Alabama Adventure

This weekend, our family finally made the long-awaited trip to Alabama Adventure, a local theme & water park about twenty minutes from our house.  We thought about going last summer, but Ethan wasn't tall enough for most of the rides, so we waited until this summer.  We bought our season passes back in February, so Caleb has literally been counting down the days for three months.  We had a chart on the pantry door with a square for each day, and he has "X'd" off every day for close to 80 days.  Most mornings for the past few months, he has started out the day by counting how many days remained until Alabama Adventure opened for the season.

We had to postpone our trip by one week because of the tornadoes, but this past Saturday turned out to be everything Caleb and Ethan hoped it would be.  There were no crowds, hardly any lines, the weather was perfect (75 to 81 degrees all day) and the rides were great!  Caleb and Ethan got to ride all the rides that they were tall enough for, and most of them multiple times.  A lot of times, they didn't even have to get off when the ride ended because there was no line, so they just stayed in their seats and rode again!  Their favorite rides were the kiddie roller coaster, a race car ride, the bumper cars, the log ride and the family raft ride.  They would have enjoyed the water park more and spent longer there if the water hadn't been so cold.  (That will change I'm sure in just a few weeks.)  As it was, we spent most of our time on the theme-park side.  

And one-month-old Lydia did great all day long.  She slept in the stroller most of the day, nursed every two hours just like at home, and hardly cried the whole day.  Thanks to our big stroller and a nice little sun hat, we were able to keep her out of the sun almost completely.  Since it was not crowded, Marcus and I were able to take turns riding rides with the boys while the other one stayed with Lydia.  He would go with them on a ride and then I would go with them the second time, or vice versa.  I thought that I would end up just tagging along with Lydia most of the day, so I was very glad for the lack of lines that allowed me to participate a lot more. We got out there just before it opened at 10:30 am, and all three kids did so well all day that we stayed for eight hours and didn't head home until 6:30 pm, just before closing.  We had a wonderful family day and I are looking forward to many more this summer.