Awesome Park!

Our daycare is closed for two weeks, so I (Kyle) am getting to spend some quality time with Ethan & Jack. The other day we decided to go to the zoo, but when we got there the entire parking lot was full and then some (I didn't realize it at the time, but apparently Thursday is the free admission day this year). We (I) decided not to fight the crowd, because the only thing worse than a hot day at the zoo is a hot, crowded day at the zoo.

Ethan was more disappointed about the fact that he and Jack couldn't play on the playground outside the zoo than he was about missing out on the zoo itself, so I told him I would take him to an even better playground with a huge slide. I hoped I could deliver on that promise because I had actually only heard about the park I was planning to go to. One day at school I mentioned that I hadn't seen one of those "tornado" slides at any parks recently and wondered if they had all been taken down for liability reasons. One of my students mentioned that Bethany (a small town of about 1300 people about 20 minutes southeast of Decatur) had the best playground ever with a tornado slide, plus a bunch of other slides, so we headed out that way. I figured it would only take a matter of minutes to search the entire city, so if there was a park there, we would find it.

We arrived in Bethany, turned off the highway and almost immediately saw a sign for a park with an arrow on it. We turned that direction, and followed several other signs until we arrived at the park. It was as promised. Even better, there was no one else there! I got the boys out of the truck and they headed for the playground paradise. It was a good day...

DISNEY WORLD 2010

We took the boys to Disney World for vacation this year and had a great time. We stayed in a sports-themed hotel and visited all of the major parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom) at least once. It was extremely hot & humid, but other than that it was a great trip. Mandy's parents went with us and helped out with the kids.

Ethan got to "perform" on two different occasions. While we were at Magic Kingdom, he was picked from the audience to go up on stage during "Storytime with Belle" and played Belle's papa (he actually spent most of the time trying to get the tools out of the tool belt they put on him, and got quite frustrated because they were apparently permanently attached). He also was picked to take part in the "Lion King" production at Animal Kingdom (which, by the way, is a very cool show). We got a few pictures of both, of course.