Morello Madness: Flashback to the Beach

by Amy

I'm sorry I've been a slacker blogger lately. It seems like we've been hopping from one thing to another all summer long. I have tons of posts floating around in my head, but haven't had a chance to get them on the blog. So, I'm going to start a series of flashbacks....

A few months ago, Brad had some meetings at in a beach town about 3 hours away from our home. So, I decided to take the kids and go play while Brad worked. It was tons of fun! Before Brad's meetings began, we spent one day playing at the beach. It was a little too cool to play in the water for very long, but the kids had a blast in the sand.

Then, another day, I took them to a zoo/amusement park place. Even though zoos over here are not nearly as nice as American zoos, they're still fun. The kids really enjoy getting to see some animals, being outside and running off some energy. It's also really fun to see what types of animals are deemed "zoo-worthy." In the past our kids thought it was funny to see dogs -normal, everyday house trained dogs from the US - in cages on display in our local zoo. This time Alex was super excited to see a real raccoon. He has a little beanie baby raccoon name Ringo that Grandma gave him. Other than Peter, Ringo is Alex's best friend. So, he was thrilled to see a real raccoon!

My sweet daughter of course, was thrilled to find bunnies. We bought some grass for 25cents and the kids got to go in and feed them. Alex and Savannah really liked it when the rabbits hopped up to them, but Peter was content to sit on the sidelines and watch.

Then, I told the kids they could each have 20 local dollars to spend on whatever rides they wanted in the amusement park. A ride typically costs 10 local dollars each, but since it was a slow day, we were able to talk them into giving the boys "buy-one-get-one-free" tickets. So, they got to ride on four different rides.

Savannah remembered visiting this park over year earlier when my parents were in town, so she wisely held on to her money and spent it all on one "ride." She basically put on a harness that was attached to some bungee cords. Then, she would jump on a moonwalk-type-thing and bounce really high! She got to jump for about 15 minutes. Last year, she barely got off the ground, but this year she went flying! My little girl's growing up!

On our last full day there, I took the kids to an aquarium. It's actually really nice. We had been there two years earlier, and were happy to go back. They had a great polar bear exhibit, a fun show with dolphins, penguins, and other fun things. But, like most places here, when they tried to translate their signs into English, something was lost in translation....