Summer Excitement, Part 2

(Continued....after a loonnnngggggggg break)


Family Vacation #1 (Louisville, KY)

The children were very happy to do something more than simply appreciate nature. Rides at Six Flags provided a good day of fun. In fact, we could only do half of the park because it was so busy, so we went a second day to explore the water park. I enjoyed this area much more, despite the fact that I have an aversion towards the sun. Sofia and I were the first to go there as the rest was hitting the last of the rides they missed the previous day. Sofia enjoyed splashing around the edge of the wave machine. I took her out a few times when they got the waves really going. After enough spluttering, we visited the other water areas. Eventually the rest of the party caught up with us and we enjoyed the wave machine, lazy river, tube rides, etc. However, nobody braved the slides....

At some point, all things must come to an end. A lightning storm made it's way over the area and a very crowded park tried to make a quick getaway. This exposed a serious flaw in the park design. There was only one bridge connecting the two parts of the park and it was very narrow--not more than 3 adults wide. We eventually made it over and ran for cover as the rain POURED down. I braved the exit to get the car. I was completely soaked! I drove my way around the crowd and picked up the family--no working phones, so we had to time it out. Regardless of my impeccable timing, I don't think anybody else avoided the rain, so we all were pulling out extra towels to dry off as we made our way home.


Family Vacation #2 (St. Louis, MO)

On this week long trip, the primary goal was to visit Six Flags. It's the last thing we did, but it will be the first thing I describe.

Six Flags here is really not much different than the one in Louisville when it comes to rides and the water park, but we all agreed that the wave machine was much tamer. The layout of the park was much easier to navigate, but getting into the park and parking was fairly troublesome, for reasons I won't elaborate, to protect the guilty (and to avoid a possible lawsuit by Six Flags). We only spent a day here, as it wasn't very busy. Sofia and I spent the whole day at the water park (I do need the sun) and the rest did rides then came to hang out with us. Not much more to write about really.

Pictures really are worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to all of the other places that we visited--the city museum, the basilica, the arch (from a distance--no cramped ride for us), the science museum and Grant's farm. Some of these unexpectedly took the whole day, like Grant's farm. Some took less, but I found them all interesting, despite some kids groaning. We did fill in the time with eating out, lounging at the hotel and swimming in its pool, shopping (despite my groaning), watching a movie (WALL-E; that was Chelsea's highlight) and traveling through a variety of interesting (and sometimes scary) neighborhoods. Overall, it was a good time.

The only other thing that comes to mind is the time spent in driving. We did a LOT of that and our biscuits were always grateful to get out and walk around. When it comes to St. Louis's roads, it's like a group of civil engineers were sitting around, eating spaghetti and got inspired by how the noodles looked on their plates.

Okay, with that talk of Italian cuisine, I recall a nice place called Guido's (Spanish and Italian cuisine) in an area called "The Hill" on the west side of St. Louis, east of where we were staying. We discovered it after attending at Saint Ambrose. Although it was a little pricey, the food and spirits were very good. We actually did pick up the following night. For once, the whole family enjoyed a really good salad two days in a row!

Okay, enough about Louisville. We'll post some pictures, if Tara hasn't done it already, and provide other short stories.


Chelsea's Revival (Cedarville, OH)

Chelsea and some friends at Harmony Baptist Church attended a week long teen revival known as LIFT at Cedarville University. They had a lot of fun and learned a bit from the Old Testament. In particular, they read about Jacob/Israel in the book of Genesis and Hosea in the book named after him.


Jacob's Football Clinic (Brownsburg, IN)

Outside of his usual Dog Pound training, Jacob attended a week long football clinic back home. He's been one tired puppy. To his grandfather's delight, Jacob will be playing football for Brownsburg West Middle School.


That's all for now.