A Weekend At Carowinds

Carowinds, North and South Carolina
How much can you pack into one weekend?!?! We did our best. On Friday morning we flew off to Charlotte, NC for our annual "roller coaster fix!" Our goal was to have a blast on the coasters, as well as spend some time with Kevin's sister Stephanie and her family, and Austin & Elizabeth. It has been a good six years since we have seen Kevin's old roommate from college and it was wonderful to see them again. Its awesome when you can hook up with people after so many years and it just feels natural, just like you haven't' really been apart (with the exception of a few additional kids of course!!) They welcomed Jadeyn in as part of their family instantly! Katherine, Adison and Ashton romped around with Jadeyn and us and loved showing us their playground: they live just about two minutes from Carowinds!

Stephanie and family were so happy that we were able to see them as well. Jadeyn was ecstatic to see his cousins again!!! This is our third long distance coaster park that we have been able to to with them!: Kings Dominion in Virginia, Hershey Park in Pennsylvania and now Carowinds in North Carolina! We love having them as our vacation buddies!

We were on our own for the second day in the park and crammed in as many coasters as we could, but still managed to spend a few hours in Snoopyville for Jadeyn!



Jadeyn loved the Swings!! He was a little unintentional rebel however. He would rock the swing, stretch to kick the swing in front of him, grab onto the swing in front of him and rattle his chains! Not because he was misbehaving, he just couldn't contain his excitement!

Jadeyn's first "big kid roller coaster" was a complete success the first time around. He went with Kevin and even held his hands up on the first hill. Once the car started to plunge however, he held on so tight! Then he demanded to stay on and go two more times! When I took him the next day though: no hands up and he practically hid under the bar for safety, but still wanted to go two more times! I think we were nearing nap time at this point!

The Intimidator

The Intimidator is the parks newest and biggest coaster opening up just this year. It was a thing of beauty! 211 foot drop at 75 mph. It was a smooooth ride and very thrilling. We went on it about 12 times each between the two days. It was similar in style to Apollo's Chariot in Busche Gardens, VA. So much air time that you don't even notice that you never go upside down!


Other favorites were Afterburn a nice coaster where your legs dangle down. I tried the Carolina Cobra, a coaster where they pull you up the track backwards, then drop you down, ride through the tracks to the other end, where they hoist you up again and you do it all again, but backwards!

We enjoyed all of Saturday with friends and family at the park and wore everyone out!! Dinner was in the lovely home of Austin and Elizabeth with some awesome Chinese food!

Sunday morning at breakfast all Jadeyn could talk about was "ride the park! ride the park!" We can see the park from our hotel, and it was almost more than he could handle. A nice leidsurly day followed treating Jadeyn to all the kiddie rides and then taking turns on the big ones! I'd play with Jadeyn at a fountain while Kevin would go on Intimidator a few times and then we would switch. We were amazed at how short the lines were today!!! If we didn't have Jadeyn to force us to take a break, we probably would have made ourselves sick!

We treated Jadeyn to a giant "fill up your own" pixie stick! He loved it until he got to one of the extra sour flavors, and boy did he dance! I got it on video, but it was his second taste so it wasn't quite as dramatic as the original.











Sunday night, Austin & Elizabeth had us over to their house again, and once more they amazed us by a gourmet spread! Homemade lasagna, homemade focaccia bread, angel food cake and fresh fruits! We stuffed ourselves and once again enjoyed their company while the kids played.

Over all, we had a spectacular trip! We usually reserve our coaster trips for the middle of winter, but we couldn't resist visiting and taking advantage of seeing everyone.



Oh, the plane ride. Jadeyn did very good. It was wonderful to have him be in his own seat with a seatbelt. He slept for one leg of the trip each way and the rest of the time we entertained him. I had to change a poopy diaper on the plane in the tiny bathroom and this one didn't even have a pull out table! Balancing his head and shoulders on the toilet seat (trying not to wonder if it was clean or not) I held is legs and bum in the air while doing my best not to ... you get the idea. Luckily, on the return flight, he at least waited until the flight was already boarding before I had to race to the bathroom and change him. Oh the adventures!

Taylor Park, CO

One wild Labor Day Weekend!

