OK, Lilly is down for a much needed nap and the older two are playing-together-not fighting...I may have just jinxed it!! We got up Saturday morning early and got down to our free hot breakfast...I love the Drury Inn...any hotel really but a hot breakfast buffet for free for a family of five is a nice treat. Free booze and a snack is nothing to sneeze at either..hee hee. After breakfast we came back up to our room and got all packed up and dressed for the day, bathing suits under our clothes because YAY!...Holiday World has a water park.

We had to make a quick stop at Walmart for sunscreen, especially since I was still sporting a severe sunburn from Field Day!! (Later we found out Holiday World has free sunscreen in the water park along with unlimited free soft drinks in both parks). Then we made our way from Evansville to Holiday World. We drove through country roads that reminded me of where I grew up-big farms, school bus farms, roads that are out in the middle of nowhere but Holiday World signs here and there so you knew you were on the right path. We finally arrived at this big park in the middle of nowhere and there were lots of cars in the parking lot-coming from both directions and people helping you park just like at Disney. There was a tram to ride up to the park, just like Disney. People were mostly white and spoke English just like-not at all like Disney. Hee Hee, that part doesn't matter a bit to me but it was interesting that everyone there looked just like us. I prefer my kids get exposed to more cultures than just ours, it is just really hard to do that in our neck of the woods-not exactly a melting pot here!! I digress, as always.

As we were walking into the park, total strangers walked over and asked us if we had already bought our tickets, I thought GREAT SCAMMERS!, but no "Here take this free ticket, my wife wasn't able to come to our company picnic-you can have her ticket." I bet I said Thank You five times. $36.95 saved!! PLUS, you know me, we had a coupon for some money off admission. I had to search a long time but I found one. It was a great beginning to what became a very wonderful day!

As you walk in, the first thing you notice is how spotlessly clean everything is!! And everyone is very nice. We looked at the map for a while and then just decided not to micromanage the day-just to go and ride rides. The first thing we rode was Paul Revere's Midnight Ride which in Noble Park(A park that used to be in Paducah that I grew up going to) terms is the Spider. It looks like a spider and you go up and down and spin around. It was so fun. Then onto the Liberty launch where you are launched straight up and then free fall intermittently back down. Looked scarier than it was, no one would ride but me and Erik so we took turns. It was a hopelessly cloudy day all day and it looked like it would rain anytime. Perfect Park weather in my mind-no need to keep sunscreening every five minutes like on hot sunny days. We made our way to The Voyage after that, the biggest, fastest wooden roller coaster in the world. That may not be true but it sure seemed like it!! IT was totally INTENSE. I screamed the whole ride, which I rode alone because Erik rode with Erika and Kayla refused and Lilly wasn't tall enough. You climbed an enormous hill and then it dropped you straight down and did not even slow down until it was over. There were lots of underground tunnels and times where the curves had you completely sideways. WHEW!!! What a ride!! By the way, Erika would have no part of riding again-that is when we knew Kayla should not ride. Lilly cried because she wasn't tall enough for any roller coaster. Kayla cried because she was and I made her ride one. She screamed "What did I do to deserve this?" "Why do you hate me!" "What did I do that was so wrong!" "I want off!!!" It made for a fun ride, the last roller coaster ride of the day for Kayla, the reluctant rider.

All of the rides were great and at about 3:30ish we went to the water park. I did not want to. I thought it was a dumb idea because water parks are so exhausting-to have that in the middle of an already tiring day seemed silly to me. HOWEVER, I was wrong wrong wrong!! It is a perfect pick me up!! It is such a nice waterpark and we had so much fun doing all the water stuff. It started to rain and came a pretty good downpour-but no lightning and we were in a water park sooooo we made do. It stopped and cleared off and was kind of cool the rest of the day. We got our second wind. Then when we were tired of being wet, we went back to the regular park, got something to eat, rode a few more rides and then got ready to leave. We also walked through the antique toy display-so it would be educational you know!!

I highly recommend HOLIDAY WORLD. It is fabulous!! It wasn't better than Disney, but it was closer to home-about 2 1/2 hours-and comparable to Disney, not to mention much much cheaper. We think this will be a yearly event for us. UNLIKE Disney which was probably a once in a lifetime.

We were all very exhausted on the way home. All the kids fell asleep and Erik had to pull over to let me drive. I was praying all the way home and singing with my WOW! HITS CD because I was tired too. I started praying God would refresh me and make me alert and a safe driver. He is soo awesomely faithful. About 5 miles later, I was wide awake and enjoying my worship time. When I got home and all the kids were tucked in bed, I finished my latest book and then went to bed.

Today-I am right back to mount washmore-but I think 4 loads is gonna do it!! MOMENTUM BABY!! Have a great Monday!!