Family Fun Weekend

Normally, even though Josh has weekends off from work, we still have many responsibilities on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings for our church. So we usually don't plan a lot for our weekends. But this weekend we had completely free so we declared it "Family Fun Weekend" and decided to plan something extra fun.

I was telling my friend Joy that we were going to do something and she told me that their family had been given some free tickets to Carowinds and that they had enough for their family of 5 and our family of 3 to go. So the plan was made for a day of amusement park fun.

Alyse had no clue where we were taking her but she seemed very excited as we walked through the gates.

Dora was there to greet her, but Alyse decided that she was going to be shy.

She loved all the kiddie rides. If she was tall enough to ride them, she was more than willing to hop on. The hot air balloons and carousel were her favorites.

She was able to ride a few rides by herself.

But Daddy rode most of the rides with her. (Let me tell you that watching Josh climb into all those rides with his long legs was so entertaining for me.)

I did not get to ride one ride. Most of the day I stood taking pictures and watching everyone else, but I still had a great time.

Josh did get to ride many roller coasters. It was a beautiful day outside, and there hardly were any lines, so he got to ride many of them over and over again without getting off.

While everyone else was riding the big rides, Alyse was happy to people watch and watch the rides.

Alyse's first trip to Carowinds seemed to be a success.

She had a smile on her face most of the day

And was exhausted by the end of it!

(This picture was taken at the restaurant that we went to after we left the park. She slept most of the time in the booth behind us.)

Honestly...I came home and went right to bed myself.

3 tickets to Carowinds - Free

Parking - $10

Drinks - $10

Shopping - $10

Food - $30

Day of family fun - Priceless!

(Oh, I have to tell you about the shopping. They were clearing out the end of the season merchandise. You could buy a bag for $20 and pack it full of as much stuff as you could. Joy and I decided to split the price and go in together to pick stuff out for all the kids. I so wish that I would have taken a picture of everything we got!

Here is what I can remember stuffing in the bag:

4 stuffed monkeys

2 stuffed bears

1 stuffed horse

1 Backyardigan's playground ball

2 sets of glittery "shakers"

1 Tasha hat

1 Dora storage box

3 super large pencils

2 bubble swords

1 bubble gun

2 outfits for the stuffed animals

1 big decorative flower

That is all I can remember right now... but I know there was more. We were so proud of our bargain shopping and bag packing!)