Shutdown 2008

This week has been Shutdown for Honda....no work for a week and it's paid!
Last Friday Dave worked 1st shift, which was nice. He got home and we had dinner together, something we don't usually do. Saturday Taylor and I got to have some time together. We went shopping, got our hair cut and had dinner. I know it's special for her to have that time...it is for me too.
Sunday the real fun began. We had church at the Harding Memorial for the Celebration of Freedom. Taylor sang a song with the other kids from church. We all wore our Old Navy flag shirts. Mom thinks it's cute, so she tries to get us shirts every year. I'm not sure Dave and I will be able to continue to wear them...they were kind of tight this year. :)

After church we went home to get our stuff ready for a night away from home. We went to Fort Rapids indoor waterpark in Columbus. It's a Holiday Inn with a really big indoor waterpark. We've been there before and the kids liked it....plus we've have wet weather a lot lately, so it worked out. We got to check in early and go swimming for a little before we left for dinner and a Columbus Clippers game. While we were eating it was raining...not a good sign. Once we got to the game, though, the weather had moved on. Our seats were wet, but the evening was perfect for a ball game. We weren't sure how the kids would do, but they lasted the whole game!!!! After the game, the kids got to run the bases ( that was cool).






We spent most of Monday at the waterpark. We had a great time, better than expected. Ethan went down all the waterslides he could. He kept up with the girls, going down the slides in the baby/toddler area. He even went down the slides in the everyone area with the huge dumping bucket. Dave and I got worn out just from following the kids everywhere to make sure they were alright. Taylor was big enough this year to go down the adult slide with the double seater tube. I went with her and I think I scared her from my laughing and screaming. :) Taylor, Jamie and Dave went down the big kid racing slides. You get a mat to lay on and race down three differnt slides. I can't believe the girls liked it so much. Once they wore Dave out, I had to go with them. It wasn't too bad...until you come to the end and you have to stop. It felt like getting punched in the stomach over and over, just from hitting the water at the end of the slide that stops you.
We just had a really good time. When we left, it only took getting back on the highway to go home for all the kids to fall asleep. :)
Tuesday we had to get our house cleaned up, because we invited the new pastor at our church over for lunch. We knew they probably wouldn't care if our house was not in perfect order...but we cared. We had a nice time...I'm just glad we did it early in the week, so I would stress over it! Wednesday we didn't do much...we went out for dinner before church and got ice cream after church. We did our usual stuff....but it wasn't Dave's usual, so it was nice to have him around, for me and the kids.
Thursday was the best impromptu day. Jamie and I got to have our one on one girl time. We shopped, ate lunch, and shopped some more. After we got home and took a little break, we all went to see Wall E and then Chuck E. Cheese. The movie was really cute. Disney Pixar movies are always good and I think they are my favorite. Chuck E. Cheese wasn't bad either, even though Dave didn't want to go. :) Ethan ate a lot of pizza, which surprised Dave and I. And everyone got a crappy toy we could have bought for 10 cents anywhere else. The kids had fun....we called it Kid's Day. When we left Chuck E. Cheese it was 9 pm. Red, White and Boom was going to start at 10 pm. Since we were already in Columbus we decided to drive downtown and watch the fireworks. We parked close enough to see the fireworks, but far enough away to avoid any traffic or loud noises from the fireworks. It was a great day.
Friday, the 4th of July, we had a picnic at Dave's grandma's house. It turned out to be a good picnic too. Dave's grandma had invited Dave's parents and his other grandparents. We got to see all of Dave's family yesterday. We stayed over there for a couple of hours and headed home. My sister Amy came home on Thursday, but we were gone all day, so we got to spend some time with her. My mom, Amy, the girls and I went to El Campesino for dinner. Not the typical 4th of July meal....but I think they were the only place open. :)
Shutdown this week has been nice. It always goes quicker than we'd like, but we managed to get in good quality family time. The week was a success in my book...I just hope it meant something to the kids. I took a lot of pictures, so it'll sure be apart of their scrapbooks at least...if I ever make it that far.
Well, it's Saturday now....shutdown is on countdown to Monday now. Everything will go back to normal. So we're going to try to squeeze in some Dave and Sarah time.