Road Trip to Southern Indiana!

So here's the deal.

If you're not from Indiana, you might not know about Holiday World. It's an amusement park and water park just north of the Kentucky line. Here's a list of reasons {taken from their website} why you might want to visit it...and some help in understanding my thoughts toward a trip to this fine destination.

1. Two parks – Holiday World Theme Park and Splashin’ Safari Water Park – in one. I'm scared of all rides, so this is like double the fear.
2. TIME magazine named The Voyage the #1 Wooden Roller Coaster in America. Roller coasters make me sick and zooming over wood...well...refer to point number one.
3. Free soft drinks. Just sayin’ …You have my attention.
4. In 2013, USA Today proclaimed Splashin’ Safari to be the Best Water Park in the USA. Well if I'm going to go, I do want it to be the best.
5. The friendliest bunch of employees you’ll ever find – that’s why they’re called Hosts & Hostesses. Okay, I like that. Hope it's still true after they meet me.
6. Holiday World is the world’s first theme park (we opened, as Santa Claus Land, in 1946 – that’s nine years before Mr. Disney got started!). Impressive.
7. Voted the Cleanest Park in the World for more than a decade. We’re a bit fanatical. No wonder Ryan likes it so much! And clean is good.
8. Fun shows – with singing, dancing, and diving. But not at the same time … This sounds good.
9. Free parking. As does this.
10. Yummy food, from pizza and burgers to Thanksgiving Dinner. Reasonably-priced, too! I'll take the pizza and burgers. Not really a fan of Thanksgiving food.
11. Mammoth and Wildebeest – the two longest water coasters on the planet. Pray for me now.
12. Santa Claus. Every day. Now this, I like.
13. Free inner tube usage. Free Wi-Fi, too. Can I use the Wi-Fi in the inner tube??
14. Special menus for those with food allergies. Not me, but that's a nice thing to offer.
15. New for 2014: Mayflower swinging ship ride plus Friday Night Fireworks! I like fireworks but I'm not going on Friday. Sadness.
16. We’ve received nearly a thousand positive TripAdvisor.com reviews. I hope to be 1001.
17. Free sunscreen. (You know you always leave yours at home on the kitchen counter!) Impresive.
18. Holidog hugs. Kitty Claws, too. We left Braeya at home.
19. We’re in Santa Claus, Indiana. We’ve got that whole Mayberry vibe going on here. You’ll feel safe and happy in a sweet, old-fashioned way. I do like Mayberry.
20. Your family deserves it! So my husband says.

Ryan loves this place. LOVES IT. And as soon as we started dating, he started talking about visiting here. But the year we dated, we elected not to come because it would have meant spending the night away from home and that's just a whole can of worms I didn't want to mess with when we weren't married. And then last year we were up to our necks in home renovations, and we never had time to come. So that meant...this was our year.

Gulp.

And so it was that last Thursday, I packed these:

And this one got mad:

And when the husband got home, we did our pre-vacation photo:

And we hopped in the old car to head to Holiday World. I was both grateful and nervous for this trip. Grateful because tomorrow is the great dental event of 2014, and it was a merciful blessing to have this soaking up the weekend before so I didn't think about THAT. Nervous because I really don't like rides and big crowds and things outside my comfort zone.

We ate dinner on the road {It's a four hour drive, so we were going to be getting in late as it was} and stopped for coffee, of course, on the way.

I can only guess that what happened next has to be blamed on the coffee creamer. It was the ONLY thing we didn't have the same that evening. Two hours into our four hour trip, my stomach went on STRIKE. I felt crazy sick. Hot and cold, shaking and anxious, heart racing, absolutely sick to my stomach. There we were, in the winding hills of southern Indiana, as far from home as from our hotel, and I'm sick.

Not. A. Good. Situation.

We stopped a total of three times {where I managed to NOT get sick, but boy did I ever think about it} - and arrived safely at our hotel. I. Was. Exhausted.

And that's how we started our vacation. You can only imagine what was to come.

Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday was a lovely, low key day in our world. After church, we stayed home most of the day, watching Lifetime movies. {Husband of the year award for Ryan for not only enduring it, but kind of suggesting it!} We did venture out in the afternoon for some Starbucks and then while I wrote some blog posts, Ryan fixed our hot-dog-for-two dinner. And we got one of my favorite pictures of Braeya. BUSTED!!!

* Monday, I started getting the sniffle section of the cold Ryan so lovingly gave me. By that night, I just resorted to shoving a Kleenex in my nose to keep it from running. I knew he loved me when he still found me pretty in that state. We also had a chance to show our house {NOT while the aforementioned Kleenex was shoved up my nose} to a nice family, so we enjoyed doing that! And then we just relaxed the rest of the night.

* Tuesday I could NOT wake up. This was because I took Nyquil at midnight the night before, and when the alarm went off less than five hours later...it hadn't worn off. So the Keurig and I were GOOD friends at work that day. I finally woke up shortly before it was time to come home! Found out very last minute that author Colleen Coble would be speaking at the Greentown Library that night, so I took a carload of her fans and we went to hear her. LOVED that evening!! When I got home and hunkered down with Ryan to watch America's Got Talent and write my blog...the computer needed to update, and it took AN HOUR. Imagine my amusement. Some days just don't go as planned! :)

* Wednesday was Mom and Dad's actual anniversary, and they stopped by on their way home from a little getaway...to see us and to bring us treasures from Rise n Roll! We took their official 60th anniversary photo...so proud of them for that accomplishment! Ryan and I had a good day...it was my last day of work for this week. Took a couple of vacation days! And one of Ryan's patients brought him a present...wasn't that nice??

* I was off work Thursday, and it turned out to be a GREAT day to stay home, because it stormed and rained hard all morning. After I saw Ryan off to work {booooo} I became VERY productive!! A quick trip to the grocery...where I purchased my first ever decaf coffee in prep for the day before my dental event next week...can't have any caffeine that day. I also  packed for a quick getaway with Ryan. {I didn't say we packed LIGHT. I just said I packed.} After Ryan got home from work, we hopped in the car and headed south, of course getting coffee on the way!

* Friday morning, we woke up with the Ohio state line in view of our hotel window! We set out to tour Spencer County, which included a trip to St. Meinrad Archabbey, a shopping trip through Santa Claus, Indiana, and a paddle boat ride on a lake inside Lincoln State Park. It was something like 95 degrees that day with almost 100% humidity, so we were POOPED by the end of the day, but we had FUN!!

* And yesterday. OHHHH yesterday. Ryan and I went to Holiday World, marking my first ever time to a theme park. I rode one ride. And THAT was a huge accomplishment. I spent the rest of the day on observation decks, taking pictures of my brave husband, who can ride rides ALONE. We had a great day - despite seeing a lot of ill-fitting swimsuits, narrowly missing a puke fest by some random kid, and some "mild' overexposure to the sun. A great day together!