Our Past Week Part 2

When we first got to the park, we went to the “train station” to buy tickets for the different amusements in the park. From there Ryana, Sarah, Faith and Gerald Jr. got in the mini train, with Shanna and I riding with them. Gerald had a lot of fun. There were some different plastic animals along the track, and Gerald kept pointing to them and making their sounds. :)

From the train we went to the carousel. I was going to get on one horse and hold Gerald Jr. on one beside of me, but he screamed as soon as I put him up there. So we ended up riding together on the same horse. He still didn’t like that, but he settled down once we finally started going around. Then he started pointing at all the horses around him, and making their snorting noises. Every time he saw Mom and Dad he had to wave. :)

After our carousel ride, we went to the big pond in the park and bought 2 big bags of duck and goose food for $1.50! We spent a long time feeding the geese, and then we went down to the dock to prepare to ride the paddle boats. Out of all of us, I was the only one who had to be told again how to wear a life jacket. I put it on backwards. :S We finally got in the boats and had a lot of fun going around the pond and around again. They had put a fountain in one part of the pond, and Shanna had a lot of fun going around it, making sure that all of us got as wet as possible, but keeping herself dry. :) I noticed Dad was doing the same with their boat.
After the boat ride, we went back to the van for the food, and Dad and Shanna went to rent us a picnic table. I took the kids up to the playground to play while we were waiting. Mom stayed at the van to change and nurse Gerald Jr. When it was time to go to the table we saw a preacher friend, his wife, 2 boys, little daughter and grandpa. It was great getting to see and talk with them. He talked with Dad about having Dad come preach at their church on the last Sunday night of this month.
From the picnic area we went to the petting zoo. They had lots of different farm animals. Our favorite was the Jacob’s Sheep. It had 4 horns!

After that we went to the fish and snake building, and saw the different kinds of snakes here in NC. Normally I wouldn’t like looking at the snakes, but this time was different, because I was familiarizing myself with which ones were poisonous and which were not.
On from there we went to the gem mining center. When we were done with our buckets of sand, we mined through left over sand that was in the trough. When we looked through our rocks at home, we were surprised to find lots of shark’s teeth among them! I found around 25 in my bag!
When we were done there, we rode the carousel again, because Faith loved it so much. Then we all got Cheerwine Slushies, including Shanna, who hasn’t had any type of soda since 2004, on account of her fainting spells. She was wild with delight. Literally. :) By this time it was getting late, so we left. On the way home we went to “Gravity Hill”. You go almost to the bottom of the hill, then switch to neutral. Normally, your car would move down the hill, but here your car moves backwards back up the hill. It’s really odd.
After we had all freshened up, we went to the nursing home with some church members. Afterward we went back to the fellowship hall and had a meal. When everyone had finished eating, we all played Bible Occupations Charades. It was a lot of fun. There were two teams, and 1 person from each side has to act out the same job from the Bible, at the same time. Whichever team screamed out the answer first got a point. Our team won! :)