Sister, sister

Towards the end of July, I had the great pleasure of having my younger sister, Becky, and her son Jackson to visit us. We just had so much fun hanging out and talking kid stuff and everything else stuff. And as you can see, we practiced our photography skills. Sorry, Beck, I can't find any of you or even us together. We will have to do better next time.

Hopefully my movie works. It's stuff like this that makes you want another one. (or one that you can just keep for a while...) It was just so funny because every time I said "mommy", he would just laugh. You should watch for "daddy", it is pretty funny.

What kind of auntie would I be if I didn't convince his mommy to feed him a new food and take pictures. We tried those Gerber cereal things. He choked them down, but was not very enthusiastic. Little does he know that in a couple months, they will be his favorite food.

You may be wondering at this point where does a shark in a toilet fit into a visit with my sister....Welllll, if you don't know already, I have a little jokester on my hands that goes by the name of Samuel "Trouble" Lucas. He decided that it would be funny to put his toy shark in the toilet, close the lid, and wait for my sister to use the restroom. I should have wondered why he was watching the bathroom so closely. So just as he planned Becky went in expecting an uneventful trip and came out a bit surprised and a little flustered. Sammy just started laughing and laughing. Becky figured out what was going on, and fortunately has a pretty good sense of humor so Sammy lived to see another day. All I know is I am out of this one. Sammy is now on his own, because he doesn't know Auntie Becky like I do....

The End of the Day

This is what it is all about. Screamin your head off with your hands in the air with your buddy by your side. This is what makes the memories.

The balloon ride turned out to be the great Girl VS. Boy challenge of who could yell the loudest. Doesn't really seem fair, but I believe the girls pulled it out (or maybe that was the longest?). That or the ride conductor felt sorry for us poor girls and called us the winner anyhow. Either way, a win is a win.

So what would a Lucas vacation day be without a good solid thunderstorm to end it a little early. So here we are in one of the little restaurants waiting for it to pass. It caught us just as we were going to go through Boomerang Bay. The boys had just made it to the top of the biggest water slide when they called it for lightening and made everyone walk back down the metal stairs. And from there we just watched with sadness as a most impressive lightening and thunder storm overtook the park, trapping us. That may have ended our day at Carowinds, but we finished out our vacation day with pizza at the Berthalots. Next time, we will endure to the end, storm or not.

Carowinds III

Our day was really quite perfect temperature wise, but who wouldn't enjoy an air conditioned haunted mansion. We all had fun on the Scooby Doo. (Don't worry Katie, they really aren't scarred for life. See? They weren't the least bit scared. ;) )

What can be better than a ship ride with your sweetie? But you must always be mindful of the pirates which seem to always be sailing right behind you. Bad Christopher!

Go Kelly! My dear friend, and wonderful photographer (she gets all the credit for these pictures because, yes, I am a slacker...) actually made it onto a real coaster with her daughter Danielle. Who says peer pressure is for kids?

Carowinds II

As the day moved on, we discovered not all rides are created equal, nor are all rides as equally fun. Take for example, the Ricochet. This ride only seats four and it's only purpose is to make you feel as though you are being thrown over a cliff over, and over, and yes over again. Sammy and I are both afraid of heights and did not appreciate this too much. We were both crying by the end. And the guys, well the same as above except as they were being tossed overboard, they were getting their knees bashed too. Fun, huh?

Ok, so we didn't just ride the kiddie rides. Myself and the Matts went on this lovely beast, and we soon discovered that we really must be getting old because there were parts of you being shaken and beaten apart that you didn't even know you had. Those kiddie rides rock!!! Though Matt and Matt did still enjoy the Drop Zone.

(PS: I am trying to post more pictures so I can use my blog as some of my scrapbooking, so my blogs will be getting more detailed. Hope you enjoy, if not, sorry...you can just skim if you want.)

July Begins

July for us was a very busy month, but it was a blast. We decided that our camping trip wasn't good enough to be our only summer adventure, so we grabbed some friends and headed to Carowinds. This is the first time our boys had ever been near a roller coaster so we were ready for some fun. The great part about having friends for this is peer pressure. Let me tell you....no one was going to be outdone by anyone else. So we all rode most everything, and had a great time.

The lines for most of the day were almost non-existent. There were several rides we were able to stay on and ride again.

One of the favorites was the Goldrush, not too big, not too small. Oh yah, and the other thing about bringing friends is that your kids decide it would be more fun riding with their friends, so I just had to ride on my own. Girl Power!!!

These guys were too funny. They were both apprehensive on most of the rides at first, but since one was riding, the other HAD to, and vice versa. So they both ended up riding most everything, and even better is that even after the ride they would not really admit if they didn't like it, for fear of "the friend"......all rides, no complaining...hmmmm, not a bad deal. They were both surprised though at how many rides they actually did like. (see?? peer pressure is not all bad...just think of all the fun they would have missed otherwise. Berthalots, you guys are awesome!)