It may or may not have been 700F, but Johanna, Katriel and I helped drive some of the youth group to Carowinds amusement park for the day.
The park is partially in SC and partially in NC.
They rode some insane rides.
We enjoyed a silly Snoopy show.
We fought traffic back to our little corner of the world and had a fun dinner at a Pizza Inn in Duncan.
Katriel made a house for Cragle. Her toy crab.
Johanna and some of her peers at AHG are working on a badge that will go toward a level award for their new age level. They are working on character traits of helpful, pure, and compassionate. Today they delivered some Meals on Wheels and also made some Chore Coupons to hand out to family/friends.
John and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, by doing nothing special. I think I had a DDS appointment. John went to work It’s how we roll. Life is busy.
We did make time to go to dinner Saturday night and besides some lovely eggplant parm, the winner of the night was this delicious Tiramisu pie.
I bought a membership to the zoo last December and this is only the second time we’ve gone. It was so fun to visit again with our “zoo buddies” Stephen and Malachi. And their mom, of course!
This jewel is twelve years old.
And I am sad.
I can’t find any of the other photos from that day.
We went to church and swam in the afternoon. She’d requested pancakes for dinner and a homemade lemon cake.
As we were leaving the pool, her friend Rebecca was arriving, so she stayed to swim with her family. When John walked over to the pool to pick her up, he invited her friend and her parents to join us for pancakes, fruit salad and sausage. It was some impromptu fun. ♥
Her gifts from us were a necklace of Toothless and his girlfriend from How To Train Your Dragon, as well as some clothing and art supplies.
I couldn’t skip past this – our first Buc-cee’s visit.
We all hope it is not the last!
We made it to the SAV airport around 1:30PM. We returned the cars (it was harder than we thought) and headed to the arrival concourse where we were met with three new friends from church in three vehicles.
Not all heroes wear capes.
After a week+ of driving a rental vehicle all over Georgia and Florida, it felt like a giant hug to climb into these waiting trucks and van and just be provided for.
We were home around 5:30PM and found some food and sunk into the unpacking process.
Stewart and Noelle’s friend, Kyle, joined us late last evening. He braved the massive rain and came the three hours up from his family’s new home in FL. Once from central NY, they also relocated last year.
We started the morning with devotion – this time Johanna read the bible passages.
Nan decided she’d take another day off, and the rest of headed to the parks. Entering is now old hat. Kyle has a season pass and he got me free parking.
Hulk. Spider-Man. Starbucks. Storm Force.
We did a lot of favorites a second time.
It was pretty hot.
Marie and I opted to do another ride through Velocicoaster. Otherwise, we kind of just all be-bopped around.
I guess when you are done, you are done. About 4:30PM or so we exited the park and found Stewart, Noelle and Kyle shopping.
Back at the rental there was some resting, lots of packing, and dinner.
Kyle’s mom had sent him with brownies and Stromboli. It was fabulous.
We weren’t trying to leave before dawn, but we needed an early start. The plan was to meet some men from our church family at the Savannah airport around 1PM.
The weather app messed with us.
Let’s go back.
For many years, any multi-day Disney World ticket included passes to the waterparks and mini golf. They also came without an expiration date. I had a large number of passes in our safe, collected over almost 20 years, and in 2019, I took them to customer service at Disney Springs and they converted them to Disney passes.
We had 35 days worth of water park/mini golf passes across 9 tickets.
So we decided we’d visit Typhoon Lagoon one day.
We literally watched the weather by the minute, and at one point pulled over to wait out a storm.
But when all was said and done, we had the opportunity to visit Typhoon Lagoon.
While Volcano Bay had much more modern aesthetics, this had ALL the Disney feels.
Cast Members were lined up and greeted us with leis on arrival.
Joyfully welcoming us to the Lagoon.
The place was empty and we had no problems finding a spot for our stuff.
We had some disappointment with the water coasters that weren’t really working well. One of the three was up and running consistently.
We did a family raft ride, lazy river, and the bigger kids broke off for water slides.
The wave pool (no photo) packed a punch. John and I were talking while we swam and Katriel played around us. Marie and Johanna were further out.
We heard the bell that the waves were starting. I saw this very large wave start out near the base of the mountain. In my mind, I thought, “Wow. That’s huge. It will get smaller the further out it comes.” Then moments later, “That is still really, really big.” Then, frantically, “That is still gigantic!” and I yelled to John, “GRAB HER!” as I lunged toward Katriel.
John scooped her up over his head as all of us got pummeled. When I came up I was choking and sputtering and coughing and I looked over to them and Katriel’s eyes were as big as saucers and she was coughing. (It was only 40 minutes later we realized John’s prescription sunglasses were gone).
We shopped a bit, and again I felt a little rushed as people seem to be done with “vacationy” things faster than I am.
They willingly stopped for some photos.
We headed across to Disney Springs. It took a minute to get into the Lime Garage. We quickly found lunch at the Polite Pig. It was a little $$ and we ordered too much. But it was good.
Tabitha’s salad was the size of her head!
As we shopped we watched the skies.
John also got a phone call from the garage. They would NOT have the part we needed in time to have the car fixed by Sunday. This was hard to hear and would cause us to go back to the drawing board.
I was also a wee bit sad that one of my message board friends would be coming to DS, but that we would not overlap our times. I was hoping to meet Beth this side of Heaven. Perhaps another time?
We barely got out in time!
Dayspring Disciples 