Puzzle Time

Autumn Ivy, 2 years, 1month, with her awesome Ernie Rubber Ducky puzzle from the mid 70's that I bought at a consignment store.

Rantings

If you know me, you know I am not one to get disturbed by much, really and truly.   WELL, I can honestly say this sincerely bothers me:  the "Digital Copy" 'commercial' at the beginning of Disney movies lately.  Yeah, great idea... till the little 8 year old (ish) looking boy says "I can even download them on my iPOD and watch them ANYWHERE!:
"at the beach"- whoa, partner!  at the BEACH???  really?  unless you live on the beach and it's that boring because you see it all the time, well I can't even imagine saying that!  why in the heck would you be watching a movie on the BEACH????

"hanging out with friends"... yeah that's the part right there..are we really influencing the kids of today that it is so dreadfully boring to just sit around and have a conversation that we have to all be watching movies on our mobile devices in order to not be bored to tears????  Yeah, so the scene is of 4 friends around a table, all staring at their handhelds, watching..whatever.

You know me, all for the technology but dang it, not like this.  Every time we watch a movie with that commercial on it, I ALWAYS make a boisterous disagreement with the thing, very sarcastic, etc.  And if you know me, well, yeah, that fits.

I am truly a digital immigrant who hopes to forever be as close to a digital native as I can be, but with these thoughts I am thinking maybe that will never be... but then again, my kids are digital natives and I want them to always value face-to-face conversation over staring at a screen.. maybe not ALL of the time, because I truly believe some conversations can better progress through digital means... There is a balance.

Father's Day 2012

EDIT:  Have to add in here that Taylor, Camryn and Lauryn woke up at 6 to make Father's Day breakfast.

Taylor and Lauryn, bringin home the bacon, fryin it up in a pan

(Camryn was busy creating decorations and her biscuits were baking.)

On to the rest of the day:
I hate that I have no pictures from yesterday, because we all had a fun time, even with the tremendous crowds.  We decided to FINALLY take the girls to White Water, which they were extremely excited about.  Camryn, Taylor, and Lauryn planned their attack on the slides, and all agreed they would ride "Cliffhanger", which was the first slide of the day and Todd went with them.

Autie and I were standing there when they each came down, and I can't believe I didn't hear Lauryn scream!  I don't think she had time to!  

While the big girls and Todd were waiting in line, Autie and I checked out all of the kiddee areas.

This was cute.. a lot of water spraying everywhere which Autumn is not too crazy about.  She was ok with it once I was carrying her and splashing through it.  We headed over to the next kid-friendly area.

This part was a lot more fun.. although she wanted nothing to do with the house part in the center with all of the water falling unexpectedly.  (She has never been one for liking water poured over her head, and now she only likes it if SHE is the one doing it.)  There were three regular looking water slides that moved real slow in this part, and she loved em all, when sitting on our lap. 

So we headed, Autie and I, to the next upgrade of kid areas called the Treehouse.  This spot had some kid slides that moved a little faster, which she would have LOVED I have no doubt if it weren't for the fact that the entire structure had water shooting out, spraying, or falling out of some part of it at all times.  This is the part with a huge 500-gallon bucket that fills up and spills every couple of minutes.  This bucket was a love-hate part of the day for Autie.  She could sit and watch it from a distance where it didn't splash on her all day, I think, but don't get her anywhere near the fall out!  Therefore, we never could get to any of these slides, no matter how fast we'd try to run through all of the water as Autumn was kicking and flailing her limbs to get away from the splashing water and the freakiness. :)

So Daddy took over with Autie for a bit.. well a GOOD LONG bit as it took FOREVER to get through the line to ride The Tornado with the big girls.

Well worth the wait.. all four of us on a raft.  Doesn't look like much but the first drop out of the chute and up the side of this thing... I am sure the people waiting in line were laughing at the insane look of fear on my face as the centripetal forces took over the raft and therefore, all of our bodies.  Fun stuff...

The girls rode Run Away River together 

while Autie played for awhile with Me and Todd and then took a MUCH NEEDED power nap.

Then the girls and dad rode Dragon Tail

while me and Autie discovered her love of the Lazy River, where the water pushes you along.

I traveled the whole loop squatted down so she could "swim", and she was happy as can be the whole 6 or 7 lengths we traveled during various parts of the rest of the day.

The Dad/girl foursome rode Black River Falls= more Lazy River fun for Autie plus ice cream time.

As it began to grow late, we decided to try Bahama Bob with Autie, as all of us fit in one raft, and she was BASICALLY tall enough to ride.  (Doctor appointment had said Thursday she was 35+" and the limit for the ride was 36".)

 

So you ride in a raft side by side, which Autie sat on Todd, and barrel down this white slide, which looked calm enough from the outside.  And it really was, but it went a bit faster than I was expecting and Autie had a look on her face like, well, like she might not trust us again the next time we try to get in anything in water that is different!

The girls had plans of riding more, but it was 7 and the park was closing.  The chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot was calling our names; It was a fun day, and our toes were tired!