Our first day of school looked very different this year! With all the COVID weirdness going on right now and after a lot of prayer and discussion, Matt and I felt that the best way for our kids to receive a consistent and quality education this year was to homeschool them through Epic Charter Schools. It's not something I ever planned to do or really ever wanted to do, but I am so grateful that it was an option for us and we're looking forward to the good things that come with homeschooling- family time, flexibility, individualized instruction, and hopefully some fun memories.
Our school didn't start until the Tuesday after Labor Day- It was the longest summer ever! We were all ready to start and get a routine figured out.
Daddy surprised everyone with a yummy first day of school breakfast.
The kids' first picture of the year in their new "classroom"
They did a little first day of school work before we headed outside to take our first day of school photos.
Samuel's first day of second grade!
I always do a little back to school survey with the kids. Here's Samuel's
How old are you?
7
What is your favorite color?
Light but not too light blue
What is your favorite food?
Pizza
What is your favorite TV show/computer game?
Roblox
What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas
What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
Go to Urban Air
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?
Go to Sky Zone
What is your favorite thing to do with Nathan?
Go to McDonalds
What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?
Play wrestling
What is your favorite thing to do with Katherine?
Play Mighty Pups
What are you most excited about this year in school?
Making our own Super Kids Day
What are your most nervous about this year in school?
Getting sick on any holiday
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Actor
What is your favorite movie?
Mew Too Strikes Back
What is your favorite toy?
Perler beads, Mega Construx, Smart Games
What is your favorite thing to wear?
Pokemon shirt
Who are your best friends?
Asher, Bennett, Jax, Jaxon, Hayden
Who are you going to marry when you grow up?
I don’t know
Nathan's first day of fourth grade!
Here is his survey
How old are you?
9
What is your favorite color?
Blue
What is your favorite food?
Tacos
What is your favorite TV show/computer game?
Roblox
What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas
What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
Watch movies
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?
Play games
What is your favorite thing to do with Samuel?
Play Roblox
What is your favorite thing to do with Elisabeth?
Play Baby Oga
What is your favorite thing to do with Katherine?
Share my candy with her
What are you most excited about this year in school?
Finishing it
What are your most nervous about this year in school?
Not liking it
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Pilot
What is your favorite movie?
Apollo 13
What is your favorite toy?
Legos
What is your favorite thing to wear?
Champion (brand) clothes
Who are your best friends?
Caleb, Wyatt, Brett Liam, Caden
Who are you going to marry when you grow up?
Kamryn
Elisabeth's first day of Kindergarten!
And her survey
How old are you?
6
What is your favorite color?
Turquoise
What is your favorite food?
Spaghetti and meatballs
What is your favorite TV show?
J House Vlogs
What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas
What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
Go on dates
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?
Have Donuts
What is your favorite thing to do with Samuel?
Play with him
What is your favorite thing to do with Nathan?
Put on Baby Oga Shows
What is your favorite thing to do with Katherine?
Play Paw Patrol
What are you most excited about this year in school?
Having parties
What are your most nervous about this year in school?
Nothing because I’m homeschooled
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Gymnastics coach
What is your favorite movie?
Descendants
What is your favorite toy?
Make your own gummy jewelry kit
What is your favorite thing to wear?
T-shirts
Who are your best friends?
Emma, Sarah, Ainsley, Makinley, and Emmalynn
Who are you going to marry when you grow up?
Nathan
Before we decided to keep the kids home this year, Elisabeth used her own money to buy a new backpack. She's disappointed she doesn't have a need to use it regularly for now, but she had to pose with it in her pictures.
This Little Cutie is the tag along little sister. It was also her first day of gymnastics. I'm grieving the quality, one on one time I was expecting to get with her this year, but I think she's pretty happy having her siblings home to play with her.
These kids and I are ready for our adventure this year.
We all went to Katherine's gymnastics class that morning, and the big kids had so much fun playing in the gym with some of the other older siblings. It felt like a God hug for me to let us know that he's taking care of our needs (in this instance, their social needs) during this crazy time.
After we got home from Kate's gymnastics, they got back to work with their school.
We took a break and had to have a special lunch for our first day of school! I knew the kids were a little bummed to not be getting to go to school and have that "normal" first day memory, so I tried to make our day as special as I could.
I love my Samuel. He was taking a diagnostic reading test, and one reading passage in the test was about making dreamcatchers. So as soon as he finished his test, he started making one. That's such a Samuel thing. I love his creativity!
I always make chocolate chip cookies for an after school snack on the first day of school, and I can't say I was sad to have my baking helper (Elisabeth) home to help me again this year.
We're all getting some lessons in grace and patience this school year. When COVID gives us lemons, we're doing our best to make some lemonade with this new journey this year.
The month of August was filled with a birthday party, beach vacation, and a Cedar Point vacation, but in between all that fun, we did a few other things too.
The kids asked to ride their bikes to the school playground one morning. Katherine and I followed them in the car. They're so big! We spent a great morning playing on the playground.