Rip roaring through the dirt, rocks, hills, trails, dust, dust and more dust! We rented a 4-wheeler and a Polaris Razor for the weekend and tore it up in Taylor Park, CO: ATV Heaven! What fun! We hit the trails from 9am to 7pm on the first day and 10am to 5pm on the second with only about a 30 min break each day. (Kevin thought we should get our money's worth on the rentals!) Hopping onto the 4-wheeler felt just like the good 'ol days riding the snow mobiles except I was higher up and there wasn't the promise of a soft snow landing if I crashed! Kevin spun out to his heart's content and enjoyed watching me hang on with a vice grip whenever we spun a big farther than I was ready to go! Jadeyn on the other hand hooted and hollered, clapped his hands and begged to "Go Faster!"
Each of the trails we took had their own individual personality which gave us unique experiences on each.
Texas Creek took us on a narrow jeep trail alternating between rough rocky trail and smooth dirt undulating in wave after wave. We followed along Texas Creek going in and out through the pines and beaver ponds. We finally ended up at the end of the trail and decided to cross the river to find the lake. That's where the interesting part began. We tried the loop around back to the main trail and apparently took the trial intended for ATVs or bikes, cause the Razor, well didn't want to fit between a few trees in one spot. When the machine goes at an angle, the roll bar of course tips too and would allow him and Jadeyn through! Oh dear. So with a lot of maneuvering, moving a few downed and decaying tree stumps and logs, Kevin managed to wiggle his way out and was free! (Oh, we did take Jadeyn out for this technical maneuvering!)


Piebald Trail was a wide soft road up to an abandoned mine site that had been turned into a bakery years ago. On this one, I got to drive Jadeyn in the Razor and Kevin tore it up on the ATV. Well, despite the bumps, and jarring motion (or perhaps because of) Jadeyn fell deep asleep bouncing around in his car seat! We climbed the narrow trail to the base of one of the old buildings and were promptly surrounded by at least 15 bikes, and 4 ATVs! Talk about intimidating! Here we were with our little boy asleep and all these strangers surrounding us. A few words and all these guys started teasing us and telling us how sweet our little boy was. Then the one guys starts telling all the other, "hey give her some room to turn around guys! where are your manners!"

Italian Trail was beautiful and scary! We started out on a lovely soft trail through meadows and aspens, then we got to a gate that said 4x4 only. That was our hint that tough roads were coming. Instantly the trail got really steep and rocky! We couldn't believe so many 4 wheel drive trucks were on it bouncing around. It was amazingly beautiful though. We went for miles and miles because on the map, it showed that this trail hooked up with a campground again at the main road and we would take the road back. We started to get nervous. Kevin was under 1/4 tank and the sun was setting! Suddenly, the trail wasn't as beautiful 'cause I was getting scared! It got below freezing on our first night, and all I could imagine was tips from "Survivorman" on how to make it through the night in high country. Finally we hit a place that said, "Private Road, If You Continue, You Better Be A Friend!" We stopped and asked a man for directions who was working on a rundown cabin. Nope, only way out was back the way we came. If we continued on, we could only make it by bike! Back we went, and I was still nervous. Then Kevin stops his vehicle, turns back at me with a big ol' happy grin and shouts, "Having fun?!?!" I love my husband. He know what I needed to hear to enjoy the ride again, and old stress when it was necessary. Well, we made it back to camp, in one piece, and still having gas left over!

Kevin & Jadeyn enjoying Jelly Filled Powder Donuts for lunch!!! Yummy!

On our second day we decided to surmount the big challenge: Tin Cup Pass to St Elmo! Wow!! Earlier in the summer we had come from the other side: Pitkin to Tin Cup and had lunch at Frenchy's! This was incredible! It was quite technical especially for us rookies. Parts of it were quite scary, and all of it was beautiful. Up at the top of the pass we took a quick look at the beauty, zipped up our fleeces and continued on. It was quite an accomplishment, I have to say. Kevin drove like a pro with Jadeyn and I both buckled into the passenger seat of the Razor. Halfway back down, Jadeyn again fell sound asleep in my arms bouncing all around! At St Elmo, Jadeyn fed the famous chipmunks and then we headed back down. Funny thing, back in '04 when we first met our friend Jonathan and Brigitte Barnes while camping at Chalk Lake, we had come to St Elmo from the other side! Small world!)























It was kinda sad to have to turn our machines back in, but we had a blast, were COVERED IN DIRT, were a bit sore and loved every minute!!

Camp life was as usual, lots of fun. We camped at Dinner Station next to the river. We couldn't believe how many people filled the Taylor Park valley this weekend. Well over a few thousand, but once you were deep on the trails, you would have no idea there were that many people. We got to know our neighbors, three retired men who offered their heater to us for the last two nights (Oh, that will spoil us!!). We ran into my co-worker Wanda's husband Ray on the trail as well! Small world! We fished a few of the lakes, caught two very nice trout at Pothole Reservoir Number 2 (nice name!). Then headed back home on I-70 (a 2 1/2 hour drive that took over 5 hours!

Happy Labor Day!