Mini vacation #1 - Carnival of Terror!

Since my conception 37 years (+9 months) ago I cannot remeber a year when I have not gone to San Diego, Oregon, Hawaii, Yellowstone - SOMEWHERE - for a summer vacation.  Well, thanks to OPEC and one terrific president, this summer will be a first!  That's right, no grand vacation plans for the Raddatz's this year.  We sat down with the kids about a month back (when gas was, gasp, $3.00/gallon) and let them know we just could not afford to take a big vacation anywhere it required us to drive.  So we decided to take several mini vacations instead.  Camping, fishing, carnivals, water parks - things close by that we could do in a day or two.  Fit enough of these activities in the next few months and I think the kids will have something to write about in their "What I did this Summer" essays at the beginning of school.

Today was the first of our mini vacations - the Orem City Summerfest.  Miriam is at Youth Conference and it was my job to keep the kids entertained so I decided this would be fun for all of us.  There was a carnival, helicopter, firetruck and ambulance we could get into, and of course all the over price food and garbage booths we could hope for.  I bought  $30.00 worth of tickets and set out for a good time.  As you can see from the attached pictures everyone was having a good time.

Well, things were going so smooth until the ferris wheel.  I will let the following pictures tell the story.

ugh! I don't know if you can tell, it's pretty subtle, but one of these kids was not having a good time.  The last picture was not color enhanced, Zach really was turning green!  His knuckles were white in a grip of death, and his little heart was racing. The party was over!  I guess I can count myself lucky that Zach won't be required to write one of those school essays.  I think it would become evidence against me of child abuse if he did. Our next mini vacation will be a bit easier on the stomach, I hope.  And I think I can scratch Lagoon off my to-do list.  Megan and I seem to be the only members of the family interested in anything that goes faster or higher than the Merry-go-round.  Pity...

Josh's encounter

For a fun family night, we decided to hit the wilderness and see what we could find. The picture shows the wolf that Josh encountered. It's a good thing I always carry my camera with me or I wouldn't have been able to capture the picture. Let's just say the night ended up with many tears....

Okay, so it's a good thing that Cabelas had already stuffed the poor animal. If I would have let Josh he would've been over the railing and riding the thing. As soon as we got home his older brother thought it would be a hoot to see how high he could jump the two little ones together on the tramp. They gingerly collided and Josh got the brunt of the whole chaos. Nothin like ending the night with ziplock bags of ice and a good ole trusty bottle of Motrin. Now that's quality family time. Thanks Grandpa Raddatz for coming along.