Coney Island At Dusk!

It feels like it was just June yet somehow we are nearing the end of august! We are trying to "live up" of what's left of summer before school starts so last week we ended up going to Coney Island. It's become tradition to go every summer and even though it can be trashy (in a good way) we love going! We don't mind the smells of weed or trash because let's face it, it's legally part of the world now but we don't mind that and we just focus on the positivity of this unique experience and just have fun with it! 

We always always ride the cyclone and the wonder wheel! They are both old rides and I swear I felt as if I was going to fly out of the roller coaster every time it took a curve. We screamed and cheered and upon rolling up to the top before dropping down the guy sitting behind us said, "welcome to hell." I totally had a final destination moment but nonetheless chelsea and I had a blast screaming all the ahhh's and I even said, "shiiiiiiiiiiiiT" once while riding this 95 year old roller coaster. Don't regret it and it's definitely worth the 10 bucks!  

It was a low key fun afternoon and stayed until late in the evening. I'm so glad I made this reel at dusk when the lights turned on because it truly does look magical. 

Coney Island- A Favorite Little Summer Tradition!

Coney Island will always have our hearts. No matter how pricey it becomes we will always venture out to this little island. It's nostalgic and epic in every way. I don't care what anyone says. It may smell, and be crowded but if you look past all that all you'll see is joy and lots of smiles and laughter on the kids faces. Families having fun, and even the drunk people make life interesting! Been coming here since these kiddos were little and as long as we live close by we will come each summer to bask in the sun and have good ol' fashioned fun! Just look at this reel and you'll see what I mean! 

Coney Island On Memorial Day.

Coney Island is one of my favorite places to go in the summertime. It may be overcrowded and let's be honest...dirty but none of that matters to me. It's nostalgic and brings back so many memories of the time my mom took my sister and me to the movies to see the Warriors. Often wondering what this place looked like in real life. She has yet to come here for a visit but loves the photos I take every time we come here. 

Our 4th Of July Celebration!

Our 4th of July celebration consisted of endless walking among new york crowds, in high humidity, eating good food where we spent most our time downtown touring the federal building, and walking along various streets in the city where there were lots of balloons!  

Coney Island!

The last time we went to Coney Island was the summer of 2013. Sierra had just graduated from high school, and we wanted to do something fun as a family before she went off for college. This has been one of our favorite theme parks to venture out to since our girls were little, and even though this particular outing hasn't become tradition it's nice to come every once in a while to enjoy the rides, and take in the oceanic smell of Brooklyn. 

This year our dear friend Maggie who is like family joined in on the fun with us. The kids call her aunt maggie, and I love her like a sister. We all had such a blast, and seeing Maggie letting her wiggles out by dancing with the Coney Island dancers on the boardwalk made me want to boogie on down myself, but was too chicken to join in! It has been at least 25 years since dancing in a major public forum and to me this was major. The Coney Island dancers had some awesome moves, and I'm so glad maggie joined in without a care in the world because that's what Coney Island is all about...having fun. Totally reminded me of the time Sierra sang "Sunday Morning" in front of a large crowd on the boardwalk! 

We could have seriously been here all day, and we practically were! We ended up leaving late in the evening. That's how much we all didn't want to leave! I made a little video about our day, and you can view it on my YouTube channel here.

A must have when you come to Coney is eating a Nathan's hot dog, and a pretzel.

No matter where we are in NYC a pretzel is a must have for Noah. This kid can eat them all day long! 

This year we decided to ride the rides at Luna Park. We figured since the kids are much older that they can ride the "adult" rides, and Luna park had some of the best rides! Noah got to ride some of the rides too. He has seriously outgrown the kiddie park, and has upgraded to much "bigger" rides.

Noah played a fishing game, and because he caught a fish (you can see it on the video) thought he was going home with one of the stuffed animals from above, but instead got this blue soda pop buddy. He wasn't too pleased. 

The girls were thrilled to have ridden the Cyclone. Chelsea was four when we first came here, and was bummed that she had to ride the kiddie roller coaster, but after riding the cyclone now understands why she couldn't ride it at such a young age. They had a blast riding various rides! 

This was seriously a fun ride. Noah had so much fun that he wanted to ride it twice, and I'm so glad I got to ride in a log with my little guy! 

