Valley Fair

After two ridiculously long travel days north, we were still all sane and glad to arrive in Minnesota.  We had clocked almost 70 hours in the van together and 12 states.  Quite the experience.  I wish I had more time to tell you all about our travel adventures.  Sure, the destinations were awesome, but I tell you the journey was memorable as well.

Alright....so we were planning to spend the day at Valley Fair.  We have never done something like this with our kids.  Call us bad parents, but we haven't even taken our kids to the local kiddie amusement park.  But on the other hand we have taken them to see the site of the most dinosaur tracks in the world and to Brazil and to countless other cool places.  So, that counts for something, right?

On the morning of our Valley Fair excursion it was drizzling and my heart sank.  I knew that would be the only day, tickets had been purchased already, and we couldn't stay extend a day as Carl's mom was celebrating her 65th just two days later in Manitoba, something we didn't want to miss.  So we prayed, Joel especially, and when we arrived 15 minutes later the rain had stopped.  Praise God for answering our prayers!  We still would have braved it in the rain, but the kids were so encouraged that God even cares about weather and amusement park attendance.

There weren't many lines an account of the poor outlook on the day, but the sun started to come out by mid-morning so we benefited from an emptier park and decent weather.  The rides were awesome; I'm quite the roller coaster junky and found out my older three are too.  But I didn't go on the Wild Thing.  Forget it. I have my limits. I read about the G-forces and strokes and I don't care how safe it may be, I'm not going to be the one to stroke out on that thing.

We ate a lot of junk; snow cones the size of my head, corn dogs with the cheapest grossest hot dogs, cotton candy, pretzels, and pizza.  Oh how lovely and awful.  Poor Kezia was thrilled to have all these new foods, but kept commenting on the salt and sugar content.  That kid and her nutrition!

I loved the day.  Nine hours on the rides and at the water park.  When Elena started to wail, we knew she was so overtired and we were done.  We packed up our weary selves and headed back to the hotel.  What an awesome way to end a great holiday.