Fourth of July Weekend

Parenting is undeniably an impossibly challenging and thankless job...but it also undoubtedly has its perks.  For instance, having an excuse to take a day off from work to go to Six Flags...because a six-year-old can't go to an amusement park all alone.  That's what Caleb and I did this past Wednesday.  He was so proud of himself for having earned a free pass to Six Flags by reading this past year.  And, with shoes on, he was just tall enough to ride many of the rides.

My thoughts were that we should warm him up on the Dahlonega Mine Train just to make sure he was a roller-coaster-riding-kind-of-guy.  As it turns out, he totally is - just like his mama!  Here we were in our front row seat before and after his very first roller coaster ride.  He was not the least bit afraid.  We were both so proud!  (And I was a little nervous after he was slung and tossed every which way during the ride.  It's one thing to ride a roller coaster when your main concern is just yourself, but it's a completely different animal to ride a roller coaster with your pride and joy in the seat right next to you.  Talk about frightening.)

Next stop:  the Mind Bender.  He didn't bat an eye and just hopped right on.  (I may have failed to mention to him that there were some serious turns and flips in this one...).  As we were making our approach to the first big downhill, I was thinking to myself, I used to scream on these roller coasters, but I'm old enough now that I probably shouldn't do that.  Down the hill we went, up my hands went, and out came the blood-curdling screams.  As it turns out, I'm a scream-on-all-the-roller-coasters-kind-of-gal, even at my more advanced age.  I think Caleb let out a few screams on this one too.  By the end, he was whooping and smiling ear-to-ear.
In the end, we rode all we set out to ride (and even his favorite cars twice), and we had an amazing time together.  Our goal is for him to grow six inches by next summer so we can ride Goliath together.  He better eat his Wheaties and his spinach...

This day was just the beginning of our long Fourth of July weekend.  Over the course of the weekend, we made crafts, ate large pieces of watermelon, played outside, lit sparklers, went to a birthday party and church cookout, visited Mamaw Ollie and Papaw Charlie in Ellijay, splashed in the creek with cousins, ate wild blackberries, and had ice cream for dinner.

While we may all be tired after such a full weekend, our hearts are happy.

No, parenting is not all fun and games, but every now and then it almost is.