Fun at Knoebels!

My dad's family owned an amusement park in Pittsburgh so it seems that enjoying amusement parks is in my DNA. Since Nadia was old enough to ride kiddie rides we have been going to Knoebels and other amusement parks every summer. I think this is the latest into the summer we ever waited until our first trip. We had plans to go to Knoebels twice in May and to Montage Mountain (water park) in June, but the weather interfered with all of those plans. At this point last year we had already been to eight different amusement parks - Knoebels, Sesame Place, Six Flags, Disneyland, Legoland, Montage Mountain, Sea World, and Aquatica. On Friday I drove the boys directly from chemistry camp to Elysburg (the town where Knoebels is located). We met a woman at a gas station, and she gave me $50 for my bread maker. Then we joined some people from our church in pavilion. Those who helped in their VBS in June received a free meal and either a bargain night handstamp or some tickets (for the volunteer plus his/her immediate family). The meals included a hotdog, hamburger,

ice cream, sweet tea, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese. None of us ate our entire meal, which worked out well as we were able to save two hamburgers, two ice creams, one macaroni and cheese, and sweet tea for Paul when he arrived later. None of us took any coleslaw.

I chose the tickets over the handstamp because the handstamp didn't include the roller coasters. If they do this again next summer, hopefully I'll remember to get handstamps for the kids and tickets for Paul and I and then we can give the kids our tickets to use on the roller coasters. The upside of having done it the way we did is we still have tickets left over that we can use when we go back (weather permitting) in 12 days for WGRC Day (our local Christian radio station). Oliver didn't try the Impulse. It was the first year he was tall enough to ride it. He says he'll try it with Nadia the next time we're there. It's a steel rollercoaster that goes upside down multiple times. Oliver rode the Phoenix twice with Ian, the Twister once with Paul, the flume twice with Ian, and the Skloosh once with me

and once with Ian. We should have done the Skloosh earlier in the night as you get drenched on that one. It was a very hot day, but thankfully Knoebels has a lot of trees that provide shade. Also, I think the heat helped keep the crowd on the smaller side. The boys also did the Haunted House for the first time. No handstamp covers that ride so it was the perfect day to ride it since we were using tickets. Ian enjoyed it. Oliver at first said he'd NEVER do it again, and then later he said maybe he'd ride it again when he's ten years old. On our ride home he talked to Grandma on the phone (before he fell asleep), and he talked the most about the haunted house. We were on the rides for about two hours. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to return to Knoebels in 12 days as Nadia hasn't been on any rides yet this summer. We also plan to go to Del Grosso's in early August for Oliver's birthday. Since parking is free at Knoebels and we were given a meal and tickets, our only expenses for this fun evening included buying Paul a soda and a milkshake and buying a cup of

soft ice cream that the boys and I shared.

On Wednesday I came down with a respiratory bug of some sort. I had the hardest time just staying awake that day. I didn't take the boys to VBS on Tuesday or Wednesday. I slept 10 hours on Wednesday night and 11 hours on Thursday night. Thursday I had a bit more energy. I took the kids to VBS that evening and asked Paul to pick them up. Because of our trip to Knoebels I went to bed later on Friday night, and the boys got up earlier than usual which translated to me only getting 7 hours of sleep. That coupled with all the activity on Friday meant I took several steps backward in how I was feeling yesterday. We have been in a heat wave. The high temperature has been in the 90's and with the humidity the "real feel" has been around 107. I thought if I mowed the lawn at 8:00am it wouldn't be unbearably hot at that time of day, but I was wrong. I started to have some heat exhaustion so I quit even though I wasn't quite done mowing and took a very cold shower. I could tell if I

tried to finish mowing I was likely to faint. My worst incident of heat exhaustion was when I was at camp (as a high schooler) and I passed out right before I was about to climb on a horse. It would have been much worse to faint while on the horse, but I still was treated to an ice bath by the camp nurse. While the boys were in chemistry camp I wasn't sure I had it in me to drive to Knoebels, but I went to CVS and bought some lozenges plus a bottle of water that had vitamins and caffeine and such in it. That perked me up enough that I didn't cancel the trip to Knoebels. The past two days I have been paying the price for pushing myself on Friday.

Normally I can't take a sick day - moms don't usually get that luxury, but I actually have been able to this weekend. Paul usually works on Saturday. Yesterday he got up and got dressed for work but then changed his mind. I was surprised when I came down for breakfast to see him still here sitting in the family room in his work clothes. He decided to take the day off. All four of us went to get Nadia at camp that morning. I started a load of laundry and a load of dishes and then laid down. I literally can go years without taking a nap. I am NOT a napper. But I took a nap yesterday afternoon, which shows how utterly exhausted I was. I probably would have slept longer than I did, but it was a sauna in our bedroom. I was sweating like crazy. We need to replace the compressor for our air conditioning. We will wait a bit because I'm sure we'd pay top dollar right now in the middle of a heat wave, but with the A/C on our house is close to 90 degrees downstairs, which means it's well over 90 degrees upstairs. Usually the house comes down to 74 or 75 (where we typically have it set) by the morning, but this morning it had only cooled down to 81 in our house even during the night! Thankfully the temperature is supposed to drop 20 degrees tomorrow. I literally was using an ice pack on my temples yesterday in the house because I was so hot. We were all at home from 11:00-6:30, and then Paul and the kids left to see a musical about Snoopy. I had planned to take them, but he went in my place, and I went to bed at 7pm.

We had planned to go to the Civil War Days at Landis Valley Farm today. I had this on the calendar for a full year, which is why last fall I purchased a family membership to the farm when Paul took the kids there for a different event. Since I'm under the weather and it's so stinking hot out today those plans were scratched. It means the membership was not the way to go financially, but I'll just have to consider it a donation to a worthwhile organization. My plan is to not leave the house at all today. I am still rather dizzy. I'm hoping that two days of rest (not counting the trip to Camp Susque yesterday morning) will help me get over this bug more quickly. Paul and the kids are at church, and then they will stop at First Baptist (where the boys went to VBS last week) for inflatables, a slip and slide, etc. Nadia will be able to go to the Middle (youth group she attends at the Methodist church) this evening. She hasn't gone there in a few months. Thankfully the next two days are pretty calm. I have three chauffeuring duties over those two days - take Nadia to the doctor for her eleven year old physical on Monday morning and take all three kids to a baseball/softball clinic Monday and Tuesday night.