CRAZY -- Day 4

We made it.

CRAZY is officially over, and Steph and I are both still breathing. I do have a few more gray hairs, though...I noticed those when I was getting ready...

At 7:30 this morning.

Again....this little munchkin didn't get the memo on the whole sleepin' in thing. Good thing he's cute, or he might possibly have been chunked across the bedroom this morning.

So we were up. We fed the kids cold pizza and waffles for breakfast, cleaned up the condo (well...if you can call cleaning shoving the cookie crumbs up under the table so they weren't quite as noticeable), loaded the van, and headed out.

Our one and only stop today....Silver Dollar City.

I love this place. It brings back all kinds of crazy good memories of going as a kid with my grandparents and parents. Overpriced funnel cakes. People dressed like Ma, Pa, and Mrs. Olson on Little House on the Prairie. Little stores which make the phrase "bull in a china shop" make total sense when my fellas just breathe on the threshold. Rides which leave you dizzy, wet, and giddy....mostly because they all involve references to hillbillies and moonshine. Nothin' but good clean family fun.

Apparently Steph and I have the same tolerance for rides that spin. Nauseous is not really a color that becomes me. But, because she is a better mom than me, she sucked it up and took one for the team. And they rode this. Uh...that thing spins...and swings.

I want to throw up just looking at it. And look at Sawyer...

...I was really afraid he was going to blow chunks on the poor little girl with the pigtails in front of him.

On to a roller coaster....fun size.

Tate wouldn't ride it. And he proceeded to inform me that he wasn't riding anything the whole day. I pinned myself with another Mother of the Year Award right after I threatened him within an inch of his life if he didn't ride any rides. Yah. Yah. I know. Excellent parenting. But I didn't spend $40 on a ticket for him to play with the sticks in the flower beds. You would have done the same thing....admit it.

But he rode a ride. And decided that he liked it. Like I knew he would.

So we rode pirate ships that made me want to throw up....because they were deceptively non-nauseous looking when I was still in the line.

We rode through the Flooded Mine....and shot bad guys with guns. Now that is just great boy fun!

We rode the train that runs through the park, and we got held up by a couple of bandits.

We ate food that must have been made out of gold because I almost had to sell Tate out in front of the restaurant to pay for it. It was yummy though.

We floated down the Lost River and got S.O.A.K.E.D. (Note...when it is 50 degrees outside...don't ride water rides.)

(Don't let Keaton's sour look deceive you. He's having fun. He's just going through that "I'm to good for your stupid camera, Mom" phase....and we don't even say "stupid" at our house.)

The line for the Lost River was also where we encountered the overly friendly gentleman with his family. He offered to keep our kids with him, as well as our bag....ahem....no, thank you, scary weird man. He did take this picture of all 7 of us though....his only redeeming quality.

Next, we moved on to my favorite....FIRE IN THE HOLE! If you've been, then you are yelling it with me right now! I heart this ride. Tate....not so much.

No pictures...too busy trying to unhand the death grip that Tate had on my arms throughout the ride. Keaton, though, rode the ride with a very nice lady from "Min-nah-sew-duh"...proving that not only are Northeners nice...they have AWESOME accents.

Then we moved on to the American Plunge. I kept the 2 little kids with me, along with a red head who suddenly became a big chicken, and wouldn't ride it. Bah-hum-bug. Steph took another one for the team and took Keaton and Logan on it. They added S.O.A.K.E.D. to soaked.

I kissed my red head on his nose....because being half-way dry was not seemin' quite so bad.

The kids were freezing, there were rain clouds looming, and we needed to wrap up CRAZY. So, we forced the kids to pose for a couple of very strained pictures, made a pit stop at the funnel cake stand (oh, yah, baby!) and the bakery, and were outta there.

Back in the warm van. Wet blue jeans and all.

But we were happy. And smiley. And full of funnel cake.

Silver Dollar City was an EXCELLENT end to a sometimes manic, all the time fun, and fabulously marvelous CRAZY!

Now I need a vacation from my vacation...