Keeping Cool

A few Sundays ago we headed down to Rehobeth to visit with the Thompsons after church. It was such a hot afternoon that the beach sounded miserable and even the backyard with a freezing cold pool was pretty sweltering!

The kiddos enjoyed throwing themselves into and out of the pool. Since the sides were pretty tall they didn't always make it out on their feet!



Filling up the little pool...



Emma had a great time splashing around in the deep pool


And Will split his time between the pool and watching Daddy and Mr. Billy play horseshoes.




Check out that handsome face!



Emma and Will have also discovered a strong passion for corn on the cob this summer. Emma polished off most of the ear by herself...



with a little help from Will!



Instead of the beach we opted for dinner on the boardwalk at Grotto's. Will ate two whole (very large slices) and Emma nearly as much! Then we spent a little time on the rides at Funland.

Fun on the boats...



Emma waited so patiently to ride the carousel,



with her tickets in hand.



And she had a blast!



Despite the face, Will quite enjoyed himself as well.



Lots of fun on the carousel!

Our Fourth of July Celebration

Another July 4th, another trip to Oregon Ridge! I would love to know how many years we've been going...Mom may be able to give a pretty close guess.



Missing one sissy!



A new favorite family picture!



Will had such a blast this year. Both he and Emma love the different musical events we've done lately, and this one was no exception.



After our picnic dinner he waved his flag, blew bubbles with Grandma, ate some more, and thoroughly enjoyed himself.



I know Becca didn't love this one, but I think it's a great candid :-) introducing Steven to the BSO...



Miss Emma made her rounds with everyone.



She has been looking forward to this for literally a year. I'm not sure if she actually remembered from last year, but she has asked about music and fireworks for Omi's birthday at least monthly!


More lap sitting...



Emma and Uncle Kevin really bonded over the BSO :-) she shared her fruit snacks and they chatted it up!



Glow sticks and necklaces came out for the second half of the concert.



And for the fireworks!



Will did great and tells us pretty frequently, "fireworks went bang, bang, BANG!"



Emma kept telling us all evening that she would be a little scared but would try to be brave, and she was!



Mostly enjoying herself, but with my hands over her ears.



On the 4th we had a great party to celebrate Mom's birthday!



I had a nice surprise visit from Alison who is in town from Mexico!



And Emma took about 10 minutes to get completely warmed up to Alison.



Such a fun 24 hours!

Anniversary Trip: Roller Coasters!

We had such a blast riding roller coasters together...all told in our 2 1/4 days at Busch Gardens and Water Country we tallied 60 rides!

We started each day there with The Loch Ness Monster.



Since the Scotland section of the park opened early, this coaster opened early also. We rode it a couple times in a row without much wait at all.



And we also decided that the back was the place to ride...faster and more thrilling than the front on this one!



Apollo's Chariot is the 7th ranked coaster in the world (!) and is fast and high. I didn't manage to get a great photo...this is a look at it from the parking lot.



The cars themselves were fantastic, our favorite harness system. The seats are up high and only have a lap restraint, which makes you feel very open.



The front was the place to be on this one! Again, because of the nature of the cars, you really felt like you were out in the open in the front.



Alpengeist was probably our least favorite of the coasters at Busch Gardens, but it was still excellent.



It is full of corkscrews and flips and is a little more rough than the others too.



That's Alpengeist upside down as seen from our sky ride across the park.



Griffon was a fantastic and thrilling ride.



The cars were shoulder harnesses, but were held to the track from under the seats instead of over. This photo was taken while we waited for them to hose down the car because someone had gotten sick on it. (This happened on more than one occasion while we were there!)



Near the end it rushes down towards a body of water and the speed of the coaster causes the water to spray up into the air.



Griffon hangs you up at the top of its first hill, suspended for over 5 seconds looking 90 degrees down. Talk about anticipation!


Escape from Pompeii is a water "coaster" that is mostly a large drop, but it also has some nice pyrotechnics inside the "ruins".


We managed to not get very wet on the actual ride...the water cannons at the end soaked us pretty good though!



Verbolten was the new ride this year, and we thought we were not going to get to experience it. It was closed all day Monday and only open for an hour on Tuesday. We had a short time on Wednesday before we needed to head home and we were really hoping to get on this one.



We stood in line with the ride closed and had just 10 minutes left before we needed to leave when they started running cars! We made it!



So excited to get to ride! This one starts and finishes outside, but has a middle section in the dark that includes two blast offs and one other thrilling surprise.



They ran 4 cars at the same time, so the line really moved quickly once it got started.



What an awesome few days together!


We'll be making another trip to ride roller coasters in the years to come!