Enchanted We Are

So here we are at another cross roads for my memory banks. I remember, though not well, coming to this very forest when I was a child and now my kids will have a few of the same moments in life that I had. Being one of the very rare times that Dustin is not at his 6 day a week grind and is on vacation and loving it, we made the most of it and took off early in the morning to start our Enchanted Adventure. Because I haven't been here for 15 plus years, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to remember or what to expect of the old tourist attraction. It seemed to be the same, though a little aged and not quite as magical through my now adult eyes. Wow am I that old? I guess the days of magic and wonder are long gone for me. What I didn't remember was how scary some of the attractions were in the gloom of the big pine trees and clouds. A bit on the spooky side even for me. Now for those of you who have never had the chance to visit the Enchanted Forest, it is a theme park just outside of Salem that has taken all of the nursery rhyme characters like Bo Peep, Little Miss Muffet, and the Crooked Man and made statues, houses and activities out of their stories. Take for instance the Alice in Wonderlands rabbit hole. They made a 30 foot tunnel out of cement that goes under ground, curves, ends in a cement hut (the rabbits house), and is spooky as HELL. The kids looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them if they were going to go into the big black hole, so I had to suck it up and leed the way. We got about half way before the darkness took over and all you can see is a small spot of light at the end. I am sad to say though I am a 27 year old mother of 3, I was a little bit creeped out and couldnt get to the end fast enough. I felt my was along and as we got to the end the kids cheered. I must have done the job of hiding my fear well because they wanted to do it again and again. I DIDN'T. The slide was really cool though. It is for the story of the lady who had so many kids she didn't know what to do, so they lived in a shoe. I don't get it? Anyway. The kids of course loved it and continued the over and over again theme. Addison couldn't go on her own and cause Dustin probably would have gotten stuck in the small opening to the slide, it was Momma to the rescue again. She loved it so much that we couldn't get to the top of the hill fast enough to do it again.

The Bumper cars was fun to watch. Hailey and Dustin really got into it chasing each other all over that arena. The train was fun too. It got a little loud with all the buttons Jonathan could push to make noises mixed with the gut squeals of Addison enjoying herself.

The worst yet and ironically the funniest part of the whole trip was the haunted house. Now, the only reason we went was because we thought it was a kids thing(being in a kids theme park) and we had missed the sign that had said "not for little kids"....YEAH. So we paid our money and went in. I was holding Addison, Dustin was holding Jonesy and Hailey was in the middle. We were walking down the hall and just laughing and looking at the not so scary decorations, all cool and collected. Well we weren't even halfway through when they ran out of not so scary decor and broke out the nightmare makers. Our pace quickened and we realized that we were gonna loose the kids to tears and soon. By Jonseys request I ended up holding him and Addison both at the same time while walking as fast as I could through the darkness. It's quite amazing how strong you can get in situations like this. Normaly I am barly strong enough to lift one of them for a few minutes, but with apending doom ahead and not wanting to scar my children for life I morphed into wonder woman and packed em like it was nothing. At this point we were ALL done and wanted out so bad that I was looking for any exit at all and would have taken it if I found one. It was when a burst of air came from something in the wall that all hell broke loose. Jonsey screamed grabbing on to me so tight I couldn't hardly breath, Hailey though she was holding on to Dustin at the time (the safest she could ever be) bolted in the other direction trying to get past me to get back to the beginning I guess. She turned and took off so fast that Dustin couldn't grab her and I ended up blocking her and keeping her from getting lost in the house. It was all I could do not to laugh though. It was like I ws seeing the 5 of us from the out side looking in, what would a person think right now? Those poor kids and those stupid parents, right? I'm sure we looked like a bunch of kenneled dogs trying to run from the fireworks on the 4th of July.

Anyway, so there we are frozen for a good 20 seconds in the hallway and none of us wanting to pass the air burst thing again. Then Dustin gets into defence mode, picks up Hailey and literally throws her over his shoulder, which is funny cause she hasn't been carried at all for years and in any other situation she would be laughing and having fun in that possition. He starts walking so fast it was hard for me to keep up carrying 2 babies of my own Jonesy with his head burried in my neck. What our faces must have looked like as we burst through the exit door. That would have been a great photo! Never will we do that again but on the same hand it was so funny I still laugh when I think of it. And Addi...she was the only one who had no idea what the heck was going on. Once we hit the day light she was looking at all of us like we had lost our minds.

All in all it was a fun trip, the kids had fun and we made some good memories, spookiness and all.