Okay, so Joyland kind of sucks. Also, it is over 100 degrees, in dusty Lubbock, and--oh yeah--I am heavily pregnant. But having a bad attitude about it is not going to change anything, so I put on my happy face and off we went!
Michael is a blessed man. He asked his mother and grandmother to go with us as well, which meant we had a whole extra four hands to help us wrangle the kids, plus two extra adults to help heft kids I can't carry and ride rides I can't get on.
I had told Emerald all day that after nap, we were going to go somewhere special. She was beyond excited. Gabriel of course could care less, but I knew he was going to have a good time.
Right now, I am going to interject: the pictures will come later. I am not positive where my camera is off the top of my head, so I will add a post of accompanying pictures when I can locate it. I swear, I am misplacing everything these days...
Back to my story at hand, Grannymom and Glo came and picked us up at around 6, and Michael showed up before I could get the kids and myself organized enough to leave, so he just rode with us.
Dinner, as always, was River Smith's Chicken and Catfish. I can't tell you how excited I was--I couldn't even remember how long it had been since I had fried catfish. They had fried catfish, fried chicken, beans, potato salad, coleslaw, hushpuppies, white bread, cookies, cherry and apple cobblers, plus tea to drink. Gabriel was so enthralled with the water ride behind our table, so he barely ate half a sugar cookie. Emerald was pretty good about eating some of the chicken and bread, but I couldn't expect too much from either of them--it was entirely too hot to stuff your face. Not that I didn't. I mean, come on--fried chicken.
After we got into the park, Michael took the kids on this car ride that goes around and around in circles and honks obnoxiously. I personally abhor going even near that ride because 1) I hate the annoying car sounds, and 2) the roller coaster right behind it is ridiculously and jarringly loud, and always gives me the worst headache.
After that, Grannymom and Rhonda took the kids on the carousel. Emerald adored the horse she rode--she would be quite the equestrian if we let her, so I hope to nurture that interest in her. Gabriel seemed to enjoy that as well.
From the carousel, we were all dragging a bit in the heat, so we headed for the train.
Oh, my goodness, but Gabriel loved that train. I was able to ride with him and see every joyous expression on his face as we went around the park, through tunnels...it was really sweet to be able to share that with him. Emerald and Michael rode together a few seats in front of us.
I wish I could have stuck it out longer, but I was melting by that point so we loaded up in the car and went back to Rhonda's house. Rhonda had just gotten back from visiting Ken in DFW, so she came bearing gifts!
Michael got some new work slacks; the kids got adorable new clothes for school; and I got jammies for the hospital and really cute jewelry =) It was really sweet of them to think of us on their vacation, and everything was so nice!
Thus ends another year's picnic. Looking forward to taking all three kids next year (ack!)!!
--Andie!!--
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