A Weekend With The Ohio Clan

It seems like forever since I’ve had a chance to capture some of the busyness of our lives. Our Ohio family made their way south to spend some quality time with Elliott this past weekend. They were greeted by clear skies and plenty of Elliott’s sunshine.

On Friday, we took Elliott on his first trip to an amusement park. The nine of us spent the day at Kings Dominion baking in the hot sun. Fortunately, the 95 degree weather and 4 dollar a gallon gasoline kept many people home. We were able to get on and off the rides as we pleased which was good for entertainment value, but it also kept us from withering inside the long turnstiles that wrapped through the most wide open parts of the park.

The trip provided many memories of the past and pointed an excited finger at the future. I can remember long nights lying awake anxiously counting the minutes before we would take a family outing to Kings Island or Cedar Point in Ohio. As I rode the roller coasters this weekend, part of me missed the terror that went with being a child climbing those hills for the first time. Some of the fun disappears when it is no longer unexpected to be tossed over the side of that hill into a freefall of 60MPH hairpin turns and hills that briefly suck you off your seat. I felt blessed to get to see some of that in my niece and nephew on the Avalanche. I couldn’t help but daydream forward to being on the painful end of an Elliott death grip as I escort him on his first roller coaster ride. Although I must admit, the coasters seem to just get taller and faster – I may enjoy the security of that grip.

After the sun zapped us of all energy on Friday, we hung out poolside on Saturday. Elliott made a very rapid progression from dipping his toes in the baby pool to floating on his inflatable boat in the big people pool. He has really taken a liking to the water. You’ll see in some of the pictures the excitement he gets being wet. One of his favorite moments at Kings Dominion was walking under the misty spray that hung over one of the park walkways.

On Sunday we took a trip out on our boat on Lake Anna. The last time we were up there Elliott was hesitant to get in the water. After his warm up in the pool on Saturday, he was as anxious as an Olympic swimmer waiting for the starting gun to go off to get from the deck of the boat into the lake. You’ll see from the pictures that he took to the water just fine this trip.

We were very blessed to have time with family this weekend. Elliott even added another member to his short list of heroes. Joining his two papas now is his cousin Josh. Even tonight he has asked a couple of times – “Josh go? Josh go?” For anyone who feels bad being left off the list, welcome to my world!

Be sure to check out the photo album from the weekend.