Wet N Wild with the Family

This past weekend my parents were visiting at The Villages, FL (about an hour north of Orlando), so the kids and I loaded up and drove over to visit. My brother, Kyle, and his fiancee, Renee, were both there too with their puppy, Chipper. Thursday afternoon we all caught up with one another (including celebrating a belated Father's Day with Papa... we gave him a copy of Annabelle's favorite book, Puff the Magic Dragon), hung out at "The Square" to check out The Villages vibe, and had a yummy dinner at Johnny Rocket's. That night I decided to try letting Corgan sleep on the floor the whole night for the first time. I still don't know whether that was a bad decision or not because Corgan ended up coughing so much the whole night that neither of us really got much sleep. He would cough every 30 seconds! I tried to sleep sitting up with him on my chest, and that still didn't work. In fact, he ended up coughing so much that he threw up in the middle of the night. Good times!

The next morning, he seemed a little bit better. We had planned to go to Wet 'N Wild, and I was determined to go no matter how sleepy I was! I had been wanting to go back to Wet 'N Wild for years, and with my recent rekindled love for all toys water-related (see my past entries on slip-n-slides and inflatable waterslides), I was pumped! Everything worked out, and we managed to get there late enough that Corgan got a nap in on the way over, we missed the day camp crowd, and there were barely any lines!

When we first got there, we took the kids to the kiddie area. They immediately started jumping on everything and going on the water slides non-stop! Once they seemed completely comfortable, the adult kids (me & Keith and Kyle & Renee) took off for the big slides while Grammy & Papa watched the little kids. We pretty much did the slides in the order that we came across them. Most of the slides seem to be for groups, which is actually kinda cool because you get to enjoy it with everyone else. After going on a couple of slides, we decided to go back and see if Annabelle wanted to try one of the ones that she was big enough for. She LOVED The Flyer! She went on there with Keith and I, and as soon as we got off, she said "Mommy, you go get a drink and I'm going to go on the slide again with Daddy!" So I did. :) After that, I got her to try "The Blast" with me... which she didn't like as much. She didn't cry or anything, but that ride includes lots of water shooting at you and spilling on you, and she wasn't a fan of that.

My favorite ride is hard to pin down... I loved Disco H20, Brain Wash, and The Storm! I even managed to get a video on Disco H20:

There are a couple of parts where I had to grab on to my handle so the video gets a little crazy. :) It was so fun!

The thrill highlight of the day was definitely riding The Bomb Bay! This waterslide starts 250 feet up in the air. It begins with a rocket ship that the ride controller allows you to step inside of. He or she then shuts the door and locks you into this tiny single person rocket. You stand watching your feet, trying to stand slightly leaning back yet keep your legs crossed at the same time (to avoid the biggest weggie ever when you finally go down the slide), crossing your arms across your chest, and feeling your heart pounding as you wait for the floor to fall out from under you! Once the controller pushes the button, the floor drops and you drop too! The slide is so vertical that you feel like you're floating over the water all of the way down the slide... until you get to the horizontal part and you clench your bootie cheeks as tightly as possible to avoid a water-induced weggie from the super-high velocity that you just built up thanks to gravity! It's so terrifying, yet ridiculously fun at the same time! My brother also did the slide with me, while Keith and Renee watched and took video of our bravery.

Our day at Wet 'N Wild was so much fun for everyone! Fortunately, they have a deal where you buy a day ticket and you can go back for free for the rest of 2009, so I'm sure we'll be heading back to Orlando before too long! And Grammy & Papa got those tickets too, so they can play with the kids while I get to be a kid myself! Yea!

Enjoy the pictures of our weekend, including Wet 'N Wild fun.

After Wet 'N Wild, Kyle & Renee came to Melbourne to spend the weekend with us. We spent most of Saturday around the house, until later in the afternoon when I took Corgan to Ethan's birthday party at Gymboree (Annabelle was coughing really bad so I didn't take her to spread her germs to the other kids). Corgan loved playing on the Gymboree equipment! Later we took Kyle & Renee for their first visit to The Melting Pot, which they LOVED (of course)!

One of the goals for this weekend was to get Engagment-type pictures of Kyle & Renee. Originally Erica was going to shoot them, but then her new job took her to London for the weekend (poor Erica!), so I had to step up. I must say, I was very happy with the results of my pictures! I took a bunch of pictures Saturday night at The Avenues in Viera, then took more in Downtown Melbourne on Sunday morning. Kyle & Renee were wonderful models, and were up for trying anything that I suggested! They were so good that when I finally edited down the pictures to the "best" shots, I still had over 130 pictures! I still need to let Renee & Kyle go through the pictures to decide which ones to keep secret for now, so I won't be sharing them all yet, but here are a couple that I really liked (with some Photoshop actions applied... thanks again Erica!):

Sunday morning, after we got back from our Downtown shoot, I took a few pictures of Kyle & Renee with Chipper, their baby. Dogs seem to be even harder to photograph than a toddler is! Wow! We managed to get a few great pictures though! Again, I'll share these later.

P.S. Looking back at this entry makes me realize how much I really need to get a new blog so that I can post bigger pictures. Maybe someday I'll actually have some free time. :(