Happy Birthday, Daddy!

The kids were so excited for Casey's birthday. We had been working on a book for him for a few days, and they couldn't wait to give it to him. I had each of the kids answer some questions about Casey, and I put all their answers in the book. I included the kids responses from last year as well. It was funny reading through them... kids think they are pretty hilarious :)   Cooper's answers from last year were the best!

Each of the kids also made Casey a special card...you can see Riley's in this picture.

I gave Casey a music CD, and some framed pictures of each of the kids, and also one of the family so that he could keep them in his office at work.

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father ever! We love you! :)

Visiting Daddy at Work!

   

Today Casey called and said that the city was having a little BBQ for it's employees and so he asked if we wanted to stop by and say "hi". Cooper and Kendall are always happy to visit Daddy! It was fun seeing him, and Cooper and Kendall had a good time playing at the park.

          

Lagoon!

Last week me and Casey were supposed to have a date night at Lagoon, but my endometriosis was making life miserable and so we postponed until last night. I was so excited to spend some time with Casey...and I really like amusement parks! We had a "date night" coupon that got us in for half price after 5:00 pm. My awesome parents came to our house to watch the kids so we could go. 

We got there a little after 5:00 and rode the Bombora first. It is a family roller coaster that is pretty new and so I hadn't been on it before. It was really fun! Riley loved it when she came with Casey a couple of years ago. After that we rode the Jet Star II and then to The Rocket, re-entry. The Rocket is one of my favorites! Casey doesn't like that one as much as I do, but he is awesome and rode it with me :) 

The Samurai was next. I was so excited for this one and I remembered it being one of my favorite rides. It had been at almost 10 years since I last rode it and so I was looking forward to it. We got the best seats on the end...but after the ride started I was wishing we had sat on the inside seats! It was so much crazier that I remembered!! I was being whipped around so much and I felt like I was going to lose my lunch. My heart was just pounding...the force of the ride was just crazy. After we got off I felt so so sick and my shoulder was hurting. The pain just kept on getting worse. We walked over the Pioneer Village and sat down. The pain was so bad! I literally couldn't move for about 10 minutes. I was sweating and my arm was shaky and I thought I was going to spew. I was getting a little worried and told Casey I needed to go to the first aid station. After I got up and started walking again my neck, shoulder, and the left side of my torso started cramping up. It felt like I had a big charlie horse. I started moving my arm around and the pain started to get a little better. We decided to get me a drink so we went into the Arby's at Pioneer Village. Casey ordered a roast beef sandwich combo meal for him (freaking $9!) and I started feeling a little better after I drank a little soda. I kept on telling Casey how disappointed I was in myself, lol! I couldn't believe that one of my favorite rides totally took my out! I felt so lame!

The Sam Damurai!

 We walked around Pioneer Village for awhile and the pain would get a little better, then it would get worse. We walked through a couple gift shops and then went on the Terror Ride about an hour later. I was feeling a little better by then, but still not ready for any roller coasters. We went back to the gift shop by Rattlesnake Rapids and bought some stuffed animal snakes for the kids. We took them out to the car and on the way back I was finally feeling ok. When we got back in the park, we went on Dracula's Castle. I liked that one a lot better than the Terror Ride! Both of the scary rides had a few new things inside and the Terror Ride's mural had been replaced by some cool looking trees. 

Flippin Sweet mural that used to be on the Terror Ride.

Wicked! My new favorite ride :)

After we went on the Terror Ride I was finally ready to try some roller coasters! I was glad we didn't go home...we were pretty close to leaving because I was hurting so bad! We walked down to the Fire Dragon and Wicked. We went on Wicked first. It was so awesome...I think it is my new favorite ride! It was also the first time that I had gone on it when it was dark outside. We loved it!










 After Wicked we went on the Fire Dragon. The line was short and we got on pretty fast. When we got to the top of the ride we looked over and saw a fire on the side of the mountain! It was really close...it looked pretty cool in the dark. We could also see the lights from the fire trucks and police cars.

Here's a view of the fire from the parking lot.

 After the Fire Dragon we grabbed some Teriyaki Stix for me (yay!) and called it a night! When we got home we gave the kids their snakes. They love them :)  

We had a super fun night (despite my injury!). I'm still not sure what happened. We thought maybe I had a pinched nerve? Or whiplash? It feels pretty good today...just a little sore.

Some on-ride video of the crazy Sam Damauri

Dirty Dash!!

The Dirty Dash was so much fun! The only bad thing was that I broke my ankle 5 miles into the race. Boo! I was so mad at myself! I was able to finish the race...I climbed up the cargo nets, went down the giant slip n slide, and made my way through the mud pits. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I wanted to finish! After we were done I knew that my injury was pretty bad. The next day I found out my ankle was broken and I had to go in and get a boot to wear for 4 weeks. It could have been worse, but I'm just mad I can't run or work out for 12 weeks! Oh, well. At least I was having fun when I got hurt....and I'm still planning on signing up for next year's Dirty Dash!! It is so much fun!!