July 15, 2014

We went to Lagoon for my birthday.  In traditional fashion, I always choose to spend the day with the kids somewhere fun, even if Lagoon sounds more like a kids birthday not a mom's.
I had never been in my whole life. And neither had Jake, and neither had any of our kids.
We picked a super hot day to go. And it took us a while to figure out where riders were or what we could ride. But once we found the kid rides we were good to go and had a blast!
The kids liked the Octopus ride, the animal train, the wild rapids ride (Jake and I made them each come on it with us- so they had to go twice). They hated the ladybug bop- which sounds harmless, but was a free fall ride.  I took Marianne, Kate and Sam on it, while Jake held Beth.  Marianne sat with me and was terrified.  When Sam got off he was crying, and despite Jake begging to go on the ride, Kate would not get on it again.  It has kind of become a joke in our house since how much they loved that Lady Bug Bop ride. Sam almost didn't ride the roller coaster either except Dad went with him and we thought it was a brag tag.  We rode rides all afternoon and past dinner  Fun enough we saw several old friends all over the park too.  My favorite part of the day was riding with Marianne on the Octopus ride or the carousel.  She picked the bench that rocked so we could all sit together with Dad and Beth.. Sneaking off with the two olders to ride all the water roller coasters after dinner while Jake took the little girls on the animal train.  Kate and Sam thought they were too cool, big enough to ride the bigger rides and because they had been on one earlier with Dad- knew everything and were telling me all about it.  Watching the Bethany down a giant lemonade and a giant slurpee.  And watching all the kids gets soaking wet at the end of the night in the splash pad. Even Beth- who had just been hanging out in a stroller except for the few rides she could ride, loved the splash pad.  She also walked down the carnival game alley with me and the game workers were just giving her prizes to hold without even playing jut because she was being adorable.  She walked away with that pink poodle and was in love. Although Lagoon was a lot of work, and a big expense I think we will try and repeat it every year.  It was so easy to get to, and a happy day all together as a family.  Which is all I ever want for my birthday so it was great.
Also for my birthday Jake and I went out on a date to a restaurant at The Homestead here in town the weekend before, he also made me a chocolate cake and let the kid decorateti.  It is a 12 year tradition that he is not letting go of which makes me grateful.  Jake also shocked me with a very nice new computer.  Which is officially the first really great surprise gift I think either of us has ever pulled off.  I also received flowers cards and picture from the thoughtful kids and lots of excitement on their part for me which I love to watch..  As well as other gifts, flowers, cards and treats from family and friends who I saw that week.  I don't know that I have every had such a flood of well wishes and tokens of love poured upon me as I did the few days surrounding my birthday and  I felt very blessed to have so many kind people in my life.