So let me say 11 years ago if you had asked me what would make me feel like the happiest person in the world it would've been to meet my biological dad. I'm sure I've posted on how I've met him and known him and his family for a few years now and how I usually go out once a year to see them. I usually have a blast, we'll go camping or see things I'd have never seen or thought I'd be able to see so it's usually something that once I'm home I talk non-stop about how my trip was.
This year was different though, I never had the typical "father-daughter" relationship growing up so I always thought it was really weird when I saw it in movies, or if I had friends who said they were "daddy's girls" I just thought that wasn't possible. After this visit I finally get it! I get why girls would want to be that or have that relationship. I mean it kind of sucks it took me 23 years to learn it, but I'm glad to have seen what it's like. I don't know when or how it happened exactly, but something hit me with this trip. I actually went to church with the family because I wanted to spend literally as much time with them as I could, and those of you who know me, know how much of a big deal going to church, of all places, is! I was even making jokes that they could kidnap me, I really didn't want to leave. I've always come home with stories, but didn't really have the "I want to go out again, like now" feeling before, I just always looked forward to the next visit. It was an AMAZING trip, by far.
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Well enough of the mushy stuff, onto the cool part of the trip. So as you might know (if you've read this far back), I've wanted to ride the world's tallest roller coaster, it's been my biggest goal (or at least one of them), so when we made plans for this summer I found out we were going to not one, but two roller coaster park. Being a roller coaster junkie I was all for those plans! Well I happened to check out the parks and find out that the first one we went to, Cedar Point, has the world's SECOND tallest one, and it's pretty much the same roller coaster, minus less than a hundred feet. So I figure if I never get to ride the tallest (knock on wood that doesn't happen) I at least can say I rode the second tallest one. At first I thought it was just the tallest in the country, but when I looked again, it's the WORLD! It's called the Dragster, it was short but so fun! We waited in line for at least 45 minutes to ride it (it was so long because it kind of broke down on us while we were waiting, stubbornly, to get the front of the car). It was amazing! It was also Ariel's and Tori's VERY FIRST roller coaster experience. Tori seemed to love it, Ariel was impartial at the time.
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| This is the "twirl" you go through as you go up and down the lift |
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| This is a far view of the Dragster (right) |
The other roller coaster park had a roller coaster that had the steepest...decline I guess you'd call it. It was called the Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach, it's such a steep decline that you actually go in a bit. It's a very fun roller coaster. After riding this one Ariel seemed to love roller coasters, too bad we did the more extreme park first :/ but it was still so fun to see all their faces after getting off the rides. In fact, JR and DJ rode the rides and although they weren't for the one that went upside down, they seemed to LOVE the rest of them. I'm so happy to convert them to roller coasters! Best achievement I think I'll make in my life ha ha.
We also did the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, which if you haven't been to it, let me warn you now, it's HUGE! Like really, huge! It took us 2 days to go through the whole thing, and your feet KILL after you're done! But it was fun because I got to see the bears (since we don't seem to have anymore of them in Utah's zoo) and we got to watch a dolphin show and see them do their tricks. I've never seen a dolphin in real life and Larry and I are planning on doing the whole "swim with the dolphins" thing at Sea World in August, so this was really cool to see them and how they act. In fact after the show we went underground to see them swim and we noticed if we waved at them they'd swim towards us and kind of nod at us. It was REALLY cool to see how intelligent they really are.
Oh and I lied, my best achievement, I think, was going and knowing they had no plans to have any more pets (as far as I knew) and somehow convincing them to not get one animal, but 3! Yes 3! They ended up getting 2 bunnies with plans for a kitty. Especially since at first my dad didn't want a cat at all and by the time I left he was rooting for getting one. I'm like an evil genius sometimes ha ha.
The Saturday night I was out there was probably one of the funnest nights ever. We had a total girls night, with face masks, nail painting, hair conditioning, and embarrassing pictures to add to the fun ;) unfortunately I haven't downloaded the CD they sent me with the pictures from it, so I can't (*coughwon'tcough*) put them up on here. But it was a fun night. I joke I had my whole "prom moment" that night because I wasn't planning on going to church so I didn't have anything to wear so my totally awesome sisters had me try on dresses they had (I'm so lucky we are about the same size for the most part) and show them off while they helped me pick a good one.
Larry didn't believe me, I guess, so he made me take a picture of my "Mormon dress" as he called it, I thought it was way cute!
Sunday was just church, going to an animal shelter to see some kitties, and then family pictures. They all turned out GREAT, but there were so many of them so here are some of my favorites:
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| The whole family, being way too cool :) |
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| Because you know Charlie's Angels are like the coolest chicks in the world |
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| Aw... ha ha I'm a nerd, I know. |
Monday just sucked, I really really really didn't want to come home from this trip. Once they left me at security I just bawled my eyes out. I had to text Larry to keep reminding me why I wanted to go home. But once I was home and saw him and our kitties I was happy again. Getting back into the swing of my schedule still hasn't fully hit, and I've got quite a bit of school to catch up on, but I'm sure by the weekend I'll be back into the routine I was used to before I left. And now a little over 2 more months until the big August vacation (Do you think Larry would mind if instead of Cali we went to Indiana? ha ha just kidding!).
Well until next time...
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