A few weeks ago, we found out that one of our favorite summer activities will not be an option this year.  The Fun Spot Amusement Park in Angola, Indiana will not be opening in 2009.  This park was absolutely perfect for a family with kids the ages ours will be this summer: 9, 5, 2, and 1.  They have (had) lots of rides for the little ones, as well as zoo animals like tigers, lions, parrots, and deer.  They also had a few awesome coasters for Mom and Dad, and we were planning on bringing along a friend or a Manny (man who is a nanny; see some of my previous posts) so we could indulge in some coaster action together, a rarity for us.  But alas – Fun Spot is a victim of this bad economy.  The message on the home page of their website says it all:  “Due to the Economy, Fun Spot Park and Zoo Will Not Be Open For The 2009 Season”.

Where is President Obama?  I thought his campaign promises entailed the repairing of the economy?  The Fun Spot in Angola was perfect for our family – it was only about 45 minutes away, the price was right –  it was only $56 for our entire family to see the zoo and ride the rides and even the waterslides all day.  And that was before using any coupons that were always available (they would even offer good grade discounts that allowed our oldest FREE admission!)  Compare these prices to Cedar Point, which is 2 hours away AND would cost our entire family $128 for one day, not to mention that Cedar Point is much less targeted to young kids – plus Cedar Point has long lines in which to wait, something that wasn’t a concern at Fun Spot.  I can only hope Fun Spot will re-open in 2010 or at least before my kids grow up – we have some amazing family memories of Fun Spot, and I can only hope there will be more to come!

Adding to my angst about losing Fun Spot, I just found out yesterday that Ball Quest in Defiance, Ohio will not be open this season either.  Ball Quest had a mini-golf course, a driving range, and batting cages.  We had lots of fun there last summer as well, and it was a place we visited often with friends.  We even had some batting cage tokens left over!  But the sign on the gate of Ball Quest says, “Not open due to increased taxes.  Thank County Commissioner Kime”.  Ouch – a little bitterness, it seems?  Ball Quest was a small family owned business.  My friend once showed me the “tea room” they had decorated beautifully in a Victorian motif.  I wonder what will happen to gorgeous room and its antique furniture, complete with an antique wooden high chair?  I really loved min-golfing at Ball Quest – the course went up a small hill that overlooked beautiful NW Ohio farm fields…  and I’m not sure if there are other batting cages nearby!  Yet another source of family entertainment – GONE!  If they keep going at this rate, we’ll be left with nothing in no time!  People complain all the time that families just don’t do as much together as they used to and as they should, but if family entertainment keeps getting shut down, that trend will only continue and increase!  Here is a picture of my girls having a blast at Fun Spot last year – their baby brother was to be born only two weeks later.  It was over 85° that day, and I was physically miserable, but we all still had SO much fun!

Yes, a fun day indeed, if you read Jamiahsh’s blog, then you know what I’m talking about.  To get our minds off of certain medical dramas (not like House or Grey’s Anatomy or anything like that – our real-life medical dramas taking place right now are much worse than some crappy tv), we decided to have a day of fun.  It began with go-carting, which is always fun but even more so if you can fill up the track and drive with people you know – which we were able to do.  I like the place we went to because they don’t charge any extra if you take a kid along with you, and seeing as how we had a few nice adults who didn’t mind chauffering some little kids, all 3 of our daughters got to go around the track a bunch of times.  But I’m the dummy who forgot my camera, so I didn’t get a picture of my little almost 2-year-old in a go-cart like I wanted.  It’s funny because I had the camera with me, just forgot to use it, which should signal how scatter-brained I’ve been lately because of the worry and lack of sleep resulting from my husband’s as-yet-unidentified medical condition.  And while we’re on that subject, we won’t know anything until next week now, because they’ve ordered further tests for Thursday, and they won’t get the results back until next week.  But they’ve eliminated gallstones, so at least we know that much.  He blogged a little update here.

But anyway, enough tangents, back to the fun day.  After go-carting, we decided to practice in the batting cages for our upcoming annual theater softball game.  The batting cages reminded me how hilarious last year’s game was – I mean, theater people playing softball?  It was a riot!

After that, we went to a nice little restaurant we like on the river.  If you sit outside, you get to enjoy the beautiful weather, the view, and a game of cornhole while you wait for your food.  I like cornhole; if anyone has a set, we should bring it to the theater family fun day and play that along with softball…  Why is it called cornhole?  Is that a NW Ohio term for it?  They have that where I come from in Illinois too, but I don’t think they call it cornhole.  In case you aren’t from NW Ohio and you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the game with the wooden ramps with holes in them…  you have 2 of these and station them about 15-20 feet apart with half of the team at each end; then you throw bean bags into the holes – hopefully.

