Six Flags with Shelby!...and Megan

Megan and Shelby came to Six Flags with us!  Caleigh was so excited!

The girls were all ready to go but we had to put the brakes on for a minute!  At the gate, we all got in except for Megan.  Her ticket required she have her teacher ID with her and she had left it in the car.  (Thankfully not at home!)  So while we waited on her to go to the car, we hung out in an air conditioned shop.  There was lots of sun and heat ahead of us so we took the shade and cool air while we could!

Caleigh has developed a complete aversion to the Monster Plantation ride so her and Chad went off to ride the Mine Train while Meg, Shelby, and I headed to the mansion.  Along the way, we ran into a few friends!

Shelby didn't really know what to think about the boat ride through the house full of animatronic monsters.  There were a few I told Meg not to let her look at. They are just a bit much!  But for the most part she enjoyed her ride!

We met back up with Chad and Caleigh and Meg and Caleigh did a quick ride on the Canyon Blaster!  Then it was off to Loony Toon Land where Shelby could have some fun!  Her first ride by herself was Toro Toro.  For the longest time I thought these were flying pigs.  Even when I was little and riding them myself I thought they were pigs.  Well, apparently, they are bulls.  Who knew!?  Megan was nervous to let her ride but when she saw her face light up with delight she was happy she let her ride.  In fact, Shelby rode a total of four times that day!

 The airplanes she could ride as long as Caleigh rode with her!  She liked the plane too!  She was giggling and laughing out loud

 and waving!

 Next up was the convoy! 

Then came the Ferris Wheel!

 Now it was time for a lunch break! 

 Then as Shelby napped we went into the Crystal Pistol Theater and saw the amazing iLuminate show!  We were all fans except for Caleigh who buried her head in Chad's chest the entire time minus the few times we could coax her to look up.  She was really terrified and was begging to leave.  At the end of the show they all took their masks off and Caleigh was relieved to see that they were really just people inside the costumes.  We had told her this numerous time but I guess it was a have to "see to believe" moment.
The show was something like this.



I was totally amazed!  Still am!
After the show, Chad and Caleigh headed to Skull Island, the waterpark inside of Six Flags.  Meg, Shelby, and I headed to Shelby's favorite ride, the Sky Buckets!  She had being eyeing them and watching them since she came into the park.  She was mesmorized by the buckets in the sky!  So, up we went and took a round trip ride from one side of the park to the other!  She LOVED them!

After that, we met up with Caleigh and Chad in the waterpark.  The water was freezing cold on that hot day and Shelby was not to happy about it. 

After a few times down some waterslides with me and my hurt bum, I was done with the waterpark.  And so was Caleigh.  So, we put on clothes over our swimsuits and headed back out for some more rides.  We hit Up Up and Away first.

I don't do so good going around and around but I did ride this one with them!

Next up was the Rockin Tugboat.  I made Meg fly solo on this one. 

Followed by the carousel.  Again, no round and round for me, thank you!

After the carousel, Megan and Shelby headed to the observatory deck and Chad, Caleigh, and I loaded up for Caleigh's first trip down Thunder River.  Megan was supposed to take our picture but only got one picture of our raft and you can't see us in it.  So, no pic of Thunder River.  We didn't get wet at all on the ride and when it was done, Caleigh asked for one more ride.  Since it was late and no one was in line, they let us ride again.  Once again, we didn't get wet.  She wanted to go again but I thought that would be tempting fate and I really wanted her hair somewhat dry for the ride home.  We then went and changed and as I watched the girls, Chad and Megan rode Dare Devil Dive and Goliath. 

At this point, everyone was pretty much done!  We left the park and hit our Taco Bell on the way home (yuck- but it is tradition).  The busy day was done and fun was had by all!  

Father's Day

Father's Day this year was spent pretty relaxful.  We went to church that morning and they had an outdoor service.  Caleigh stayed with us during the service and was quite good despite having to be told multiple times to sit down.  But I mean how to expect a kid to behave when they are outside?  Especially when slip and slides are set up right next her!  Caleigh and I got Chad a Superman DVD set (he picked out) and then we got him a new bottle of cologne and a matching bottle of lotion.  Caleigh picked out the scent and I have to agree that it smells great!

 After the service, we went to my parents house for lunch and some swimming.  We ate parmesean chicken for lunch and my dad ate a ton of shrimp!  We got my dad a straw fedora and a book for his iPad.  He seems very happy with his presents from us!

Chad and my brother-in-law took off to the movies to see Battleship. While they were gone, I was sitting at my parents kitchen table with my sister.  When I sat down, I verbally noted that the chair seemed wobbly.  About 10 mins later, the chair collapsed while I was sitting in it.  I fell onto the broken pieces of the chair and I currently have a massive bruise on my bum!  My sister laughed so hard, she cried.  In fact, if you ask her to tell you about it, she will start laughing so hysterically that she won't be able to get the story out.  Apparently, it was pretty funny.  My bum begs to differ! 

