Riverbend

So on Tuesday evening, Robb and I had the bright idea to go to Riverbend, we had all the kids in tow. Tuesday is faith and family night, so we thought that it would be a fun time since the crowd probably wouldn't be as large as other nights of Riverbend. WRONG!! I guess there are quite a few people, including us, that like Steven Curtis Chapman and it was packed. We payed $10 to park fairly close, but unfortunately had to walk pass all the crazies on the street corner with their signs of condemnation and bullhorns spewing hate (that's another blog altogether). Then it was another $10 for Robb and I to get into the event. The kids were free since they were under 10, and now, in hindsight, I know why they are free. Ok, so we've spent $20 and just got through the gates.
Our first stop inside was to get $20 worth of tokens (40 tokens) and then we headed to the dip and dots stand to spend 7 tokens ($3.50) on a small ice cream for all three kids. 21 tokens down, 19 to go. Then we strolled down the street looking for a comfortable place for me to nurse the baby, and guess what?! That place didn't exist! I sat down on the curb of the road and nursed my little one while sweat dripped down my back into the crack of my behind. At that moment, I thought about all the women in the African deserts that nurse their babies in extreme weather and also about why I decided to wear jeans instead of shorts to this event.
Anyway, after I finished nursing, we headed back down to the other end of the road. We got halfway there and low and behold there was a playground!! SCORE!! We automatically went to the top of our kids "favorite people" list as they tore out of the strollers and headed for the ginormous slide. After they were completely pooped we headed back over to concessions to find something to drink. We bought a huge lemonade that lasted maybe 3 minutes between the 5 of us and cost 10 tokens. 31 tokens down, 9 to go. We thought we might need a couple of waters to make it through Steven Curtis Chapman, so we bought 2 of those before we sat down. They were 4 tokens a piece. 39 down, 1 to go. Yeah right, nothing is just 1 token, so that was a wasted 50 cents. See, that's how Riverbend makes their extra money, I'm convinced.
So we found a spot to sit, very close to the river. Beautiful little spot, but not really thought out on my part. The kids were having fun running around and staying away from the river, believe it or not, but as the sun went down (and they got further away from their bedtime), the kids got crazier. Baylee and Norah were the only ones that would stay on the blanket. Ryan and Jacob were running around, slowing getting closer and closer to the water every time. So we made the executive decision to make the boys stay on the blanket. After about 45 minutes of them getting up and then us giving them a pop on the bottom, we were thoroughly exhausted. Baylee and Ryan expressed their desire to potty, so we used that as our signal to start heading back to the car, with a pitstop to the nasty port-o-potty. Then it was up 2 hills and passing the crazies again to get back to our car to go home. We both let out a sigh of relief as we finally put the van in park, arriving back home shortly after 11pm.
We survived our first, and last at least for a few years, family trip to Riverbend. Are we crazy?! Yeah, I think we must be. I am still trying to figure out why I wanted to go in the first place... Oh yeah, Steven Curtis Chapman... Did we get to see him? I'm not sure. Oh wait, yes, I do remember hearing that Cindarella song while in line for the port-o-potty. :)