After dinner, the kids fell apart (what else is new?  They’ve been acting HORRIBLY lately!), so we had to leave, but I hear the rest of the group went mini-golfing.  I was actually tempted to mini-golf earlier in the day but I knew the kids would drive me nuts because they get bored of it after about 6 holes.  So we left, thinking maybe the kids would fall asleep in the car, giving me and hubby a much-deserved and needed night alone together to watch a movie.  Didn’t happen.  And starting with the kids spazzing out at the restaurant about bees (and there weren’t that many – our almost 9-year-old is a wimp about certain things and her craziness got her sisters going – don’t you love how they chain-react to one another?  Hence the name of my blog), things went from bad to worse.

I’m going to blame Carol and Megan for this one, since they brought it up earlier in the day, but what a coincidence – we got pulled over on the way home.  So thanks Carol and Megan for jinxing us!!  Just kidding, of course it’s not your fault…  I guess poor Chris really got used to putting the pedal to the metal on those darn go-carts.  The state highway patrol officer who pulled us over had the personality of a housefly, and she wasn’t going to act like a human being and be thankful we weren’t drunk driving or even think about giving us a break on labor day, so our fun day ended up being pretty expensive when you include the $100 speeding ticket.  Our luck SUCKS lately, but if we can get the all-clear on my husband’s health, then I will stop complaining.

Oh yeah, so anyway, when we got home, our almost-2-year-old was the last one awake, and since she had only napped for about 10 minutes during the day, we thought we were almost home-free for a nice evening together – WRONG!  About 30 minutes into the movie, our oldest came down, asking for a snack.  No biggie, but “Did you wake your sister?” we asked her, panicked beyond belief because our 4-year-old has been a little hellian again lately.  She said she didn’t think she woke her up, but 5 minutes later, guess what happens?  Sammie comes down the stairs, and now we’re in the middle of an R rated movie with all 3 kids awake and downstairs.  So much for our peaceful early night, sigh.  We sent the oldest 2 upstairs, and that’s actually the last we heard from Sammie, believe it or not.  Disney, the youngest besides the baby (and he’s not old enough to cause any trouble yet, thank goodness!), got so OVER-tired that she started crying for about 45 minutes straight until she finally fell asleep.  But then Taylor, the oldest, must have come down the stairs at least 3 more times because she was worried about various bugs that were in her room and in the house, according to her anyway.  If this were still the age of the VCR, our movie would have been eaten by the VCR by now because of all the pausing and unpausing we were doing…  but ultimately, we just gave up anyway because I was falling asleep during the first part of the movie, and we could tell Taylor was going to be “bugging” us all night…  So we missed the end of No Escape – some crappy Ray Liotta action film from the 90’s.  I think it was crappy anyway, I really didn’t see much of it – let me know if it’s any good and maybe we’ll go back to it.

But for what it was worth, the day provided a nice destraction from the worries that have been plaguing us lately, so thanks to all who participated.  Now we just have to wait another week to find out more medical test results…  ugh, I hate the waiting!

Very often, the best way to help ease the tension of a rough few days is to do something fun with people whom you consider dear friends. This past week has been a doozy. I learned through a rather ill-timed phone call that my mentor, (one of) my greatest influences, and staunchest supporters (to put it mildly) is in her final days of her nearly year-and-a-half battle with leukemia. Then, I learned that one of my best friends, influences, and staunchest supporters is having medical problems of his own. I am constantly praying and hoping for both of them, but that was not at all what today was about.

Following my shortened shift at work today, friends gathered at the area miniature golf/go-cart racing park. It was a blast. I loved the thrill of traveling at breakneck speeds along the hairpin turns and steep banking of the quarter-mile track (more or less). Most times, I was accompanied by one of three darling girls (even when they are highly animated when faced by spiders/bees) who enjoyed it at least as much as their adult(?) counterparts. I am quite pleased to say that I do not believe that I finished anything less than 3rd place and came in 1st at least once that I recall. If only I had not kept tapping the brake at inappropriate times…

The group then decided to visit the batting cages at a nearby park in order to practice up for our 2nd annual funday/softball game coming up in a few weeks. Some of us did better than others but it was just another excellent diversion.

Following our early dinner (must have been early as some of the items on the menu were not available before 5), four of us returned to the Putt-Putt location and accepted the round offered by our resident miniature golf regular… who claims that he has made a hole-in-one on every hole but one on the course). Although I came in third, it was still fun and I thought I did well… a 58? Justj just happens to carry his $8.00 putter (that was the clearance price) wherever he goes.

Before we departed our other group of friends, I could tell that C was beginning to feel fatigued. I just hope that all goes well tomorrow and am certain that his tests come back with good results. And I know that Ma 2 is soon going to be in a much better, peaceful place and remembered by everyone whose lives she touched and will continue to touch. To paraphrase a quote from a classic curmudgeonly (guess that is a word) science-fiction physician: She really will not be gone as long as we remember her. (I refuse to use the “d” word).

So thanks, Chris, Lisa, Taylor, Sammie, Disney, Christopher, John, Megan, and Carol. You all are so important to me and I cherish every moment we spend together. I love each and everyone of you.