Tubing in Helen

For Chad's birthday instead of having a party with friends he decided he wanted to go tubing down the Chattahoochee River with friends.  We invited everyone he wanted to but only Mish and Thomas ended up making the trip with us.  Although he missed the other people he invited, he still had an awesome time with those of us that did come!  We have been tubing before and on at least one of the previous trips, the water level was so low that floating was near impossible in some shallow spots.  Luckily, that was not the case this time.  This was Caleigh's first time tubing and I was skeptical as to what she would think about it so we opted for the "short" trip which was only an hour and a half.  Next time, it will be the long trip.   Here is where she reminded us that we needed to keep on our "scun-screen". ( More on scun-screen here)

Her float was tethered to mine and her and I took off. As we looked back, we saw that Mish and Thomas were stuck on rocks already and Chad had flipped out of his tube and was scrambling to get back in to catch up to us. I gave them a few minutes to catch us but after they didn't appear, I jumped out of my raft and held on to Caleigh until they all managed to make their way down river.   We didn't take our phones down the river so the following pics are stock photos so you could get an idea of what we did.

 Before and after we tubed down the river, we played in the waterpark!  There were four waterslides, a lazy river, a water mushroom, and bounce houses and slides.  The tubes were completly dark and Caleigh LOVED going down them.  She is 44inches tall.  All of the water slides required you be at least 42inches tall to go down but Chad and I decided that the open slides were just a little too advanced for her and she did not like this fact.  Even though she was willing to go down them, we were not willing to let her.  We consider ourselves pretty adventurous when it comes to stuff like this but we were just not comforable with those two slides.  After Chad went airborn going down it, I couldn't allow Caleigh to do it. 

 After tubing and playing in the water park all day, we walked the city of Helen for a while.  Caleigh and Chad pressed a penny with quite a few onlookers.  Caleigh loved watching the horse and carriages go down the road.  A street performer made her a balloon flower. We bought some fudge at a sweet shop.

 Chad and Caleigh posed for a quick picture.

 We took a family picture in the city.

And, Mish and Thomas opted for some old fashioned photos! So cute!

By the time we made it to dinner, Caleigh was exhaused.  She chowed down on some popcorn shrimp, mac and cheese, and an ice cream cone at the Western Sizzlin before laying out in the chairs.

 The two hour drive home was very peaceful.  She slept the entire way.  I was scared she wouldn't sleep when we got home, but she had no problem going right to bed.  This is how most of our days have ended lately.  Coming home late with a sleepy baby!  But we are having so much fun this summer!

Meeting Lydia

On the way home from Indian Springs, we received an invitation to come and meet our new neice for the first time.  Lydia was born premature weighing a mere 3lbs 1oz when she entered our world.  Despite her tiny size she only spent 6 hours in a NICU and then was moved to an intermediate nursery.  And she just kept getting stronger from there.  If my calculations are correct, after spending only 22 days in the hospital, Lydia came home 22 days before her due date!  I think 22 may just be Lydia's lucky number! Chad and I got to see her for a few precious seconds on the day she was born through the nursery glass.  We used the power of iPhones and Facetime so Caleigh got to see her at the same time we did even though she wasn't with us at the hospital.  Lydia is Caleigh's third cousin and the third girl!  I don't know if Caleigh would know what to do with a boy cousin! 

That sweet baby girl is so tiny!  Caleigh has a few baby dolls that could probably hold Lydia.  Caleigh was so excited to see her, it was hard to keep her from being right over her the whole time we were there.  

She was so happy to touch "Baby Lydia's" little head and cheeks.

I unexpectedly got to hold her.  There are not words to describe how utterly sweet holding someone so tiny made me feel.  I even got to see her amazing eyes thanks to the fact that her dad and Chad were having a conversation in the room and she would open her eyes and look around for them.  According to her mom, she really responds to the sound of her daddy's voice.  I am pretty sure I saw nothing but pure innocence in those eyes. 

 Her newborn baby noises, the grunts, the smacks, and the squirms were so very heart warming.  I didn't even mind when she let out tons of gas on me! : ) 

Indian Springs

The day after Chad's birthday, we decided to take a family trip to Indian Springs State Park.  I could remember going there as a child and thinking that the place totally STUNK!  The sulpher content in the water was extremely high and the whole park smelled like rotten eggs!  However, numerous people had said that the smell had significantly decreased over the years.  And when I got there, I found that they were right.  The only place you could experience the rotten egg smell was at the actual spring and even then it was no where near as potent as I remembered it. 

We started out our trip by playing on the rocks in the water.  We had fun climbing up and down trying to make patterns and paths that would keep us from getting wet.  Caleigh had so much fun doing this, we had to convince her to go to another part of the park with us.  She just wanted to stay and play on the rocks.

In another part of the park, they have a roped off swimming area and "beach".  We headed over to this part and ate a picnic lunch.  Caleigh was super excited to head into the water.  Chad, no so much.  This was Caleigh's first time swimming in a lake.  She has swam in the ocean and in pools but never in a lake or river.  She was a bit intimidated by the little fish at first but got over them very quickly.  Pretty soon, both her and Chad were diving in and out of the water and having a grand time.

After swimming until near exhaustion, we decided to head home for showers.  We got Caleigh changed and started to head out of the park.  The park has numerous playground areas dispersed throughout it and Caleigh had seen many of them as we came in.  We decided to stop at one and let her play for a little while longer.  She could not have been more happy about this.

 Chad even got in on some sliding action.  I had had enough sun for the day and watched them play from the air conditioned car.

Our final stop before we left the park was at the spring itself.  We gathered two bottles of the stinky water to take home.  None of us was brave enough to drink it while it was so smelly.  The water supposedly has healing properties and judging by the number of people there filling gallon and five gallon jugs, many people believe it to be true.  One of the ladies that was there filling her jugs told us to let the water sit for about 3 days and the smell would be all but gone.  The water is still in our outside fridge.  No one has had the desire to open the bottles and smell it again.  After the springs we finally headed home.