Mad libs are next level hilarious when you use the word “butt” for all missing words.

Our annual crusade to make summer memorable led to season passes to Carowinds (a mini Cedar Point about 40 miles south of us) and season tickets to the Charlotte Knights (the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the Chicago White Sox). Both moves were big hits.

The kids never tired of Carowinds, running from ride to ride, blazing sun be damned. Finally tall enough to blow past security, they braved the big-kid rides, spent hours in the water park getting drenched, and saw the park lit up at night from the highest seats in the house. By the end of summer they were seasoned pros, knowing how to find the shortest lines for the best rides, and often riding a coaster more than once without getting off.

Nate even rode The Intimidator, the scariest ride in the place and comparable to Cedar Point’s Magnum. Nate was with family friends the day he rode the Intimidator. We’re told he was firmly against riding it early in the day, but a nudge from an older girl helped him change his tune. Whatever the inspiration, he scored big hugs from mom and dad and seemed to walk a little taller.

Knights games were a treat all summer. We were there for opening day, for the last game of the season, and a handful of games in between. The Knights played for years in South Carolina while stadium plans stalled in Charlotte. The new park finally opened in April, and Charlotte did it right. Fireworks against the city’s skyline are a sight to behold, and the place was packed all season.

Nate’s season-long mission to score a ball — a foul ball, one lobbed into the stands from a passing coach — any ball really, will have to wait another season. At the last game of the season, as Rachel and the kids were walking to their seats, a foul ball landed near them on the concourse. Nathan got a glove on it after the first bounce (his glove has been retrieved from two lost and founds, but doesn’t come off during the game) but the ball rolled away and was retrieved by Vivian. A final reminder of how cruel the baseball gods can be.

Nate handled the situation like a champ — at least while within earshot of mom.

Maybe next summer.

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Some highlights from our August trip to the homeland:

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Rachel hit a milestone birthday in June, and to celebrate we took a trip to New Orleans — a city she has long wanted to visit. Friends Brad and Jamie Dameron from Indianapolis were kind enough to tag along and help us navigate the sites.

We crammed a lot into the weekend trip, and did it with our own version of a walking tour. We visited St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square, took in a show at Preservation Hall, wandered through Lafayette Cemetery, popped into every little shop and bar that looked interesting and ate well. Man, did we eat well.

It’s New Orleans, so there is fabulous food everywhere you turn. Our visits included August (fancy John Besh restaurant), Red Gravy (Italian breakfast spot), Cochon Butcher (badass sandwich joint), Dat Dog (we enjoyed fries and beers, but they’re known for their dogs), Tujagues (old-timey place for a killer seafood dinner), Joey K’s (for lunch in the Garden District).

We also opened the tourist playbook and took a brief walk down Bourbon Street, had coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde, grabbed hurricanes from Pat O’Brien’s (one sip and you begin to understand why this city loves its booze. So refreshing on a hot day you forget it’s alcohol). And yes, we had a Sazerac — within 30 minutes of entering our hotel. The bartender even provided the history of the drink and a lesson in bitters, too. Bottoms up.

We finished the weekend with an eye-opening tour of the national WWII museum.

Though too short, the trip was everything we hoped and I doubt Rachel will wait 40 … er, 39 more years to visit again.

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The holidays were busy as usual this year, starting with a visit from Nani and the Williamsons over Thanksgiving (The Lions won!). For Christmas, Rachel’s Aunto Jo and Uncle John made the trip from Michigan with their dog Griffin, and Papa John also stopped by. Rachel’s Aunt Pat and Uncle John came up from Atlanta to ring in the  New Year.

In between, we found time for a quick trip to Atlanta to see Chad and Anna’s beautiful new home and get some face time with mom, dad and Troy. While there, I lost at cribbage, lost at basketball, and watched Michigan lose its bowl game. But we also had one fantastic meal after another, exchanged gifts and a few jabs (always), and hey — when smiling nieces Scotlyn and Lila are at the party, everybody wins.

Oh yeah, we also hosted a few families on New Years Eve. The fire pit wasn’t popular with the temperature in the teens, but our ping pong table saved the evening.

So it was a typical holiday season, filled with family, big meals and bigger laughs. Apparently the one thing we weren’t busy doing over the holidays was snapping photos. While the slide show is lean, trust us, fun was had.

