Much to my delight, when we woke up there was nary a cloud in the sky...it was blue for as far as the eye can see. At this time I felt fairly confident in making the big announcement to the kids. You see, I NEVER divulge a word about where we are headed before we pull into the parking lot. Some call me crazy. I may be biased, but I think it's incredibly smart. Plans fall through, Mother Nature upsets things, kids get sick. Why get their hopes up just to let them plummet. Besides, it saves me some small semblance of sanity. Take this morning for instance. Not only did I have to set my alarm and get up at 6:00 a.m. - which in itself is torture to the grandest degree - to meet our group at the park on time, but the kids needed showers, and various other things needed to be accomplished before we could make our unfortunately grand exit.
The glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to make my two Tiny Treasures' millennium by introducing our plans before they had even climbed out of bed (it was 7:30 a.m. at this point). A) I never do this. B) Now I remember why. For the next one hour while I shuffled them through the bathroom routine, dressing, and feeding, the house was nothing short of wacky hour! As we loaded into the SUV with all of our essentials - our towels, cameras, snacks, drinks, astronaut helmets, curtain rods, empty milk cartons...you get the picture - I sighed with relief. We were going to be on time to meet our group at the park for 9:15. I stinkin' ROCK!
Before I could even back out of the garage the kids had taken wacky hour to a whole new extreme. They were NUTS!! How could I ask them to quiet down a bit, when it was admittedly all MY doing. If only I had kept my loose lips closed my children would not have shrieked and squealed with exultation for the entire 40 minute drive to the park as I maneuvered morning rush hour traffic and battled through the swarms of tractor trailer trucks. Crud...a cop hidden in the bushes and me speeding along with my out-of-state plates. Just lovely. Peering in my rear-view mirror for the next 10 minutes. Who else does this? Like, hi! If he was going to come after me, I'm sure it would have been immediate and not 8 miles down the highway.
We pulled into the park only two minutes late, which was a miracle, considering about three minutes into our drive I realized I forgot their life vests at home. Now this is a waterpark. Neither of my kids swim yet. I did not know what to expect as we had never been there so I turned around, went home, and got them. We didn't need them. Oh well. Better safe than sorry. At this time of year Land of Make Believe is only open in the mornings for groups, field trips, etc. The rates are PHENOMENAL if you can pull together a group and get the group rate. Wow. We paid $10.50 per child (regularly somewhere around $26 each) and just $5.00 per adult (regularly $22ish if I am remembering correctly). After getting this spectacular rates I'd never go and pay full price which is just a monumental shame because it's an amazing place...especially for little kids. Most of the rides were very age appropriate for preschoolers. My kids are four and five and there were only two rides we didn't go on. And I use the term "we" very loosely as *I* only WENT ON TWO RIDES. Sadly, in my third decade of life, the second ride I went on did me in. My poor, poor, sorry equilibrium was shot. I didn't even want to move my head for fear I was going to hurl. Thankfully I had not yet eaten so there was nothing to regurgitate. I now understand the saying "feeling green" because I LITERALLY thought should I look in a mirror, I would see horrid puce green skin staring back at me.
Long story short, my kids had the BEST time ever. I had the best time ever. The friends we went with had the best time ever. Highly, highly recommend Land of Make Believe in Hope, NJ for North Jersey and Northeastern Pennsylvania families. Awesome day trip! I have been told it opens to the public in the mornings beginning the last two weeks of June and the crowds hit like crazy. We experienced no lines, and just a purely joyful day. Next Friday is the last day for private groups in the mornings. I would love to go again, and indeed if I can find enough friends to go back, we will.
The highlight: I did not have to go into the 60-degree water even though like a trouper I wore my bathing suit under my clothes fully expecting to "spot" my children in their escapades through the icy tundra. The other highlight here is that I am not firm enough or tan enough to rock a bathing suit at a public park yet. The things I would do for my kids...thankfully I didn't have to though. :)
The low-light: coming home to find my best friend in the world - my doggie, Suki - had scooted her little hiney all over the kitchen floor and family room carpet. And I mean ALL over. Poor baby...totally not her fault. Her vet put her on antibiotics and they started to cause her c-diff so we discontinued use of them. The problem lies in the fact that in order to get her to take the antibiotics I had to put it in peanut butter. Twice a day for a week before we stop administering them to her. NOTHING else would work...she would sniff it out and reject it, and force-feeding her was like torture for both of us. Anyhow, the peanut butter really constipated her. It's been almost a week and she's not quite back to "regular" yet. The biggest bummer of all of this is that I just cleaned the carpets on Sunday. Murphy's Law! It's all good though, as long as my beloved baby is okay. My husband nicknamed her "Do-No-Wrong Suki" because no matter what she might do, under no circumstance would I ever get upset with her.
Enough ramblings for tonight. It's only 6:30 p.m. but I feel like it's after midnight. Boy these long, busy days take a lot out of me. Time to go crash on the couch with a book. Right now I'm reading Mitch Albom's "for one more day" - fabulous book about the depth of a mother's love. I highly recommend it.
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