That's One Off the Bucket List

Good morning, all!  I am up bright and early as usual on this final Monday of summer.  By this time next Monday I will have gotten the middle and high school kiddos to school and will be on my way to vo-tech to drop kids there.

This morning I have to go to our back-to-school meeting. We'll get our route packets with the lists of stops and students, learn about any changes to policy or law, get to deal with details, and find out what our raises will be this year.  Plus, it's always nice to catch up with everyone, find out who didn't come back, and work provides the coffee, orange juice, and donuts!

We had a nice weekend.  My husband didn't work Saturday and we ran a few errands, wandered down to the neighbor's garage sale and visited for a while, went out for pizza with our daughter and her fiance and just chilled out at home in the evening since it was raining buckets most of the time by then.

Sunday was special.  My mom and I share the same birthday, which was last week, but we celebrated Mom's birthday in an unusual way this year.  We took her to ride a roller coaster.

Getting ready to go!
Doesn't John look like he's having fun?

It's a long story, but when my mom was growing up the school used to load all the kids up on buses and take them to Conneaut Lake Park for the school picnic.  At that time, the Blue Streak was the biggest, baddest roller coaster between NY and Chicago.  My grandmother forbid my mom to ride it, telling her if she ever found out she did, she would never be allowed to go to the park again.  My mom, apparently not being a normal kid, never rode it. (I totally would have ridden it, knowing my mom would probably never find out.)

Looking from the ground up at that infamous first drop.
Once the highest roller coaster drop from NY to Chicago!

Fast forward to a few years ago.  Mom was back in Conneaut Lake for a cousin's funeral and as the cousins all got to talking Mom's story of never getting to ride the Blue Streak came out. Her cousins told her they thought she was old enough to decide for herself now and should go ride it. Well, she went and bought a ticket, but the ride broke down before she got to ride and they didn't get it back up and running that day.  As Mom said, over 50 years later and her mom was still winning.

I decided that for her birthday this year I was taking her on that roller coaster and we were going to check it off her bucket list. Mom is 72 and I figured we may not get many more chances, you just never know.  The day started out rainy, which had me worried that Nana was going to win again, but as it went on and we drove north the weather cleared and we had a beautiful day.

We had a lot of fun.  Mom enjoyed the ride, but said "Once was enough" when we asked if she wanted to go again.  We both grew up going to that park and it was nice to visit again.  I figure it's been about 35 years since I was last there so it's been 40 or more years since Mom was there.  It's fallen on hard times and is looking a bit like a ghost town and is pretty shabby. That made us sad, but I guess nothing lasts forever.

Other than that, my thoughts have mostly been filled with plans for my daughter's baby shower on October 8.  So much to plan, so little time!  The baby's nursery is going to have a woodland theme so we're going with that for the shower.  I've found adorable invitations and tableware to match.  I've hired someone to make cream filled cupcakes which they will decorate in a woodland theme and display on a "tree" with....oh, let me just show you an example.

Now all I have to do is figure out the food, games, prizes.....

Have a blessed and happy week!