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We celebrated Halloween by trick-or-treating and partying with the Williamsons in their fun-loving nearby neighborhood. The kids were engrossed in Percy Jackson books and movies in the fall, so Halloween had a Greek flavor to it. Rachel worked her annual costume magic, turning Nathan into Poseidon and Vivian into Medusa. There was talk of having the whole family go Greek, with Dad as Hades and Bandit as his Hellhound, but we, uh, ran out of time.

As always, big fun was had, and remnants of the candy haul still linger.

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We took a much needed and long overdue trip to Topsail Island in October. We were invited by the Lucas family to spend a week playing in the sand, and the house and the company couldn’t have been more perfect.

Ocean-front, essentially deserted beach (October is the offseason), and enough sun for the kids to play in the water nearly all-day, every day.

The five kids — ranging in age from 10 to four — had a blast and entertained each other (yay), which meant the parents could relax a little. I brought a gigantic stack of magazines and made my way through most of them, took a few naps, and didn’t wear a stitch of makeup the entire time we were there.

We ate in and cooked for the masses every night, including one of Pat’s famous low country boils. The boys (Pat, Matt and Nathan) chartered a fishing boat and caught some fish. We walked along the beach to the fishing pier, where we watched anglers wrangle a 200-lb. shark up out of the water.

We learned how to search for sharks teeth, and by the end of the week had even gotten good at it (I found my one and only tooth by flashlight during a nighttime walk on the beach).

We had visitors — friends of Jessie and Matt came for dinner one night; Brad (Pat’s best friend from high school) and Jamie and their boys stopped by on their way home from the Outer Banks.

The week was a blur of sunshine, friends, laughter and smiles too big to contain. It was just what we needed.

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Just dumping photos of some cool moments from the past 18 months or so that didn’t get an entire post. Enjoy.

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In a post below Pat talked about our issues with picking apples in summer weather, and it’s true that even after spending almost 16 years in North Carolina, we have hard time adjusting to its fall timelines. In Michigan, apple season is in the height of the autumn— October. It’s crisp temps, crunchy leaves; a sweaters and hoodies, hot cider and donuts kind of thing.

Well, as a guy at the NC DMV so kindly pointed out ages ago while I was attempting to pass my written driving test for the third time, “Missy, you are not in Michigan any more.”

For real. Who picks apples in late August/early September? People who live in the Carolinas.

We headed up to our favorite spot — SkyTop Orchard near Flat Rock, NC. We’ve been going nearly every year since Vivian was in a stroller. This year, we brought along our friends the Lucas family for their first visit.

We spent the tank-top warm afternoon climbing trees (which is frowned upon at the orchard — Breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law!), filling bushels with Honeycrisp apples, enjoying a picnic lunch and eating freshly made donuts.

We followed that fun up with a ridiculously delish impromptu dinner at Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge in Shelby. Neither family had been before. I’m not sure if it was all the hard work we put in apple picking or what, but that was some of the best NC-style ’cue we’ve had in a while.

Apparently so good, no one (including myself) could stop long enough to snap a pic of the kitschy-cool interior: knotty pine walls and turquoise vinyl booths.

Oh, and the banana pudding? Insane.

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Pat and I were spoiled by our proximity to Cedar Point when it comes to amusement parks. We didn’t realize this, of course, until we took our first trip to Carowinds on the NC/SC border as new Charlotteans.

Expecting Magnum-like coaster amazingness, we were instead met with a Wayne’s World themed area featuring “The Hurler” and other equally lackluster rides. It was like Boblo with a vaguely Southern theme.

I was busted for my Northernness within minutes of stepping foot inside the park for calling Coke “pop.”

So, we hadn’t been back since until this summer (some 15 years later — no lie — how have we been in NC that long?).

But all Nathan and Vivian could talk about longingly for the past few summers was this magical place their luckier friends had visited, rife with hair-raising rides and a water park. Certainly we couldn’t be talking about the same Carowinds.

I begrudgingly dropped the mean mom act and got a few discounted day passes. My friend La and her boys Evan and Alexander joined us for a summer’s end marathon Carowinds session (including Boomerang Bay, the water park) in late August.

I haveto  say, even though we spent nine, yes NINE, hours at the park and it rained off and on, it was fun. The kids had a blast.

So much so that when other friends mentioned they were getting family season passes for 2014, The Sutherland family did so, too.

We took advantage of one last park day in October as newly minted season-pass holders (and took Nani with us for good measure).

We’ll be BFFs with Carowinds in 2014 for sure. I admit, I am looking forward to it right now, but check back with me in July.

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