Enchanted Forest (Erika's visit Pt. 3)

Mon: This was the final full day we would have with Erika so I decided to take her to The Enchanted Forest. I saw it when John and I went to Newport earlier in the year but had forgotten about it until I overheard someone mention it Sunday at church. I couldn't find anyone who had actually been there so we drove the hour south on faith, hoping that it would be cool - and we were not disappointed. In fact, it was much cooler that I had anticipated; so cool, that this is practically the only view I saw of Korben the entire day:

From Erika's Visit Blog

We started out by going through a castle and onto storybook lane. It was so cute and had everything from Snow White's cottage, and the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland, to a tilted house and The Seven Dwarfs' cave. The best part however, were the slides that came out of the head of a huge witch, and another coming from an enormous shoe. We literally had to drag the boys away from them in order to see the rest of the park. We also ended up revisiting them after everything else because Korben kept asking for the "shoe slide" and the "giant witch".

From Erika's Visit Blog

We continued through the park checking out all the fun villages until we came upon the haunted house. I didn't want Erika to have to go through alone, so I decided to take the boys in too and if it was too scary we could exit at any time. Now before you all go and give me the worst-mother-of-the-year award for taking my two kids into a haunted house, let me defend myself. I specifically asked the lady that worked there if young kids typicall went in/got scared when they went in, and she said she had kids their ages go in all the time and not get scared. Also, Korben isn't afraid of the dark and at times even prefers it, so I knew that that wouldn't be a problem. He and Logan also don't understand what "scary" is yet, so as long as things weren't jumping out and scaring us(which they weren't) I didn't think it would be a problem.

So we started into the haunted house, and Korben's first words were "ooooh it's dark" followed up by a giggle. I was sure this was going to be a cake walk because Logan was laughing too. I firmly believe that if the 3 girls behind us hadn't started screaming about how scary it was, Korben wouldn't have freaked out and my contact wouldn't have popped out when he poked me in the eye. But...they did scream, he did freak out, and my contact was lost in a completely dark haunted house. Trying to stay calm, I took the closest exit (which I had to find carrying Korben and with blurry vision) which also happened to be a fire escape (whoops). So we all rush out of the fire escape with the alarm blaring - add that to Korben's excitement at being free, the girls following us out screaming, and an attendant standing at the door yelling at me for taking the fire escape, and I was ready to sit down and cry. I asked him to shut the door so I could hear and explained to him that I had lost my contact and wasn't just a disobedient patron of the village. He was then kind enough to offer to get a flashlight to search the place since it didn't have lights - an offer I'm sure he didn't think I would accept because it was like finding a needle in a haystack; but hey, what can I say...I have faith. Oh yeah, and if we didn't find it, Erika was going to have to drive us home right through Portland - NOT AN OPTION...

...After a long wait and several people going in and out of the haunted house, I had very little hope of finding the contact. But since the dude had been nice enough to round up the flashlight and humor me I figured I ought to give it a shot. So we walked through the house, him shining the flashlight back and forth, and me trying to catch a glint of something with blurry vision (I couldn't close the eye lacking the contact and just use the other one because I happen to not have the ability of closing my left eye without the right one closing too - something that Mike teases me for constantly). We made it all the way to the fire exit and other than a very dirty floor, I hadn't seen a thing. I asked him if we could look one more time, and just as I had given up hope....a glint of light. I'm positive I assured him of my craziness when I jumped up and screeched at him to bring the light back; but I think he thought he had witnessed a miracle when I showed him the tiny contact on my finger. That's right folks-I FOUND IT (with some Divine intervention I'm sure). After a good rinse off in my water cup and a lot of "wows" and "that is amazings" from all the attendants that had heard the tale, I put my contact back on and we were off to see the rest of the park.

After the thrill of the haunted house, we decided to get our thrills in a less dramatic and much more fun way by riding rides. Unfortunately Logan wasn't big enough for any of the large ones, so Erika had the pleasure of taking Korben on all of those. They had a blast- especially on the log ride that had a 40ft plunge at the end. We also found some smaller rides that Logan could go on too, so the only person left out was me...ah the life of a mom. :D

From Erika's Visit Blog

The last ride they went on was a little train where they could push buttons and steer etc. The attendant was nice enough to let the boys ride it 3-4 times in a row even though we only had enough tickets for one ride. I couldn't get a single picture of the boys looking at me until the very end when the ride stopped and I told Korben it was time to go...and this was the look he gave me:

From Erika's Visit Blog

Gotta love that right - to go from coolest mom to meanest mom in a matter of minutes. Then, to top the day off, the ride attendant kept calling Erika Korben's sister and I was starting to get a complex about how old I looked. I mean, do I look like I'm old enough to have a 15 year old daughter already?! That doesn't give me much hope for what I will look like when I actually do have a 15 year old. All that aside, the day was awesome. We were all tuckered out by the end but glad we had added one more adventure before Erika had to head home.

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Erika left on Tuesday, but not until her and Mike were able to go see a horror movie together. They had been talking about it all week but felt bad sending me to bed so that they could watch one (I don't do scary movies anymore). So Mike worked it out and was able to take her to a show right before she had to leave. They came home practically drooling about how awesome and gruesome and funny it was. It was fun to see Mike and Erika get along so well and have their own inside jokes, so I was glad that it had worked out right at the last minute. We headed immediately to the airport and made sure Erika got checked in and through security before we left her (it was her first time flying alone). Later that night Mike and I both mentioned how lonely our house felt. The boys also suffered withdrawals from not having their fun cousin around. I guess staying home and watching mom do housework just doesn't cut it when you have just partied for a week. :D

Thanks for coming Erika Jo! We loved having you and hope you can come visit us again soon!!