Roaring Springs

Friday evening Curtis and I were talking about what our plans were for Saturday and I said the only thing I had was going fabric shopping with Nikki and his mom for her shirt she's going to sew. Nikki didn't have to work on Saturday,. Curtis mentioned the idea about doing something with the kids and then I thought how about Roaring Springs? How often is Nikki going to have a whole day off after all? Jack and Charlotte had earned free passes through a reading program at school and because Garrett is hard of hearing he received in the mail a flyer that July 11th was Deaf Awareness Day at Roaring Springs and that we could get $13 off of each ticket. It was perfect timing! 

We also decided it would be nice for the oldest 3 kids to have a friend that they could run around with at the park while Curtis and I watched the little girls. Secretly we contacted the friend's parents before telling our kids about it. We wanted to make sure it was going to pan out with everyone having a friend. When I finally texted Nikki about Roaring Springs because she was just getting off work at the time, she said what about fabric shopping? I said would you rather go fabric shopping or go to Roaring Springs? ;)  Nikki was able to bring her best friend Angie, however Angie didn't get to stay the whole day since she had to work. She ended up leaving around 4pm and her mom picked her up. We arrived at the park around 10:20am. It opened at 11:00am but we were able to get in early to get our locker and get ready. Most of us had already put sunscreen on at home. Garrett had his friend Austin and Jack had his friend Rhett. Our tickets were good for us to stay until 8:00pm so that's what we did, although Nikki was ready to go around 5 or 6 since her friend had left. They all had so much fun though! Some had so much fun that they didn't stop to put sunscreen as often as they should so of course they got burned. I think Garrett, Austin and Nikki got it the worst. They are learning painfully that it would have been worth it to stop and put sunscreen on. I totally get it though, I've been there and done that so many times! Jack and Rhett were smart and wore swim shirts all day.

It was nice that the oldest kids were able to go on all the rides that they wanted. Curtis and I took turns watching Alice and Charlotte. They had the kiddie pool roped off to where you couldn't just hop in anywhere, you had to enter and exit at one end of the pool (they were counting how many people enter and exit because of COVID). We totally think they should make this permanent! Last year we had a hard time keeping track of Charlotte because she would just hop out of the pool from anywhere and take off. It was so much easier having one area to enter and exit. Alice didn't really do much but she did go on a few small slides in the kiddie pool. However, we managed to talk her into going down the big racing ridge slide, where four sliding lanes are next to each other and everyone gets their own lane and races down on a blue mat with handles. I was surprised that they didn't have a height restriction. We didn't learn that until after Nikki, Charlotte and I went down while Curtis and Alice watched us. Then I learned Alice could so she said she wanted to do it. Charlotte was mad though because we forced her to go on the ride again when she wanted to go to a different pool. Since there were only four lanes and 5 of us I went down with Alice and Charlotte. I was in the middle. Curtis and Nikki came down after us. Alice said it was fun but that she did not want to do it again. So cute! Other than that ride the only other slide I rode on was the family ride where up to five people can sit in a tube and ride down a twisty slide. It was called Mammoth Canyon. I did it twice. Charlotte loved that ride! Curtis was also able to do that one and another called Avalanche. Curtis and I were content though with not feeling the need to ride all the big slides this year. The oldest three kids had their friends so they could do just that and we watched the girls. It was nice.

This is what Garrett's back looks like today. He's been going shirtless every day. I wish it were that easy for girls! 

We packed food in a cooler and in the van so that we could eat lunch in the parking lot. We picked a spot by the grass and trees.

The girls and us were hungry a lot earlier than we had planned so the four of us ate by ourselves and later I took the boys out. I didn't think to get a picture of the older kids though.

This year Curtis and I both wore a shirt all day long because we really didn't want to get burned. I think we also put sunscreen on 3 times. Yay, it worked! No sunburn for us! The girls were pretty much burn free as well except under Charlotte's eyes got a little red.

We were all so worn out the next day that we slept in. Thank goodness it was a home church day! When we do go to church we have 9am Sacrament meeting. We spent a lot of time relaxing on Sunday.

Monday (yesterday) I did some deep cleaning in the girls room and I finally brought in the toy buckets and bag that have been hiding in the garage for months. I was able to go through the buckets first while the girls were swimming in our small pool out back with their neighbor friends. So I was able to get rid of a bunch of little toys and some stuffed animals. Now that the girls have big beds I decided that Charlotte's big stuffed dog and Alice's big stuffed bear could sit on the feet end of their bed. That left lots more room for the smaller stuffed animals in the corner net.

In the evening we took Curtis's sister Shauna and her husband John out to dinner as payment for their help on our patio last spring. We took them to the Indian Creek Steakhouse in Caldwell, the same place we ate for our anniversary in June. Their food is really good! We especially love their appetizer of BBQ'd shrimp. I'm not a huge shrimp fan but I LOVED these! I didn't get a picture of us but I did however get a picture of a sign that was by the front door that made me laugh.

Today I finished reading Little House in the Big Woods and while reading toward the end of the book I realized that I remembered these stories I was hearing and remembered that I had read this first book last summer as part of my summer reading program through the library. I thought that I had started reading the book and then for some reason didn't finish but nope, I did finish it! I just didn't read any more of the Little House books after that because for the program I was supposed to read different types of books. I can't believe how much work they had to do just to be self sufficient and survive back then. We have it so good today! I'm excited to read the rest of the books!