Chelsea has become a cop junkie, and loves the show blue bloods. It scares me a bit, because she'd like to be a cop, and/or an FBI agent when she grows up! She has the strong personality to do it, and put the bad guys away, and would be good at it. I've seen her upset, and trust me, you don't want to get on her bad side!  

I actually blame myself for encouraging her because I actually enjoy watching Blue Bloods as well as Criminal Minds myself, and she obviously has developed a love for those shows. Don't think she'll be watching too much of it during the school year though!

Anyway, we decided to try out Wahlburgers, and the food was pretty darn good! Those onion rings were super delicious! 

Couldn't pass posting this photo of a beach towel that read "Warriors." For those of you who are familiar with "The warriors" would understand why I posted this! Love that movie! 

We had such an amazing day making memories as a family. It's times like this where you need to have that inner child come out, and release all the stress that you didn't get to when you were young. I'm speaking for myself. I never had opportunities like this as a child, and I'm so grateful that we were able to come again, and let the kids have a little fun before school resumed! 

karaoke, fireworks, & coney island.

One of the questions that was asked to the youth last Sunday at church during a Sunday school lesson was, "What things can we do to make a family happy?"

One thing that makes my kids happy is family time. Not necessessarily always spending money to go on trips, but just simply being together and bonding with one another. Perhaps having dinner together, playing games, just talking.

Being members of the LDS church we set aside one night a week in which we have family home evening to have a spiritual lesson in the home, and/or just venture out as a family to do something fun.

We have been very fortunate to be able to do all of the above and then some. Being on a budget (especially with Jon currently out of work) is trying for me because I love going on family trips. We've gone on small vacations, the shore, and various trips around New England. 

We even try to go the temple with the girls to do baptisms for the dead. They have kept their recommends renewed every year so they can be able to do that with their dad. That's been a tradition for them ever since Sierra turned 12, and as much as we love the temple we also make room for fun!! 

This past weekend we decided to splurge a little, and go to Coney Island where my husband and I rode the Cyclone for the first time. The girls had already been on it numerous times, but this time I was unafraid and rode this nostalgic, wooden roller coaster, and it was fun!! The last time I rode on a roller coaster was back in 1997 in Las Vegas. They had just opened up New York, New York casino and it was great! It felt so good hollering as we dove down. I had tears from giggling so hard, but boy was it fun! 

This day trip was literally the best because we spent all day here. We left Coney Island as soon as the  fireworks ended. The girls took advantage of every single ride including the Boardwalk Flight which freaked me out by seeing my girls high up in the air swinging back and forth from a harness. I seriously thought they were going to hit the railed fence! 

These girls are fearless!

This was Noah's first time getting on the kiddie rides, and Chelsea was there to guide him through just as Lexie was when Chelsea was Noah's age! I got a little bit of deja vu for a moment watching him.  Noah really enjoyed all the rides, and he felt so safe being surrounded by his sisters on certain rides that he felt were still too big for him!

He was 18 months old the last time we were here, and I think his favorite part was eating Nathan's hot dogs. The time spent with family is precious and nowadays priceless! In all honesty there are moments when we question ourselves and say, "do they really need to get on that ride" or "should we really go on this trip" , and "can we really afford this."  

The answer is yes, yes, and yes! 

Why? 

Because they grow up way too quick, and because I didn't even do half of the things they are doing while I was a youth. Especially with Sierra heading off to college, and doesn't have the mentality of "I'm too cool to hang out with family attitude" we are loving this time together. The best part of the evening was listening to her do karaoke singing "Sunday Morning". That was fun!  

So with all that being written here is a taste of our day in Coney Island.  

I count my blessings for being able to go on trips with our kids without going hungry! It's so important to do even the simplest things as a family. Whether it's going for walk, riding down the bike trail, going for a drive, or an extragavant vacation to an exotic island (which we haven't done...yet). 

Building these memories with our kids is something that I hope will be treasured enough that one day they will sit down with their own children to tell them stories of us. Stories of their grandpa, and abuela always going on trips when they probably shouldn't! Building love and happiness in our children is important, and that's all that matters in a family.

The ad from the LDS church couldn't have said it any better...

Family...isn't it about time.   

It always is in the Jorgensen household! 

Have a great week y'all!