August 15, 2025 - Friday



First day of "Staycation"! I'm putting that in parenthesis because I just don't know that that's what we're doing, exactly. It kind of feels like, in reality, Ben is just taking a couple of days off of work. 😅 I think we wanted it to be a big deal! But we've got a lot of financial concerns right now and it seems like we can't afford to do a ton. Also, Zoombezi Bay is going to be closed on weekdays, and we did not realize that. That was our big event! So...is it a staycation? Or is it just Ben taking a few days off of work? I don't really know. I guess we'll see what the next 5 days bring.

Today, though, we headed out to Marietta to visit with Ben's dad and stepmom. It was a good day! We got there around 11 and headed out to the movies around 12:45. Ben and I bought the tickets for everyone and, man, we were in for a VERY BIG SURPRISE. I normally spend about $30 on tickets for our fam with our Cinemark movie membership (plus the $10 I pay every month for the membership, of course). The tickets at this theater came out to $155!!!!!!! I wanted to throw up. I seriously had a mini panic attack as I saw the amounts adding up. We don't even spend nearly that much when we take everyone out to dinner! It was wild. I also usually buy treats for me and the kids from concessions and spend about $25 on those. Today, we spend $36 for way less than I usually buy. Such a sad, sad miscalculation on my part. But we had to just let it go and not think about it anymore because the decision had been made and we didn't want to make Dennis and Hazel feel uncomfortable. I just felt quietly stressed about it for the rest of our time there! Afterwards, Clem and Ollie did this bungee jump thingy and they had so much fun! Ruby said it seemed too scary and Jonas was too heavy for it. After that, we all went out to dinner. Ben and I tried to cancel that to eat back at the house, but, thankfully, his parents offered to treat. Whew! 

Once we got back to the house, me, Jonas, Dennis, and Ben played cards for a while and then everyone just kind of did their own thing until bed time. It was a chill evening. One of our best trips out in a long time! Hopefully everyone sleeps well tonight. 

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