Exhilaration

On Sunday, my awesome sister-in-law and brother-in-law took Caleb and Chloe to Sea World (they had the most wonderful time!). My mother-in-law kept Luke for the day.

And Brett and I got to go meet up with some of my most favorite people in the world at Islands of Adventure.
The back story is that I have known the Lemley family since 2002, when their oldest daughter, Libby, was the cutest, sweetest 8 year old in my soccer clinic at Kanakuk. Carol (her mom) and I connected at parent closings, and we've been close ever since.

She and Jeff are incredible parents, and much of my parenting comes from watching their family. As a college student, I used to meet up with Lemley's at Disney each year. I loved spending time with their family....parents and children alike!! Ask anyone around them: they are simply an awesome family. And each minute I spend with them is a tremendous blessing!!

Imagine my joy to reconnect with them in Orlando after all these years. Their young children are now not so young....and I have kids of my own. My kids were not there this day, but on our way out of town on Wednesday, we stopped by to meet up again so my kids could meet the Lemley crew!

Back to our adventure.....
Recently, I had shared with Brett that I felt like I was in a rut. While reading Facebook status updates, I would find myself feeling slightly jealous of my kid-less friends who were sleeping in or watching movies all day or whisking away for a surprise trip with their man. That is very unlike me, as I typically would not trade my life for all the sleep in the world, but on this day, I found myself longing for something different....which made me realize something needed to change.

So fast forward to Sunday morning....
Upon entering the park with the Lemley crew, our first stop was The Hulk ride. Realizing it had been over six years since I last rode a roller coaster, I had a moment of freak out right as the ride shot out of the gate.

But the feeling immediately disappeared as we took off when I realized how much I LOVE roller coasters!!! The ride was so exhilarating!! What an adrenaline rush!! I laughed. I screamed. I thought back to the last time I rode it. I felt good. I got off the ride and immediately realized this is just what I needed to get out of my rut. Sounds silly but its true.

We spent the day riding crazy roller coasters, laughing, and strolling along without worrying about our kids....while getting to enjoy time with great friends. Growing up, I was always an adrenaline junkie. I loved adventurous things: skydiving, skycoaster, parasailing, snow skiing, and more! Since having kids, though, I am not as adventurous as I used to be. I am responsible. People depend on me. I have to be careful.

Until I realized that the little people in my life are so much better off when I do something fun and even a bit crazy on occasion.

A trip to Islands of Adventure with one of my most favorite families on the planet is just what my soul needed to return home with a great attitude and ready for my crazy but awesome life!!

Pictures from our second meet-up....
All of the kids:
Photobucket

Aren't they beautiful:
Photobucket

These boys share a birthday (one year a part)
Photobucket


Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

The Book I May or May Not Write

I have the nicest friends in the world.  When I write a short, quippy thing my kid said on Facebook, my very nicest friends will say, "I can't wait for you to write a book." I sort of feel like people are American Idoling me....you know, encouraging me to do something I'm passionate about even though I am not really good at it---never thinking I would actually have the audacity to pursue it---but then they're in too deep with the lie....but even so, those comments make me feel good.  (Which is kind of weird, possibly narcissistic, because it's actually my kids being entertaining, and not my words.  Yet I press on.) I wrote for 31 days straight in October, and I discovered maybe I am not so good at writing more than 2 sentences at a time.  So I decided maybe writing a book wasn't in my future. But then I spent a lot of time thinking during November and realized that, even if no one reads what I write, I think it would be really fun to put into words w...
Read more

Another Child One Day

Going back through my posts, I realized I had a few blogs I wrote but never published. One is when I was wavering between adopting or birthing our fourth child. One thing is for sure: our family is not complete. I cannot explain that other than I just know. For awhile there, I was strongly contemplating adopting, but for now, I am leaning more towards birthing the last child. In fact, I am most certain, God willing, that is what our plans are. We are trying to decide when to try to have a baby. And by "try", I mean get pregnant. I have many weaknesses, but fertility is not one of them. In case you can't tell. Our kids are fairly close, so one part of me wants to get pregnant in about 9-10 months....and be done. Forever!! But another part of me wonders if I should take a longer break. See, I have this really weird feeling (that is probably not going to happen) that I will have twins. For one, Brett has always wanted five kids, and I only want four. Things jus...
Read more

Christmas Traditions

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Along with pretty much everyone else, this is my most favorite holiday. As my children age, it just keeps getting better and better!! Establishing traditions is one of my goals during the holiday season. I am a sentimental person, and I am hopeful my kids will grow up with fond memories of their childhood Christmases. Most, if not all, of my traditions are not original. I glean ideas from others and make it my own. The Happy Home Fairy is a wonderful resource for making your holiday magical. The Williams Family traditions: - We stay home for Christmas. We travel during the holiday break, but for Christmas Eve and Day, we are home. To be honest, this was hard to do because I know family members on both sides want to see our kids, but I wanted to do what was best for our family. We welcome anyone who wants to come visit on Christmas, so we are great to have others in our home. And there are many reasons we choose to stay home. ...
Read more