Category: misty watercolor memories

Over the weekend, Jenny and I had the opportunity to take our families to Fort Rapids, an indoor water park in Columbus, Ohio. We had a great time, and it was so fun to all go somewhere together!

We stayed in the Bright Angel Villa – here’s the description from the website:
The Bright Angel suite features a spacious living room w/ sleeper sofa, kitchenette and fireplace, 2 bedrooms one with a king bed and the other offers 2 queen beds. The additional loft offers a king bed and private bath and a bunk room with bunk beds.

I think the kids would have been content to stay in the “apartment” as they called it all weekend – they had a blast running all over the place and playing hide and seek. The villa sleeps 12, and (unfortunately) we pretty much had the opportunity to try out every. single. sleeping combination possible, as our kids could not get it together at bedtime. But that’s another story!

Once we hit the water park, though, the kids never wanted to leave.

The kids had a great time, and we did too. We all enjoyed watching the kids have fun together – and we loved the water slides as much as they did! And when the kids finally went to sleep and Jenny, Bobby, Andy and I started playing board games… well, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time.

Big thanks to Fort Rapids for hooking us up with a place to stay and with water park passes!

Pop quiz!!!
Question one: What brand of detergent do Jenny and I use faithfully?
Question two: What sport are our husbands, my son, my dad, and Jenny’s brothers and nephews obsessed with?

If you’ve been hanging around here a while, I’m sure you knew the answer to those questions immediately! If you haven’t listened to us babble for years on end are a newbie, the answers are….

Tide and baseball!

And while they may seem unrelated, this weekend they both came together in what had to be one of the most memorable experiences of our lives.

Here’s the story.

As you may have noticed, Jenny and I have mentioned how much we love Tide once or twice . Seriously we’ve written so many posts mentioning Tide that it would take me all day to link to them all.

We’ve also written a lot about how much we love Tide Stain Release. Remember the time a purple crayon went through the dryer at my house or when Sophie spilled blueberry applesauce all over herself? It was Tide Stain Release to the rescue. Now, we both use it in every single load of laundry we do. Because, let’s face it – with kids, every load is bound to have some sort of stain! Tossing in a Tide Stain Release tablet ensures that all the clothes will come out looking great.

And baseball? Well, yeah. We are fans.

So, when the nice people representing Tide Stain Release asked us if we’d like to host an event to promote the Tide Stain Release Challenge at Great American Ballpark (home of the Cincinnati Reds) with a few of our closest friends, we were all over it!

Jenny and I have been to a number of events put on by Tide and we know they know how to throw a party, so we were expecting it to be great – but we weren’t expecting it to be completely amazing.

I’m serious – it was absolutely a dream come true for a number of our guests!

We started with a demonstration of Tide Stain Release, and we had a buffet lunch of ballpark favorites.

Then we had a surprise visitor!

(Please note how Jenny cropped out her arm fat in that picture, but left mine. Thanks a lot!)

And then… Mr. Redlegs led us down to the main event – batting practice on the field!

Needless to say, the kids (and grownups) were PRETTY EXCITED.

Batting practice was so much fun. We each took a turn, and we each came off the field saying “I want to do that again!” We were batting on the Reds field. Unbelievable.

Even Jonah had a great time.

It. Was. Amazing.

As we were getting ready to leave, Shannan thanked us for inviting her and said “This is a day that my boys will remember for the rest of their lives.”

I’d say that’s a sign of a good party!

When we got home, amidst a flurry of emails about how much fun we had, Amy sent this:

Just put P down and after prayers where Mr. Red Legs was included above Mom and Dad…she said “Mom, this was the best day ever.”

Ugh, melts my heart.

Our sincerest thanks goes to the people behind Tide Stain Release for this incredible experience. We will truly never forget it!

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Have you tried Tide Stain Release? If you haven’t, you should! We encourage you all to take the Tide Stain Release Challenge on Facebook. “Like” the page and you’ll be entered to win a year’s supply of Tide Stain Release and Tide detergent (a winner every week!) and the grand prize of a washer and dryer set – 10 will win! And then follow the example Jenny and I set by buying some Tide Stain Release and putting it in every load of laundry you do. You will thank us, I promise.