About Me

I am the mother to 6 children and former foster mother to 2. I am passionate about whatever it is I am passionate about, until I change my mind. I dream big, plan big, and once in a while I even make it big. We are planning to take our freak show on the road. Join us as we embark on a new adventure!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

We are back from camping and so happy to be home. We met the nicest people at our campground. Of the three families that we met, two had fostered and adopted and one had adopted from the Department. I felt that it had to be a sign, but we don’t have any clue what exactly. Can you imagine, all three families that we met while camping.

One night we awoke to what sounded like a very large animal making very loud noises in my ear. I became very concerned that we didn’t clean up well from our marshmallows. (In my defense we got carried away because we were invited to have cake and celebrate the little girl’s anniversary with her foster parents at the neighboring campsite!) The noises were two animals having conversations that to me sounded very much like “Here, over here, burger grease!” “No here, over here, marshmallows!” It was very VERY loud and a bit scary. We got out our flashlights and looked around but the ground was clear. Before going on with my story I should point out that every other camper in the campground was from a neighboring city. We were the only campers “from away” and by the way, who in their right mind goes camping in Massachusetts? I digress. The other campers decided that it wasn’t animals, but kids imitating animals. How funny is that? City folk, out in the woods, hear animal noises and instead of thinking, “gee, it’s an animal” think “it’s kids making us think it’s an animal in an attempt to divert our attention so they can steal our beer!” Note to city folk: Kids who want to steal beer tip toe around and can be seen with flashlights! It turns out that we had owls overhead. They must have been an old married couple because they were really yelling at one another.

For our one year anniversary Gary and I went to Six Flags in New Jersey. For my 13th birthday I went with my bestest friend in the whole wide world Jen to Riverside Park, and somewhere there is the cutest picture of the two of us in our ever so cool sunglasses on the roller coaster there (stay with me here!) and a certain Billy Joel song was our life. Okay, so on the 17th it was the 13th anniversary of the day Gary and I married. Unintentionally we were at another Six Flags park, in fact the same park that used to be Riverside. As we walked in Billy Joel was playing on the radio. The roller coaster hadn’t changed one bit, and I rode it once again, this time with Noah who declared it the funnest ride EVER! How’s that for coincidences. Oh, and it was an anniversary for Six Flags as well, and all day they kept saying “Enjoy your anniversary at Six Flags New England!”

Our day at Six Flags:

I’m quite sure that the people who let us in have been fired, as have any employees that even so much as smiled in our general direction!

First, it was one of the hottest and muggiest days of the year. We decided that it made the most sense to stop and have a nice meal in an air conditioned restaurant as we mapped out the rest of our day. The “Brunch with Bugs” would have cost out family about $100 but I felt it would be so worth it to sit some place cool. (I was thinking Crystal Palace). We walked a really far way to find a pavilion with picnic tables. I though “no way and I paying $100 to sit at a picnic table in this heat!” so we left in search of air conditioning. There appeared to be one place that had air, so I stopped an employee and asked it there were any other places with air. He said that there were NO places with air because in the one place that had air, it wasn’t working. We opted to go to a barbecue place instead. Our meal came close to $60, and that is with us sharing plates. My chicken was cold so I had them replace it. The heat inside was unbearable, and because everything was “open air dining” the bugs were awful. Joshua said it was worse than at the campground. I complained to the manager and she said that we could have a refill of our soda for free. I told her no thank you, and she then suggested that we go to guest services. They handed me a form to fill out. I told them that I wasn’t interested in filling out a long form for no reason, but they told me that we could come into their offices were it was air conditioned so we went in and wrote real slow. When I was done we still weren’t anxious to leave, and as we dawdled they called over the food supervisor who asked us what we ate, then handed us back the cash that we spent. I was very happy with that solution, but just sitting in the cool air was nice.

We were feeling much better about things now that we had our money back and decided to head over to the water park. About two weeks prior I had called guest services to be sure that Joshua wouldn’t have any restrictions while wearing his cast. I was told that so long as he had the short arm water proof cast and could bend his arm there would be no restrictions. The water park staff did not agree and wouldn’t let him on any of the rides. I finally asked that they call over a manager. He was very nice and explained that the cast could damage the slides so he would only be allowed on rides with tubes. He then brought Joshua up to the top of the tubes slide. The employee there told Josh that he needed to get down, and the manager told him that Joshua could ride as often as he wanted. Gary said that later the employee told him that he didn’t understand why the manager let him on, it was against the rules. Then Joshua and I were going to ride the tornado and then Gary was going to have a turn. This ride requires a tube, and they are kept very far from where you wait in line. We waited several minutes before realizing that we needed to go get the tube first. While we were off getting the tube about 20 people got in line ahead of us. That I understood, but what made me mad was that none of them brought tubes, but instead sent other people to get them who then pushed us out of the way to get the huge tubes past. I finally had enough and told people that they needed to wait behind us. The girl pleaded “no, we were in line, he just needed to go get a tube!” I explained that we also needed a tube and we would have been on the ride by now! When we finally reached the top they stopped Joshua. I asked them to call a manager and while we waited the ride closed, then the park. Finally the manager came and told us that the other manager had been wrong and actually called him to tell him so. I explained that we had called in advance and been told no restrictions which clearly was not the case. I would not have cared if they had told us in advance, we would have simply avoided the water park, but here we were, waiting in long lines, fighting for our place in these lines only to be turned away. She felt bad enough for us that she offered us passes to return another time. I was a bit embarrassed going back to guest services to pick them up and for the record, I am never ever going back there. You can’t make me. Even for free with a free meal thrown in. I will sell the tickets and use the money to take the kids someplace with air conditioning and no restrictions. Six Flags New England is Disney prices with a carnival atmosphere. Did I tell you it costs $15 to park there? Yup, $15 to park. One slice of pizza costs $7. It cost $8 for a refillable soda cup and $1 to refill it with soda. $4 for a disposable cup. Water is $4. If you are thinking about visiting I would advise against it, unless you are a teenager with boundless energy and abundant disposable income. Even then you should rethink your plans.

This morning at the campground the kids wanted to play pool. Gary offered to pay the deposit on the sticks and told them not to come back complaining that it wasn’t fair or that someone cheated. They quickly rode off and Noah yelled back, “I’m not going to cheat, I usually cheat at cards!” That’s good information to have!

Driving home tonight Joshua asked, “is Lowa a state?” “Lowa?” I asked. “Oh, you must mean Iowa!” “Yes, Iowa. I thought it was an L.”

In other news we have been invited to go visit my father’s friend in upstate NY. This is the friend who sent the scrapbooking stuff. We are so excited and hope that we can coordinate dates after our Canadian camping trip! Can you believe that we are going to Canada? You all promise to write if they don’t let us back in, right?

Hopefully I won’t break blogger with my long post. I think I got it all and it not, that’s okay too!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

whoa.....seven bucks for a slice of pizza that is probably the same stuff that you would get at CiCi's? i have no desire to even visit the northeastern states of unfriendliness. give me fried okra, a rockaway burger and an ice cold draft beer and i am in southern heaven. y'all need to head south where it is hot but nice and inflation is what you do to your pool float.