I'm ecstatically exhausted

Today was a great day. The weather was Bea-U-ti-Ful. 80 degree temps, humidity: not TOO bad, occasional cloud cover and a refreshing breeze. The perfect day to enjoy SIX FLAGS OVER GEORGIA and make use of our season passes. I can't wait to tell you all about it...but first things first.

First, I need to finish watching my Tivo'd General Hospital episode...so hold on a sec.

...Michael woke up last week from a year long coma!! He doesn't like his mother anymore. Claudia was just outed for trying to kill Jerry Jax. English admitted that Ethan is Luke's son (but is she lying?!) Robin is back from her hospital stay for Postpartum Depression....

Ok...now back to the blog. Where was I? Oh yes, a perfect trip to Six Flags. Did I mention that I didn't have Matt with me? He decided to work instead.

He worked today despite the fact that the Forrest Industries Business Unit (F.I.B.U...) (....wow, I just had a vision of a clothing line involving leaves and twigs...but I digress and will save the vision for another blog post.) So seriously, where was I?

Oh yes, Matt worked today despite the fact that he and the rest of his group at HarrisGroup had to take a 10% pay-cut (again.) (I told him him a 10% pay-cut most likely meant his company wanted him to work 10% less...but he didn't agree. Something about trying to keep his job...blah blah blah.)

So I took my kiddos to Six Flags along with some Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) friends and their kiddos. We had 4 moms and 7 children among us. What a great pic!!

(l-r: Dylan, Jake, Lea, Lauren, Chase & Tyler)

**mine are in the shades**

(not pictured: 6 month old Ava who occupied Ms April's backpack the entire time)

The swings were our first ride. If you remember the last time we went Tyler refused to go on them and Lauren was quite hesitant. But having their friends with them gave them a boost in confidence. They both got on the swings and Had A Great Time.

next were the trucks
and then the airplanes

it was a little hot at times so we made good use of the mister water sprayers

from there we went to the Hot Air Balloon ride. This one made me a little dizzy but Tyler LOVED it. Just look at his face. His expression on this ride made my entire day (oh to be a kid again.)

and then the Carousel

Lauren and Tyler rode their own horse while I rode another right behind them.

This was the first time Tyler rode his own without someone standing next to him.

and finally it was time for Thomas Town. Even though we had been at the park for 6 hours, Lea, Lauren and Tyler were still CRAZY for Thomas. We played on the Thomas playground and of course, rode the Thomas Train too.

here is Tyler smiling

so he's not really smiling at the camera but He Is Smiling.

While they ran and played, Ms Maria and I nursed our aching necks and backs. What didn't make it into the pictures was the part where we watched each other's kids and took turns going on The Ninja ...which is definitely not kid friendly. While this "Ninja" looked like a smooth ride it turned out to have it's jerky surprises. (either that or we are getting old...I'm rooting for the former.)

Despite my temporary back pain (I'm sure it will go away after tomorrow's 3.5 mile jog) today was a wonderful day.

I'll close with a few updates from the Family Files:

**Lauren has started to call me MaMa most of the time. I'm guessing this has to do with Lea calling her parents MaMa and PaPa. She was calling me Mommy and it's now MaMa. Either one is fine but I'm so not ready to just be called MOM. I'll put up a big old fight when that happens. =)

**We have added a new show to our TIVO list/"season pass" We've added Special Agent Oso and in turn have deleted Sesame Street. I'm a bit sad that we have seen the last of the Sesame Street era.

**Lauren's favorite (inappropriate?) song is "I like to Move it, Move it." She sings this more often than I like to admit. I asked her where she heard this and she said it was from the movie in the hotel. She means Madagaskar. And from a quick Google search, she means this song. So just be aware when you let your sweet, innocent and beautiful children watch it.