who knew having fun was so painful?

this past weekend the whole family packed up their various vehicles (two prius, one golden goose of a mini-van, and one dodge something a-ruther) with food stuffs, board/video games, DVDs, and swimming suits, for a weekend trip to starved rock state park in utica, il. with 13 of us, it is true that we go through a lot of food, but once we were moved in i'm pretty sure the kitchen was stocked not for the wintry weekend, but for a nuclear winter. in double checking that milk, bagels, italian beef, veggies, juice boxes, etc. were all accounted for, my sister-in-law quickly realized upon arrival that she had forgotten one small item-- the kids' suitcase filled with all of their clothes and swimming suits. not the best start.
while she drove off for a shopping spree at the nearby wal-mart, the rest of the family went to the amusement park. while the cabin we were staying at (large enough to comfortably fit all 13 of us) is located in the middle of the woods, the "resort" also has a small, indoor amusement park and water park. the amusement park was more carnival-esque as it had dozens of arcade games, 6 kiddy rides, and 4 adult rides. after doing some of the kid's rides, four of the adults decided to take on what looked to be the most aggressive ride in the place.
the eclipse is one of those spinning rides and turned out to be the most intense ride i've ever been on like that. Gs like i've never felt were revolving my body in a way i never want to feel again. my brother's groans of "dear god, please let me off" were at first hilarious then echoed after my body was tired of being whipped around in the seat. all four of us, walked limply from the ride, surprised to still be alive. i was sure i had brain damage, and my brother was sure he was going to yak. although i think i avoided brain damage, i did wake up the next morning to find a nice bruise coming in on my inner thigh where i was slammed into the formed plastic seat. let me tell you, nothing is sexier than walking around in a swimming suit with large bruises on your inner thigh. it pretty much screams, "do me!"
the next day the family ventured out for a little nature hike. turns out six kids ranging from 3 - 11 years old isn't ideal when walking on hilly, icy terrain with steep edges and few guard rails. instead, however, we did manage to ignore the "stay on path" signs and search out several animal prints that were left in the snow. although i quit the girl scouts before even making it past "brownies", i did find it fairly amusing to see very tiny mouse prints followed by much larger paw prints of what seemed to be some large cat looking for lunch.
the weekend also saw some intense sledding. behind our cabin was a pond with some great hills encircling it. my brother proclaimed the pond solid enough to sled onto, so the six kids, my brothers, and i went at it. i haven't been sledding in years and it was a blast. unfortunately i literally did blast one of my nieces as i uncontrollably barreled down the hill. having just regained her balanced, i came in right at her ankles, and flipped her right back onto her back. luckily, i turned to see her laughing rather than bawling. her cousin also did a spectacular face dive as his mini-sized snowboard hit a patch of snow and stuck, leaving him flying head over heels and face first into the snow. thank god his head and neck were there to stop his body. or really, thank god his mom wasn't there.
who knew having fun was so painful?