If you'd asked me four weeks ago if I thought life could be compared to a roller coaster, my answer would've surely been, "Maybe at times." Little did I know that in just four short weeks, the time it takes for the calendar month to change, my husband and I would be on our own emotional roller coaster. 

Without going into a lot of unnecessary personal detail, we've come to the conclusion that we've aged at least 10 years in the past weeks. Decisions and experiences we never thought God would ask us to walk through, but yet again, if He brings you to it, He will always bring you through it.

We thought it fitting and appropriate to celebrate getting through these last few weeks of emotional roller coaster riding to do some real roller coaster riding of our own. And where better to ride some of the best roller coasters, than those at Cedar Point?!

The first trip we made was about six months after we started dating, three and half years ago, in the summer of 2006. Little did we know that we had such a passion for riding roller coasters, but it these trips to Cedar Point have turned out to be some of the best memories we've made thus far.

The last trip we made in one day, four and half hours of driving up, riding roller coasters for eight or so hours, then another four and half hours of driving home. I personally do not suggest this, but since we were not married, we wanted to play things cool.

This trip, however, was just as fun, but even better.

Friday evening, Skyler and I set out to purchase a new tent. Our original tent was a two person tent, that was so small, it made the news. Yes, really. Dick Wolfsie, from WISH-TV Channel 8, was so dumbfounded by our small tent that he made a teaser of it for a news story he was working on for Noblesville's Relay for Life. We also picked up some camping necessities, like hotdogs and chips for the trip.

Excited, we started out for Sandusky, Ohio about 7:45 a.m. on Saturday morning, only after stopping for McDonald's and gas at the Speedway in Fishers, Ind. This trip, we planned on camping after our day of roller coaster riding, and one of our favorite pastimes/hobbies is camping. My family is and typically always has been a camping family, so I am so blessed to have a husband who loves camping just as much as I do!

So, we were officially on our way for a get-away weekend of fun, and roller coaster riding. Skyler drove, and as always (and not in a bad way) I was the navigator. -- this will play into the adventure later...

Interesting short story insert about my navigation skills. For some reason, God blessed me with the ability to get from point A to point B with the greatest of ease. Most of my friends trust and ask me for directions when they need dependable routes, even over mapquest or google maps. It's bizarre, and I'm not sure how to describe it. Even if I've only been to a destination only one time, I can get you to and from it again even if the buildings/route has changed; it's almost like photographic memory. I can't explain it, but it is an interesting skill I am thankful for!

We were about to our destination, Cedar Point, when I really needed to go to the restroom. There is a stretch of US-6 that goes through the Ohio country side, and not through any small towns, that have restaurants/gas stations with restrooms. We finally spotted a McDonald's and Skyler graciously pulled in.

As I was in the restroom, with no toilet paper... thank you McDonald's for making me feel disgusting... Skyler looked across the road and found where we planned on camping for the night. God placed us at the exit we needed for our campsite Camp Sandusky. We decided rather than have a car loaded up of things that could get stolen, we'd pull into our campsite, check in, have lunch and then be off riding roller coasters.

First, the people at Camp Sandusky are fantastic. They ride around all night, after the camp store is closed, offering you more wood, and making sure people behave. -- this also plays into the story later. Camp Sandusky has a bunny farm, a pool, and is really close to Cedar Point, maybe 20 minutes at most. The first thing they offered us was directions to all the things you might need while camping. Directions to and from Cedar Point, Wal-Mart, even to local restaurants! And, if you come back again, with your original ticket, your second night is half off!

We set up our new tent -- and man was it AWESOME! We could actually stand straight up in our tent, and we could leave everything in the tent while we rode roller coasters! We splurged a little and got an inflatable mattress so we wouldn't have to sleep on the hard ground, and after a full day of roller coaster riding it was greatly needed. We ate lunch -- the stand by of PB&J with BBQ chips.

So, after we ate a quick bite of lunch, we headed off to our adventure of riding roller coasters! We were completely excited, planning out our attack plan. We got to the park about 2 p.m., and actually got a really good parking spot. I think by going to Cedar Point in June, you still get to experience the rides, but with a lot less people. We went in June of 2006 and had the same experience.

The first ride we make sure to hit up is the Wicked Twister. This is my most favorite roller coaster ride, and I think it is because the ride is fast and your feet dangle; one of my most favorite, favorite feelings in the world.

We ended up riding 10 roller coasters in a little less than 7 hours.  On the way home, Skyler and I counted and listed the rides and here they are in the order we rode them: Wicked Twister, Raptor, Millennium Force, Magnum (celebrating 20 years of thrills), Corkscrew, Blue Streak, Top Thrill Dragster (my second favorite), Iron Dragon, Wicked Twister (again), and Disaster Transport.

We were really lucky to get on the Millennium Force when we did. They ended up shutting down all the roller coasters for about an hour while the rain passed through. The weather was cool, and it only rained/sprinkled for a little bit, and the sun finally came out later that afternoon.

After we rode the coasters, we decided to share a cherry topped funnel cake on the beach of Lake Erie. Talk about a way to experience God's greatness. He is truly a God worthy of praise. It was at that moment, sharing the funnel cake with my husband that I experienced His overwhelming peace. I knew the worst part of the prior weeks was officially over. Life was moving on and I could hold onto the past or move forward with Him. Sometimes it takes being completely broken, in a place you never thought you'd set foot, in a spiritual and emotional battle for God to become most personal - and that's exactly what happened. He took me through some of the hardest things I've experienced in life thus far, unscathed. He showed me His grace, something I thought I was unworthy of, and His forgiveness, and gave me a feeling of peace.

