Adventuresome

 This weekend, Chad and I took the kids for a mini-getaway in Des Moines. We traveled down on Sunday morning (planning to leave at 8, making it out in record time--by 8:40!) and drove through a torrential downpour during which we debated the merits of just turning around and trying another weekend. Given our insane schedule, we knew the next weekend we could conceivably work it in we would also be working around Gracie's high school graduation, we soldiered on. We were glad we did.

We had a wonderful time--complete with all the adventures only 2 slightly insane adults and 4 sweet children under the age of 8 can pack into less than 48 hours.

We stayed with my cousin, Kristie. There is another post altogether contrasting the differences in our lives, but suffice it to say that for 2 women who grew up as close as sisters and as similar in early experiences as two people could be, our lives have certainly arrived at dramatically different places. Kiki is single and lives in a fabulous, stylish old house with her sweet puppy Paisley. I live, in a 12 year old, haphazardly decorated house busting at the seams with children, toys, and general chaos. Professionally, I think our careers are similar enough, but what we come home to each evening couldn't be more different. I wonder if she has yet recovered from the noise (shrieking! crashing!) and constant hubbub that hovers around us like the dustcloud around Charlie Brown's friend Pigpen. But, like I said. Another post.

I want to describe our day at Adventureland via the awards we decided to bestow upon each other on the drive home.

Sammy wins the Silly Silo award. Thanks to the unpredictable weather and the weekday, we were blessed with a perfect, nearly line-less day at the park. (After this and our rainy experience at Disneyworld, I think the best way to do an amusement park is in the rain. I'd rather be wet than wait in line). By some miracle of genetics, Sam escaped both my queasy, motion sick-prone tummy, and Chad's tendency toward headaches on wild rides. Sam was fearless and tireless. On one stretch, while we waited for Chad and Grace to finish their turn on the space shot, he did the silly silo (which is the one where you enter a huge, barrell shaped structure and get spun around faster and faster and faster until eventually you are stuck to the wall and the floor drops out from under you. You know the one). This ride is the ultimate puke machine--the one that brings even the steel stomached to the verge of vomit city. Not Sammy. He didn't even LEAVE the ride (you know how sometimes they make you exit and then you dash around to try and get right back on? Monday we didn't even always have to leave!) And so Sammy didn't. 6 times in a row. He finished the day with a grand total of nine spins on the silly silo. I couldn't even watch him (there is an observation deck overlooking it) because it made me sick just to see it. Chad took a few pictures, though. When we asked Sam if he felt sick he looked at us with utter confusion.

Claire gets the nine second nudie award. Adventureland has added a water park section this summer and after several hours of roller coasters and carnival rides, Claire was ready for something different. "Mom," she said, as we sat at some picnic tables near a food court type area. "I'm ready for the pool."

"Okay," I said, and turned, (literally, just that quickly) to dig out her swimsuit to head for the locker rooms. I turned back and Claire was buck naked. When she said ready she meant READY!

We decided to award Grace the "spirit award." On all of the family vacations we have taken with the Luekens, Grandma Lueken awards a "spirit" prize to the person (grown up or child) who demonstrates the best attitude--no whiners or complainers need apply. Grace shows remarkable patience and kindness in all circumstances--especially given the fact that she is only 7. She is a great role model--especially for her prone to whining mom and dad! Even when she had to share an icee with her brother, sister, and dad (the last being the worst sharer of all--at least when it comes to his beloved icees) and wait for Sammy to take his 6th trip on the silly silo, she never complained.

Chad gets the kid at heart award. It has taken 10 years and countless trips to amusement parks to really internalize just how much days like this bring out my adorable husband's inner 12 year old. The guy is tireless, full of enthusiasm and who needs the sun when we can bask in a smile like that all day long? Aside from his annoyance at the cost of everything inside the park walls, he really is at his very best in big amusement parks--so long as we can keep up with him (no small feat since I am usually pushing a double stroller and trying to herd "spacey Gracie" away from the junk vendors everywhere and Sammy from the sugar sellers). It helps that the big kids are getting big enough (and are 110% fearless enough) to do almost every ride. We don't have to hang out in the kiddie section the whole time anymore, which is a vast relief to their daddy. Claire, Lucy and I still spend some time there (and seeing Claire's face light up on the ladybugs and frog hopper is worth the price of admission in itself), but Chad, Grace, and Sam can dart from giant roller coaster to giant roller coaster without even a glance back at the pathetic baby rides. And can I just say, thank God we live in this era of cell phones. If not, and short of park security intervention, there is a chance I would not see my husband or two firstborn until park closing time on days like these.

We didn't come up with a name for Lucy's award, though this and Disneyworld are beginning to make me think that amusement parks are her kind of place. My unpredictable, grumpy little queen is a dream at these long park days. I don't know what it is--the junkfood, the constant flow of colors and sounds and smells and crazy people, the constant motion, the attention I pay her while we wait for the big kids (all 4 of them) to finish ride after ride after ride. Whatever it is, she is a delightful little stroller riding doll on days like this. She snoozes when she's tired, and demands a reprieve from the stroller every now and then, but is essentially effortless to care for.

I don't think we came up with an award for me, which is just fine. It has taken me four kids and nearly 8 years to figure out that these trips go best when I tend to everyone else first. Believe me when I say this does not come naturally for me. I have wrestled myself into some semblance of selflessness, but it doesn't run very deep. I love roller coasters and kettle corn and the space shot. It kills me to sit off the log ride and the raging river to tend to the baby while everyone else emerges, soaked and laughing, a half hour later. But I am getting better at it. And Chad takes his share of turns (well, maybe not completely his fair share--but we are both getting older and more willing to sit out more often than we once might have been. And after 12 months of morning sickness over the 4 pregnancies, I'm not willing to suffer that awful queasy churning stomach for the temporary thrill of very many rides anymore--though I do still love the roller coasters).

All in all, we had a great time, and can't wait to plan the next weekend getaway. We left the park when it closed on Monday night, and didn't get home to our beds until after midnight. It's been a long week already as our schedule picked right up where it left off when we returned. But we'll do it again. Soon.