This year we had our very first ever Harvey and Josephine Smith Family reunion. (My Mom's parents) The family is growing so rapidly that we often don't have the chance to get everyone together, and sadly there are quite a few of my Washington cousin's kiddos that I haven't met yet. So it was fun to remedy that. We had a great turn out, many of them traveling from Washington to come and spend the 4 days with us. It was wonderful! We have such a wonderful heritage!
And if anyone doubted who's the boss, this little piggy tailed girl is IT!! We stopped to chat with some family coming back to the pavillion we reserved and she was ready to GO! So what did she do, take the stroller and head off on her own. She also decided that she was going to go say 'Hi' to a bunch of geese that were wandering around this green area. Mamma goose was not all to happy to have her so up close and personal, thankfully Ty and our cousin Mike were close and heard the hissing.
Miss Mya came out of her shell while on this trip, she was much more daring. Not too much so mind you but she was willing to venture onto many of the rides as long as her cousins were with her. This was a pretty big step for the little lady since the only rides she's ever been on have been at a Disney themepark of some sort so we always rode with her.
Here we are waiting for what we thought was a nice little dragon kiddie roller coaster, you know like the classic Lagoon puff the magic dragon... not eve close. The line was short so we got right on and got settled before dad and I realized that this was not what we expected...this was a full on tilt a whirl nestled in the middle of kiddie land. Oh, my! The forward circles were fine, but then it went backward. No bueno! Sadie kept looking up at me with this 'What the heck Mom?!' look and asking "You got me mom? You got me?" It was far more wild than any of us expected and it took Grandpa out until after dinner. Sorry Grandpa, thanks for being a good sport.
This ride was all fine and good until about the third time around and then Mya's serious riding face changed to a worried when is this going to be over face. There were no tears but she informed us that it 'Kinda freaks me out'.
Bumper cars with Berklee and Greta (Don't be fooled by Greta, once the rides got going she was all smiles)
When talking to Mya about going to Lagoon I had mentioned bumper cars and of course the word car peaked her interest so she was thrilled to try them out. But bad luck, she ended up in the dud car. It wouldn't move, the lights wouldn't come on and the sweet teenage ride assistant kept saying 'turn the wheel' over and over on the loud speaker. And little miss just kept getting more and more frustrated to the point of tears. Once she got off and I gave her a little lovin' she was ok but refused to get back on. And you know what that darling little ride operator discovered after the next kid got in that same car and it wouldn't work...hmmm it wasn't on. I may or may not have been trying to convince him of that while my little one was distraught sitting inside of it.
Oh well, we soon discovered some other cars that made up for the bumper car fiasco. We rode these little gems 4-5 times during our stay.
So, how many of you remember the little boats at Lagoon? I do! I thought they were the coolest and I remember being a little sad when I was too big to ride them anymore. Well, suprise after a day of riding all sorts of crazy rides this is where scaredy cat kitty decided to appear. She wanted nothing to do with them. Thankfully my cousin Chanel's darling little girl Aroura came over, and took Mya by the hand and it was just what she needed.
It was so sweet to see them together. They had only met once the night before.
Grandpa had taken Sadie back with him to just chill since she was in one of her moods. But when we met back for dinner she was in a much better place. She was having the time of her life playing in her little 'cave' as she called it. She would climb back into the trees, on the rocks and was just having the time of her life.
Uncle Ty and Hallah let me be the third wheel and ride some of the big kid rides with them. I rode a ride called Wicked that was crazy! I screamed and screamed and got an instant headache but it was so much fun!
After dinner we wandered through Pioneer town. I learned something new, the Bingham Cabin is one of my Grandma Josephine's ancestors. That was a very fun little bit of trivia. While we were in that neck of the woods we all decided to ride the log flume ride. We figured we would get wet, but greatly underestimated the reality. I escaped with minimal soaking but Grams was not so lucky. I had to laugh as soon as we hit the bottom both girls started to cry because they got wet.
My Sassy Mom looking good as new after using a bathroom hand dryer to dry her hair. Seriously!
The ladies were very excited to ride the 'little engine that could'
I love this... Sadie mid 'choo-choo'
Since Sadie was in a better place we decided to let her experience some of the rides she missed earlier. Mya was kind enough to take her on the boats. They were both very serious about steering. Sadie would cheese it up and wave to me and the only pictures I got are a little blurry.
Once again, don't be fooled by Greta she was a dare devil. She's the only one that would ride the ride in the picture below and she wanted to ride it again and again. Maybe that was the whole problem, they stuck her on the kiddie rides all day long and what she really wanted was something a little crazy.
The serious business of measurement. Even though she'd been on the ride before a couple times we still had to measure to make sure we were still good to go.
One last ride on the cars. I let them choose one last ride before we went home and was I suprised by their choice... not so much.
Berklee getting all sugared up before the ride home.
Happy as could be. I kept waiting for the night time melt down but they both did so well. When they were ready to go they said so. We got to the car, I had Jammies in the bag so we did a quick change and then they were out for the count before we even made it to the freeway. It was a wonderful day! Thanks to everyone that helped keep track of me and my littles. I love you all madly! It was so fun to be there with you all.
