Date Night With Ethan - Carowinds Style

This summer we've focused on trying to have regular date nights with Ethan to be able to spend time with him and just him.  In June we took him to dinner and a movie - Madagascar 3 and Sonic (his choice even though we didn't eat because we ate so much popcorn at the movies).  In July we were supposed to go to a Charlotte Knights game but mama and dada got the stomach flu.  :(  So this month we went big and went to Carowinds!  Every time we drive past Carowinds all he talked about was wanting to ride the roller coasters so now was his chance!

At the gate we had to get a measurement of how tall he is now.  Wow how he's grown!  44 1/2" tall!

Of course we had to get a picture on the NC/SC border.

As soon as we got to Planet Snoopy he was all about meeting the characters.  Ohhh man we're in for it whenever we go to Disney.  I have a feeling we'll just be clicky clicky with the camera.  He was bummed that Snoopy wasn't around today.  I mean, how do you have Charlie Brown and Woodstock but no Snoopy, and it's Planet Snoopy.  Bummer.

Then it was off to ride!

 Scared to ride the Nighthawk!  :)

Then we headed over to Whitewater Falls to check out the splash bridge.  I have to admit mommy did a really sneaky thing - I made Ethan stand on the bridge with me to "check out" the splash that the ride made.  Well, I sorta moved out of the way as soon as the ride was coming down the falls ...

and this was after ...

I was DYING laughing!  He kept saying "I'm soaking wet!"  I think he was in shock from the amount of water that came over the bridge!  So we attempted to dry off in this rip off of a warmer...

Total waste of money.  Anyways, then we walked around and had more fun.

Ethan was obsessed with looking at the map to make sure we were going in the right direction and what ride was coming up.

At one point the clouds and wind rolled in and we thought it was going to storm but it didn't!  But it did give us a really pretty rainbow that we got to see on top of the skytower!  Gorgeous!

On our way out Ethan stood at the measuring stick once again to give his wahhh wahhh face - that's the face we got every time he was too short to ride the fun rides.  Maybe next summer buddy!  He said he'll keep drinking his milk!  :)

 It was a fun trip!  See ya next summer!

Our Little Swimmer

Ethan took his second summer of swimming lessons last week and the week before and he did great!  Last year was a challenge because he wanted NOTHING to do with going underwater or getting his face wet.  This year he conquered that fear so that's a thumbs up!  I'm so proud of him because he's done so well.  We're getting there very slowly.  He even made a couple of friends along the way.  On the last day of lessons they got to go down the big slide which E loved and did about 8 times! 



Summer, Summer, Summertime!

As I sit here writing this blog I cannot believe it's already the beginning of August!  The summer has certainly flown by and I was so worried about keeping the boys busy so they wouldn't be bored.  They certainly have not been!  I feel like we've done so much - vacation bible school, summer camp, beach vacation, water park, library trips, playdates, park trips, YMCA, swimming lessons, playing outside, trips to the creek, Children's museum, and the list goes on and on.  Whew - I'm tired just thinking about it.  I'm not sure if we're even at home except just to sleep!  That's probably why Ethan and I have crawled into bed, snuggled up, and taken naps about every other day the past few weeks.  Oh I am loving that.  We put Eli down for a nap, get in mama and dada's bed, read a few books and saw some logs.  I know I'll look back on this and have fond memories and hopefully he will as well.  Here are some summertime pictures we've taken the past few weeks.

FUN WITH THE WATER & SAND TABLE

FUN AT THE Y WATERPARK

FUN AT BARNETT PARK