Katherine has been interested in Moana lately, and Nathan remembered he had a Moana Lego set. He got it out of the attic and built it for her to keep in her room. While he was building, I heard Katherine say, "You're the best brudder ever."
We've been trying to fit in some end of summer play dates, and we had a day with this crew. We played at their house in the morning, then grabbed lunch and headed to the park. We always have a great time together.
Elisabeth was excited for dance to start again. She's taking tap and jazz this year and comes home every week showing me the new steps she's learned.
Because of COVID, I couldn't walk her into dance, so I snapped a quick picture in the car before she headed into her first class.
Katherine finally gets to take ballet this year. She's been so excited to go into her own class all by herself.
She had a great first class. She said her favorite part was doing bunny hops. And she ran out of class at the end and said "I obeyed Miss Kwisty" and showed off her sucker she had earned for following directions. Elisabeth started in the same class just weeks before Katherine was born. I remember waiting in the lobby during her class with tiny, newborn Katherine, and now she's in that same class. Time flies!
Elisabeth got an Easy Bake Oven for her birthday and has had fun baking up some fun snacks and treats.
We had an end of summer pool day/dinner with these great friends. One of the things I get most sad about at the end of summer is less time to spend with friends because of busy school schedules. We're going to miss seeing these friends as often.
Kamryn and Addisyn came over one morning to play, and I caught the girls doing each others' makeup and hair. Then they had a parade outside. So fun!
Cutie Katherine is always baking up some yummy food at her cafe. She made me some tomato soup (and is wearing the apron I wore as a kid).
I think all of us are ready to figure out a Fall/school schedule and routine, but at the same time we'll miss the fun, flexible summer days.
For our fourteenth anniversary, Matt and I had planned a trip to Sandusky, Ohio to go to the Cedar Point amusement park. We're big roller coaster fans, and we've been to several amusement parks and theme parks, but had always missed out on the giant, record breaking roller coasters at Cedar Point. So, we decided before we get older and maybe lose our excitement and stamina for the big coasters, we should go. COVID delayed our trip by a few months and altered a few of our plans, but we were determined to get to Cedar Point this year, and we did it!
We flew out of Tulsa early Thursday morning and landed in Cleveland a little before lunch time. We rented our car and drove to downtown Cleveland to explore a bit. We found what looked like a fun little mall in downtown Cleveland, but after walking around it for a little while, we realized that there were very few stores open. I don't think we even went into a store, while we walked around. It ended up being a bust. The shopping might have been a bust, but we walked to a little Greek restaurant for lunch that was delicious!
After lunch we drove over to Sandusky and checked into our hotel. Matt had to deal with a small maintenance issue on our rental car, and I took a nap! It was glorious. Naps are a treat these days, and after an early morning flight, it was the perfect way to kick off our vacation.
After I woke up, we drove to a wonderful Italian place for dinner. We hit it out of the park with restaurant choices on our first day. Lunch and dinner were both SO good!
After dinner, we walked out around a pier in downtown Sandusky. There were cute little swinging benches and beautiful views.
We could even catch a glimpse of Cedar Point across the lake. Look at how much taller Top Thrill Dragster and Millenium Force are than the roller coasters next to them 😲
After our walk, we drove to a local ice cream place and ordered an ice cream taco! It's not vacation without ice cream, after all.
Then we headed back to the hotel for an early night and to gear up for a big day on Friday!
Friday morning we headed to Cedar Point for the day. They didn't officially open until 11:00, but the gates to the park opened at 10:30. We rushed over to Top Thrill Dragster- the ride we were both most excited (and nervous) about.
Because of COVID, Cedar Point has a policy that guests have to have an access pass to ride the four most popular rides, so we got in line to get an access pass for Top Thrill. After we grabbed that at 11:00, we immediately got in line for it since you don't need an access pass during the first hour of park opening.
Top Thrill Dragster is the craziest ride- it launches off to 120mph in 3.8 seconds, and goes straight up to 420 ft. SO crazy.
I was so nervous in line and waiting for the ride to start. I held on for dear life. I was so scared the first time I couldn't keep my eyes open, and it took me several minutes after it was over to catch my breath. But it was so fun! I think it's the favorite roller coaster Matt and I have ever ridden.
After that crazy ride, we ran over to get access passes for Millenium Force, another record breaking coaster. I learned all the roller coaster lingo while we were there. Top Thrill Dragster is a strata coaster, and Millenium Force is a giga coaster which means it has an over 300ft drop. We were riding it and it kept climbing and climbing and climbing. I didn't think we'd ever reach the top.
We rode another little coaster and then rerode Top Thrill and Millenium Force with our access passes. I managed to keep my eyes open during my second ride of Top Thrill Dragster. It was just as amazing.
We found a great sandwich restaurant for lunch and after another smaller roller coaster, we found some yummy dessert. After lunch we rode Gatekeeper which was a really fun coaster at the front of the park.
