map...
...to find us the closest snack stand. Ice cream and dough pretzels were shared...
...while Hudson and Carson mulled over the map. By the way, thought I'd get some pics of the adults in this post...
...and I just did! The following two pictures were taken literally minutes apart...
...and you can see that we went from day to night right there. Our last stop was riding the big train. I made a big mistake letting Molly take a picture of Katie and Mia on the train...
...'cause then Carson wanted to take a picture...
...of Ryan and Ellie. Seeing Carson and Molly use the camera, Hudson wanted to take a picture...
...of Ellie's t-shirt. Then Ellie wanted to take a picture...
...of Hudson's right arm and the back of Meggie's neck?! This has GOT to stop! Some more silliness...
...and the requisite "tourist" family pictures...
...and our evening was concluded.

Thanks so much to Katie and Ryan (and the kids) for joining us on this excellent adventure. Once Ryan rehabs that bum shoulder of his, we WILL be doing this again!!