We (I) was suckered into saying yes to one of those "free" timeshare presentation trips. We were going to go back on our vacation in April but decided we didn't want to spend that many nights away from my family. So glad we decided that! Now, we have this trip though that is a 9 hour drive away from us to a place that basically has the same type of tourist stuff that we have here. Oh well. We were going to still make it a fun weekend with spending most of our time in Columbia and Charleston and then the flood happened. Did you hear about this? Record rainfall and major damage to both places. We waited until the Wednesday before to make the official call but it had to happen. Roads still closed and dams unstable. So, we were faced with a choice. What do we do now? We could go on a different trip although it wasn't paid for like this one. We came really close to doing it but then we took the chicken way out and let our 5 year old decide what we should do. We laid out all of the choices and he said he would rather stay home at our house so he could play games, watch movies, and be with his awesome family especially his parents. (Son, you would like me to get you the moon. Okay, sure. You just melted my heart so coming right up.)
Let the fun times commence.
Matt and I went on a date Friday night. We were super exciting and went shopping. Sometimes, wandering aisles and talking to each other without passing out animal crackers can be really fun! This picture while we were out made me smile too. I love knowing that our boys are always in good hands when we go out.
We are only an hour and a half from New Orleans. We decided to start our family adventures at City Park. There were tons of festivals going on including these drummers for Japan Fest.
We took the kids to a place in City Park called Storyland. It iss a garden of favorite children's stories. The boys had a blast!
From there we did some more wandering around and spotted some bike rentals and thought that could be a fun way to spend an hour. However, in the same line for bike rentals you could buy tickets to go to a little fenced in area with pumpkins, inflatables, and games. The boys REALLY wanted to do this. Matt and I were not really on board because we just did inflatables at CFA and we are doing inflatables this coming weekend at our church Fall festival. Both of these events = FREE. Instead, we spent $20 bucks for the four of us to play inside a small fenced in area to jump on two inflatables, play some carnival games, and ride a tractor around the parking lot. The boys haven't smiled this big in awhile. So, yeah we drove to New Orleans and we never left this darn park. ;-) It was fun though and we decided that we will make another trip and actually make it to the French Quarter and do some exploring. Maybe without these two wild boys?
We found food and Nathan needed to change clothes because he got a little too close when trying to visit with the ducks. We got in the car and he told us he was going bye. He puts on his shades when he does that and usually is asleep in less than a minute.
We had cooler weather so we decided to try out our fire pit. We made s'mores and told stories. We didn't last that long though because Nathan around a fire is possibly one of the scariest things we have yet to try. He was fascinated and I was terrified. I finally communicated with him that he needed to stay back but then just simply walking and trying to climb in and out of the chair had us all holding our breath! Plus, the bugs were biting. Got to research some good mosquito deterrents.
The party continued for Joshua and Rachel. They stayed outside and camped. It was in the 50s and the stars were shining brightly for these two! They loved it!
We also played games inside and outside. The boys love throwing the football or frisbee around. Then back inside for more games. Matt and Joshua played checkers. Matt was a saint as Joshua took FOREVER before committing to any move. He didn't want to lose and didn't want his pieces to be jumped and if this was inevitable then he just wouldn't move at all. Rachel and I played Dominoes and Rummikub. Nathan "helped" everyone in all of their games. We also did some yard work and washed the cars. It was a good weekend with my family.
1 comment:
Looks like a lot more fun than going to an apple orchard in the pouring rain!
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