Carowinds

Late last week we decided that Monday would be a good day for a trip to Carowinds. It's a big theme park in Charlotte and we'd been wanting to take Blythe and Ethan for a while. Charlotte has been really dry the last few weeks, so the likelihood it would rain was pretty low. Well, a big "you're welcome" to the city of Charlotte for us planning our Carowinds trip for July 12. Thanks to us, you got PLENTY of rain. And thunder. And lightning.

Actually, we got in most of the rides we were planning on. We just didn't make it to the water park, which I know the kids would have loved. Maybe next time. We spent most of our time in the little kids section (Snoopy Playland, or something like that). The highlight of the day was Blythe riding her very first roller coaster. She and Braden even rode in the FRONT! And she loved it. I wasn't able to get a picture of them on the coaster, but I do have this picture of Blythe and Ethan on the much-less-thrilling swing ride.

The swings were the first ride they rode on. Second was the hot air balloons. Ethan was not a fan. Neither was I really. And Braden and Blythe had to ride backwards. Braden said he wasn't a fan of that either. Fortunately it did not deter Ethan from riding other rides.

Ethan's favorite ride was the carousel. Glad we went all the way to Carowinds for that...ha! Blythe's was the roller coaster. She tried to go on another roller coaster, but she was about 1.5 inches too short and they wouldn't let her. She would have been on the last one that went before the lightning started.

Once the storm rolled in, we briefly thought about trying to make it to the car. Instead we opted to go watch a show that was starting at 1:30, under what we thought was cover. Turns out it was just a sun shade and rain goes right through it. So then we decided just to sit it out in the rain. And of course we got soaked. But the storm was getting bad, so they cancelled the show. Then we again thought we should try to make it to the car. Until we almost got struck by lightning, or at least it seemed that close. So we went into a baby care/little kids bathroom hut for shelter. We had a couple of towels, so the kids dried off and warmed up and once the rain finally let up mostly, we were able to head to the car (where thankfully I had packed extra clothes to change into for the kids).

So a bit of a bummer about the rain, but we did get in a few good hours of rides. And where was Brynn? Gommy and Laura babysat her during the day until we got back. She had a good time with them and was a very good girl.