friday I met linda and matt and we all drove up to albany for the 3D birthday spectacular. Dad’s bday is 7/11, daniel’s is 7/16, and dan aaron’s is 8/29 but because usually people are wrapping up the summer then we have a preemptive celebration all at once.
Sat. we went to a Union Picnic at the Great Escape, it only cost $12 to get in, and we had picnic lunch and free soda all over the park! Amazing. it would have been reasonable at twice the price, really. We had a GREAT time, daniel didn’t puke on any rides either, and apparently LOVES rides. he turned 6 and we thought he would be too short to ride things, but apparently he’s roughly 50 inches tall could get on anything he wanted to. He only wanted to ride with Matt (his best friend in the world) though, so that was safe, at least.
sweet linda from texas had a good time too, yay! I love adopting/being adopted by people who love family time.
I took a lot of pictures of the condor, because it’s so cool looking with lights and molded plastic. it’s not the funnest ride, but it looks awesome.
on the ride home daniel totally crashed out.
he had a melt-down when we got home, he was TOO TIRED to go to bed, and cried and cried and cried. But all in all, he had a GREAT time at the park, and esp. at splashwater kingdom. And ESPECIALLY playing with Matt, who as I mentioned, he LOVES.
he was so tired he didn’t wake me up until 8AM the next morning (phew!)
Sunday we went to see sarah’s new house (beautiful! not too small!) and went swimming in her lake. then home for yummy birthday lunch (as displayed by matt and daniel)
and birthday party
we figured out the daniels during dinner, it goes like this:
Daniel Claudius – my great grampa, and can you get much more eastern tennesee appalachia then Claudius?
DC Jr (on birth certificate, so we all assume it is also Daniel Claudius) – my grampa
Daniel Eugene – my dad
Daniel Aaron – my bro
Daniel James – my nephew.
dan aaron got 3(!) pairs of size 15 flip flops, so if there’s a shortage it’s b/c they’re all at his house. Plus, mom came over so the party was absolutely complete! yay!
everyone had a great time, and ryan is cuter than ever
drove off at 4:30 after I was plied with a box of my dad’s old cameras (like, some OLD cameras, I may inventory later in the week), a cast iron dutch oven from my great grampa’s chicken farm, and fresh mint from maggie’s window box. yum. more mojitos at my house! we got linda home around 8:30 and matt dropped me off by 9:15 – not late at all, considering we stopped a couple of times off the mountain (including once to cuz. john’s folk’s house to pick up a microwave) and went to nj via queens via nj. note to self: trips to and from queens are fastest on sunday evening, apparently.
What a great weekend. I’m super tired, but had a wonderful time. There are more photos here and here (courtesy linda)
