What a WEEK!!!! Silverwood Amusement Park, Idaho)

I sincerely apologize to all the fans of "Artistically Denied" (ha, ha) who have been waiting for my next blog entry. So few comments, so little affirmation, makes me just put off a new entry and put it off some more, until it's been OVER A MONTH since my last one. But, I do have more pics and more comments to add, so here goes!

We spent our last vacation days (I started back to work on Monday) visiting Brian's side of the family in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The next few blogs will be about this trip!

Our first full day in Coeur d'Alene was spent at Silverwood Amusement Park. When we entered the park we stopped briefly at some of the carnival games. Here is Caitlin and Joe standing by this crazy huge game! This picture if for Josiah as he seems to like these types of machines and this one had the biggest CLAW and animals I've ever seen. We didn't actually play this game as it seems to me that JOSIAH is the only one who ever actually gets a toy out of one.

This is a cute picture of Caitlin, but also of the newest attraction at Silverwood called "After Shock."

This ride has you sitting in seats with your feet dangling and a harness support . It brings you up one side and has you dangle in the air facing straight down. (*I must say here that I am not one to believe in the harness keeping me from sudden death. Johnny's daughter Helena said it best when she said, "What if one of those workers accidently bumps the button that releases those harnesses? So true in my head!) Anyway, once the ride is released, you go down, spin around the loop and then do it all backward up the other side. It's quite a rush, I assure you and we got EVERYONE (Daniel, Mike, Diane, Joe, Brian and I) to take a ride on it! There's another part of Silverwood that is a water park. There are these big slides for people to slide down and experience the oh so unpleasant suit up the dupa feeling (at the end). They are pretty doggone fun, especially as you end up going pretty fast and sometimes catching some air on the way down. Here's Mike (who enjoyed these slides just as much as his kids, if not more)!

Here's Brian coming down the "bumpy" slide. This is the one where the first bump throws you in the air a little and it's really oh so fun!This is why we were having so much fun at the Water Park! Grandma Diane had the kiddos set up during their naps and watched them for us while we got to play on all the fun water rides! Thanks SO MUCH Grandma Diane, we really appreciated this!We think that Cody is going to be a real water baby. He sees water and immediately wants to be put down so he can play in it. This day was a little bit on the cold side, so Cody just got his feet wet in the wave pool. Here's Brian, Daniel and Joe as we wait to get on the wooden roller coaster, "Tremors" (? I think).

Here are two of the signs you see before you go on this roller coaster. The first is because this roller coaster has a camera stationed to take your photo, the second is because it's freakishly scary tunnels make you feel like you're going to get your head chopped off. I ducked each and every time, whew!

I'm not sure why we have no photos of Gma Diane or any of Johnny's family, but apparently we were more concerned about riding all the rides than taking photos. I sincerely apologize to Diane, we promise to have more photos of you in the next few entries!