How we celebrated my unemployment

Friday was my last shift at the Safeway gas station, so Saturday was my first day back as an official stay-at-home mom.  It happened to coincide with a pretty good deal at Oaks Park, so I decided to take advantage of the excuse to celebrate!  I'd known my work schedule for a few weeks and the Oaks Park deal probably about as long, so I'd been planning on it for a while!  The forecast was a 30% chance of rain, so we couldn't decide for sure until that morning.  Which also meant we couldn't tell the kids until that morning, which kind of drove me crazy.  Dan will tell you, I'm quite childlike in my excitement about this place, and it was hard to keep it to myself!

I have an odd assortment of pictures thanks to a few reasons.  First of all, my cell phone is quite temperamental (my new one is coming TODAY!), so I missed a few pics while it acted up.  Second, Dan had the camera for a lot of the time and isn't big on taking pictures (he says the phrase "When are we ever going to look at these?" all the time).  And third, Dan was with the big boys a lot while I was with Nathan and Katy, and even Katy and I split up a few times (She actually is a pretty awesome height - over the 42 inches required to do some rides by herself, but short enough to still go on the little rides.  So quite a few times she'd go on the same ride as us, but go alone just because she could.).  So I have mostly pictures of Nathan, because I was almost always with him (and if I wasn't it was because I was going on a ride that he couldn't go on).

 The first pictures I have are of the Ferris wheel (I'd had to reset my phone when I tried to get pictures earlier).  Katy could go alone, so she did. :-)  Nathan was very interested in how we went up...

 ...then down.  It was what he talked about the entire ride.  Then it kind of threw him off at the end when we'd stop to let people on/off.

With all the pictures of Nathan that I took, there are very few where he looks like he's having any fun at all.  I remember the older kids doing that when they were little, too.  I could tell he liked the rides mostly by how sad he was to get off at the end!

 Oaks Park has a skating rink that is included in the bracelet cost, so the little ones and I went in for a little while.  Katy stuck to the training area, and Nathan and I hung out and watched the big boys.  They were in there a while longer than us, and they've gotten pretty good!

 When we first discovered Oaks Park in summer of 2011 these boys were clinging to the sides.  Not so now!  The tie-dyed shirt is Ryan.

And here's David in the grey.

 Poor David.  When we left the skating rink I told the boys that they should try the bouncy boats.  David got in one, Ryan got in another with Nathan, then decided that I should go behind them so Nathan wouldn't be sad.  So David was alone, the other 4 of us were in one.

 I'm pretty sure Katy was grumpy about not getting to go in the pink one or something equally silly.  Which is sad because the rest of us are all having fun!

 See, this is how most pictures of Nathan are.  He cried when I took him out of the car, so I know he liked it, but it sure doesn't look like it!

 Katy, on the other hand, showed her happiness!  This little roller coaster is another one that she could go on by herself for the first time.  I think she likes it. :-)

 Dan was a good sport about tagging along even though he doesn't do rides.  Can you find him?

 Here's a zoomed in shot.  At least he had his phone to pass the time. :-)

 This is Katy all the way across the big boat ride.  Because she could.

 I took so many pictures like this, trying to get a good shot of me with my little man.

 I think this is the best one.  He looks a tiny bit happy.

 Then the ride started, and he was actually happy!  You know, it'll be interesting to see if he is happier when we go back this summer sometime.  Maybe it just took some time to warm up.

 See?  He liked it!

 It's possible Nathan was a little tired by the end.  Poor kiddo missed his nap.  The life of a fourth child.

Yup, Katy is riding the same ride but in a separate...um...car?  What would you call that?

As we were finishing up I let Nathan pick one more ride, and he surprised me by choosing the balloons!  They look like hot air balloons, and just go up and spin around the circle and spin individually as well (does that make sense?).  I guess he liked it!


Well, I'm sad to not have more pictures of the big boys doing the big kid rides, but I'll just have to remember that for next time!  The kids and I really love this place, and will hopefully be back soon!