Then we got in line to get an access pass for Steel Vengeance that would be distributed at 3:30. Unfortunately, a storm was on its way that closed down all the rides and delayed the distribution of access passes. We decided to go ahead and leave the park with plans to come back later that evening. We weren't fast enough getting out of there though and ended up getting soaked walking to the car.
We drove back to the hotel and after realizing that the storm was not moving out anytime soon, so we broke out a game of Twilight Struggle.
We played for a couple of hours, ate leftovers from our dinner the night before and then headed for another ice cream taco after the storm finally moved out about 8:00 that night.
Saturday, we were back at Cedar Point waiting for the gates to open. I snapped a picture of Gatekeeper that's right at the front of the park. It was a really fun ride!
As soon as the gates opened, we headed ALLLL the way back to the back of the park- definitely more than a mile walk. Cedar Point is HUGE to get in line for access passes for Steel Vengeance. That ended up falling through again, because the ride was broken down, so they weren't handing out passes. Thankfully, Maverick was right next to it, and we grabbed passes for it, and then got in line to ride it. That coaster was really fun too! It had two launch points, lots of twists and was a smooth ride. Steel Vengeance was still closed, so we headed over to ride another coaster- Magnum XL. That roller coaster was a lot older and jerkier, but it had a great view of the lake, the water park, and the big Cedar Point hotel- so the view was good, but we had no desire to ride it again!
Then we went back and rode Maverick with our access passes, grabbed some lunch and rode another couple of small coasters, before we got back in line for the afternoon distribution of Steel Vengeance. It was strike three again on getting those passes because the ride was broken down again. Goodness, we had such a hard time trying to ride that coaster- which a lot of people raved about being the best coaster in the park.
We left the Steel Vengeance line and grabbed some more passes for Top Thrill Dragster. As we exited Top Thrill Dragster, we saw that Steel Vengeance had reopened and we trekked back to the back of the park and finally had success getting passes. Whew, I made Matt take a picture of those passes that were so hard to get!
We had some time before we could use them, so we got in line for Valravyn. Saturday was definitely a crowded day at Cedar Point- we weren't expecting huge crowds either, and we had to wait in line about an hour to ride Valravyn (they only fill half the cars and break to clean them every thirty minutes, so the rides take awhile). It was a fun coaster, but nothing like the other huge rides we'd ridden.
Afterward, we headed back to Steel Vengeance to actually ride it! I kept waiting for it to shut down again, ha! But it didn't and it was an AMAZING coaster. Matt and I kept saying that it looked like/had the same seat restraints as Outlaw Run in Silver Dollar City, but my goodness, it was about 10 times crazier/bigger/better. It holds the record for the most airtime on any coaster- 27 seconds, and I felt every one of those seconds out of my seat. The drop was crazy and the craziness continued throughout the entire ride. It was thrill, after thrill after thrill until we braked back at the station. So fun!
It was close to closing time when we finished Steel Vengeance, but we had to try to ride some more rides- there are 17 roller coasters at Cedar Point, and we were determined to ride as many as we could! We rode Wicked Twister to close out the night and it was super fun!
We hopped on the sky ride as the park closed to rest our tired feet.
And we caught a great sunset picture.
Sunday was our last day at Cedar Point, and we knew we had to head straight to Steel Vengeance. We got right in line and rode it shortly after the park opened. We loved it so much again, that we got in line to get an access pass to ride it one more time that afternoon.
Such a crazy ride!
Sunday was a really crowded day at Cedar Point- we heard they hit capacity. We ended up waiting about 90 minutes that afternoon to ride Steel Vengeance again and only rode six rides the whole day. That was a disappointment- we just weren't expecting crowds based on what we had read and researched. But we did manage to ride all the big roller coasters at the park- I think about 12 or 13 and ended our trip riding Millennium Force which was a pretty good ending. Overall, we had a great time at Cedar Point. I think I'll always remember the adrenaline rush that came from Top Thrill Dragster and Steel Vengeance.
We slept good on Sunday night after three huge days at Cedar Point. Our flight home didn't leave until Monday evening so we had a lot of free time on Monday. We slept in, packed up, finished our Twilight Struggle game, and I had a zoom meeting with the kids' teacher about back to school stuff. Then we ran to Target to pick up some surprises for the kids. We had lunch at a great pancake/breakfast place and browsed around a few other shops in Sandusky.
Then we noticed that this cute little miniature golf place was open, so we stopped and played both courses.
Before we left town we headed back to the pier to enjoy the water views for a bit longer before saying goodbye. We grabbed one last round of ice cream and drove back to the airport in Cleveland.
Matt and I really treasure our vacations together. I'm so grateful for the time to get away, escape the reality of school drama and work stress, and focus on each other and having fun together. Making couple vacations a priority has been one of the best investments we've made in our marriage. We were ready to get home and see our babies, but we're already planning our next trip :)
