Silverwood fun, now back to school!

We made it back from Coeur d'Alene and the kids are all back in school! First, let's talk about our Silverwood trip!

We left Friday afternoon, and it felt a bit frantic and stressful for some reason. It was a bit of a different trip because we were taking Lynsey's friend Maggie along (not that she is in the least bit high maintenance, but still) and we noticed when we were about a half hour down the road that Adam had not put his sandals on. Great. We decided that turning around was not feasible and we found the North Bend outlet malls just a few minutes away, so we stopped in and grabbed him a new pair of sandals. Back on the road! Traffic was pretty crappy and it took us a while, we stopped in Spokane for dinner before continuing on to Coeur d'Alene. Our hotel was nice enough, the room wasn't huge but it worked with Lynsey and Maggie in the living room and us and the boys in the two queen beds in the bedroom. Brian took the boys swimming before bed while I got everyone unpacked, only to realize that I had not packed a single shirt for Adam. Oops! Off to Fred Meyer I went to buy him some t-shirts! I made some uncharacteristic mistakes on this trip for some reason, not sure what was going on there!

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel the next morning, and slowly got ourselves ready to head to Silverwood (they didn't open until 11). It was a fun day, but not without it's hiccups! Adam didn't do many rides, we realized later that we made an error taking him on a spinny type ride first thing since he doesn't really like those. He did do a few others throughout the day, he likes swing rides and roller coasters, but we could not get him to do a roller coaster that first day. He still seemed to have fun, I so appreciated his resilience! It was much needed when late in the afternoon, it started to rain:-l. It started off slow but thunder and lightning rolled in and soon enough it was pouring. They shut down the rides briefly because of the lightning, and droves of people left. Somehow, we were not among them! We found some shelter while Brian ran back to the van to get his sweater for Adam who was LOUDLY complaining about the rain and not a happy camper whatsoever! Lynsey was insisting that we ride out the storm since all the good rides would have no lines, so we did. I still can't believe Adam recovered after the rain stopped, it was nothing short of a miracle! Lynsey, Maggie and Brian got to ride several rides with no lines before people started coming back out of the woodwork. We stayed until about 8pm and headed back to the hotel, picking up pizza along the way to eat at the hotel. Brian couldn't get away without taking Adam swimming before bed, of course. A long day but a good day! Here are the pics from the first day!

Sunday morning we left a bit earlier to try and get there a bit sooner, and we were much smarter about how to get Adam involved. We went straight to the kiddie section and rode a swing ride which he liked, and a few small roller coasters that he enjoyed. THEN we took him to the Corkscrew, which is refused to ride yesterday. He willingly rode it this time! I even rode it, purely to be a participator and not because I enjoyed it one bit! He was ready to go to the waterpark after that, and Brian and I took the boys over to Boulder Beach while Maggie and Lynsey stayed in Silverwood. The waterpark was a lot of fun for the boys, they started with a few waterslide rides, then we took a round through the lazy river before hitting the wave pool. This was the favorite for both boys. Nathan was crashing into those waves with quite the enthusiasm! We went back to Silverwood late afternoon and hooked back up with the girls, and everyone but Adam and I rode the big tube water ride (the line was quite long so this took a while). Everyone got to ride a few more rides, we had some ice cream, and then I took the boys back to the room while Brian stayed behind with the girls to do some more rides. I was so happy to relax in the room, and so were the boys! We picked up Brian and the girls around 8:30 and went to Chili's for a late dinner. Another long day but a good day! Here's the pics from day 2:

The ride home on Monday was pretty good. Traffic was pretty rough so we took a detour around a good part of the I-90 to save some time. We had to get Lynsey home in time for her volleyball practice at 3:30, and we made it with about 35 minutes to spare. Without the detour, it would have been close! It was a fun weekend and I'm glad we did it! Maggie was a pleasure to have with us, as expected she did not add a lick of stress and I know Lynsey was really happy to have a friend along. 

School started the next day and while it was a bit of a hectic morning, everyone got off to school and I had the house to myself for the first time in forever! It felt a bit odd that first day, but I am already getting used to being back in routine! Lynsey had her first two volleyball games last week as well, lost both but on the second match they did win one set, so that was a promising sign! Today I took her Homecoming dress shopping with her friends and their moms. It was a bit overwhelming for the moms but the girls had a lot of fun! They all found something and that's what matters, right?

This week will be interesting. Brian is leaving Tuesday morning on a work trip until Thursday evening, and Lacrosse starts on Monday. It's going to be quite tricky to make it all work on my own but I'll figure it out!