Goodbye Braces

It's been a long 2+ years.  I do feel blessed that my time with braces was during COVID so we were wearing masks the majority of the time, but still, braces are miserable.

Not only did I have braces, but I had 3 teeth removed, several issues with the braces actually moving or not moving my teeth (which resulted in manual movement of my teeth each time I had an appointment), & couldn't chew with my back teeth the entire 2+ years.  I was sick of soft foods, unfulfilling meals, & was missing my favorite foods like chips, popcorn, & caramel.

It's finally done.  I'm SO happy.  My smile is SO different now than it was then.  It's BEAUTIFUL.  My overbite is a thing of the past.  I don't have too many teeth crowding my mouth anymore.  The pain is completely gone.  And I can chew food for the first time in ages.  It's wonderful.

 Hip Hip Hooray.  I am SO HAPPY.

Phantasialand - Day 2

Day 2 was even more fun than the first day!  We had already ridden all the rides in the park so we spent the day riding our favorites over & over & over again.  It was amazing!

Bladen, bless his soul, wanted to ride this monster again.  We let him go alone this time.  He loved every minute of it.

And we went back to the crazy hotel several more times as well.  I was sick of it, but the kids loved it.

The real winner of the day was Taya!  Not only did she ride the Colorado Adventure Rollercoaster, but she decided that she LOVED it.  It was her favorite ride.  And it was a real deal roller coaster.  We rode it 4 more times.  She couldn't get enough of it.

Which made her even braver & we decided to ride FLY again.  SHE WENT & LOVED IT!  7 times upside down & she was begging for more.  More proof that you just have to keep trying things because your likes change over time.

Before we left the park, Lorien wanted to ride the one water ride that was open.  We did it last so that when we got soaked, we didn't freeze to death.  I stayed with the kiddos that didn't want to go & they went & had a blast . . . & got soaked.

It was a great weekend.  We were so glad we went!

(and then we went home & got 3 notifications that our kids had close contact with people with COVID.  We took everyone on Sunday morning to get tested & sure enough, Lorien tested positive.  Sad.  She immediately went into isolation & has been there for 6 days now.  We all tested several times this week thinking we'd get it too, but so far as of this morning the rest of us are still negative.  I hope it stays that way.  Lorien can test out of isolation on Sunday so we have our fingers crossed that she tests negative on Sunday.)

 

Phantasialand - Day 1

For the 4 day holiday weekend, we decided to go to Cologne to visit Phantasialand.  We spent 2 days at the amusement park & it was a BLAST.

Basically it's a big amusement park sectioned off into different lands (Berlin, China, Africa, Colorado, Mexico) & each land has a few rides & shops in it.  It's a smaller park than most, but it was a ton of fun.  It had some of the best roller coasters I've ever ridden in my life.

About half way through the day, we ran into our neighbors which is hilarious.  We live In a German townhome (2 homes in 1) & BOTH OF US decided to come to Phantasialand on the same day.  It was hilarious.  The kids are all really good friends so we just hung out together for the rest of the day.  The kids were SO HAPPY.

My favorite part of the day was this ride right here. . . 

There was no line for it so we wandered in wondering what it did & whether or not we wanted to ride it.  Trek & Bladen ran straight into the line without thinking.  I stared at it & started imagining all the things it "might" do & decided I wanted to watch it first before committing to it.  I'm a daredevil, & love bungie jumping, rock climbing, heights, roller coasters, & thrill rides, but if something spins, game over for me.  I get sick.  I couldn't tell whether or not this was a spinny ride so I sat it out.

BOY WAS THAT A GOOD DECISION!!  As soon as it started going I realized what it was doing & started laughing.  Trek is exactly like me.  He can do most rides, but spinny makes him puke.  I knew there was going to be issues when he got off this thing.

Poor guy was sick the rest of the day.

There are so many fun little hidden lands & rides in this park that you could easily miss.  I'm so glad we went down every alley & saw every little thing we could so we made sure we rode EVERY RIDE in the park.

Poor Trek was still a mess after that other ride, & Taya started getting a migraine around 5 pm.  I felt so bad for them both.  Poor Taya. . . she is scared to death of fast rides or rides that drop (aka roller coasters).  She was a trooper & rode 3 smaller roller coasters.  We were very proud of her.

I love that Phantasialand brought in actual snow & strategically placed it all over the park.  The kids LOVED playing in the snow.  Every single time we found a snow pile, we had to stop & play for a while.

The kids' favorite "ride" was the Crazy Hotel Fun House.  I think we did that one 6 or 7 times.  It was just a huge fun house with moving floors, ladders, silly scenery, a mirror maze where you walk into several walls face first, & a big slide at the end.

My favorite ride in the park is called FLY.  It's a roller coaster that you literally are suspended from your back as you fly around a track.  Your arms & legs are dangling below you.  It's AMAZING.  You go upside down 6 or 7 times & it's just a fantastic roller coaster.

Once night hit, it "snowed" in the park (with little bubble machines).  The kids enjoyed that too.

All the twinkle lights were quite beautiful.

It was a great first day!