When I said, "I do," to my husband on our wedding day, I never thought I'd experience more love for him. I But God has blessed our relationship and stretched my heart even more to fit even more love for him in my heart. I wish I had better words to describe just how much I love my husband, but I think Jesus sums it up when He said, "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend." And, that is exactly how I feel about my husband. If God asked, i would gladly lay down my life for him. It is through this feeling that I understand just how much Christ loved me, that He willingly laid his life down. Another experience I thought I understood, but yet again, a lesson God continues to teach me.

So, back to our Cedar Point trip. We forgot any hot dog pokers, so we had to stop at Wal-Mart to pick one up. We also realized that we forgot some matches (you'd think this was our first time camping!), and you can't cook hot dogs with no poker and no fire! We made it back to our campsite with just enough time to purchase our firewood for the night (or so we thought) and have our fire-cooked dinner. BallPark Frank fat free hot dogs!

While Skyler acted manly and started the fire, I agreed to pump up our new inflatable mattress, the job I picked because I thought it would be easier. Yea, it wasn't. We bought a manual pump, our first mistake. The second mistake was trying to pump it up, at night, after a full day of roller coaster riding that made my back hurt. The mattress took forever to pump up, and the pump squeaked an awful noise each time it went up and down. Eventually, because the entire campground thought we were murdering a helpless animal, Skyler agreed to take over and finish pumping the mattress and I started cooking dinner.

It was only a few short minutes later that we needed to find the restroom. Not because of anything bad, but because we needed to know where it was, in case something bad happened! :) Hot dogs are tricky when it comes to Skyler and I's stomachs.

While at the bathroom and waiting on me, Skyler started talking to a nice guy named Nick, who also went to Cedar Point that day with his girlfriend Julie. Nick had a beer in his had, so I think it was the courage he needed to start the conversation with Skyler. Above the bathroom was a giant, and I am talking GIANT spider, whose web was filled with the bugs that harmlessly attacked everyone at the park. I mean these things were EVERYWHERE and they were attracted to black and people who smelled, good or bad. Skyler and I didn't seem to have that big of a problem with them, until we tried to get in our car, because we didn't spray on smelly perfume. When we got to our car, literally right above/connected to our car was a huge mating ball of these bugs. Skyler thinks they were some type of fly. We have the pictures to prove just how huge/massive the mating ball was, and the sound of their wings were so loud that I thought it was a motor boat on the lake!

Anyways, we (Skyler, me, Nick and Julie) started talking about the bug attacks. They talked a lot because of their liquid courage (we could tell they had a little too many), and we found out they were dating and from Michigan. We parted ways and headed back to our campsite.

I forgot to mention that when we pulled up the first time to our campsite, a group of teenagers, yes teenagers-all 18 or under, were partying right next to us. Ohio's legal drinking age is 21, just like Indiana, so yes, they were underage drinking. Our tent and their picnic table was less than 6 inches from each other. They had their radio on so loud, and playing death metal (think Insane Clown Posse) to make matters worse. Well, to add fuel to that fire, they were in the middle of like 5-6 tents (only 1 was theirs), including ours, and were drinking beer. We think they drank over 2-24 packs of Bud Light in one night. Did I mention there were only 5 of them?

So, when we were changing for bed in our new tent, I strategically said, "Doesn't the campground have quiet hours?" They got the message because as soon as we came out, they asked if we would like for them to turn down their radio. And yes, they did, and a few minutes later, they unplugged it.

And this is when the real adventure began. Skyler and I started playing cards and talking, no different than any other camping trip. Next thing we know, Julie drops by to say, "Hey!" and invite us to hang out with her and her boyfriend. We really wanted to, but Skyler and I wanted to have some alone time more. We just kept playing Speed - a card game.

A few minutes later, the teenagers camping in the next campsite were surrounding us. At one point, I was having over three conversations at once! Of course they were all drunk and smoking (blowing it in my face, which totally helped my asthma and allergies. Let me tell you.) so the conversations were pretty shallow. They though Skyler and I were just dating, and were shocked to learn we were married, without any children (not a great conversation to have...) and that we weren't drinking, but playing cards and enjoying each others company.

One of the guys, let's call him Ryan, came over to talk with us, but ended up running off around the campground - completely wasted. They didn't find him until the next morning - really. I'm not sure where he ended up passing out, but it wasn't on their campsite. He was so drunk that he puked a few times (they all thought he did on our car and offered to pay us [either $20 or pizza flavored pringles] to get it cleaned.)

Let's just say the conversations and things that happened between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. were completely insane. We had people bragging to us about how they can hold their alcohol in one conversation, and in the next, they were telling us that they were only drunk off of 2 beers. At one point one of the girls yelled that she made out with all the guys at the campsite, and told Skyler their only intention of the weekend was to pick up guys at Cedar Point. Guys they didn't know. Another girl just showed up drunk with a guy that she met at the campground, and proceeded to brag about not knowing him, but 'getting to know him better.'

Skyler and I tried to wait them out, hoping they would pass out eventually and we could get some sleep. It didn't work. At about 3:30 a.m., we went to bed, after we got told to "go make some babies." Again, not something anyone should've said to us. At about 4:30 a.m., Skyler remembers hearing death threats being made between the guys. One, let's call him Matt, would not stop talking about how he wanted to murder another guy in their group.

And this is what America's youth is proud of these days? If so, count me out.

I woke up Sunday morning about 8:30 a.m., fearing we overslept our checkout and not realizing that Skyler only had about an hour's worth of sleep. We woke up and went to the McDonald's across the street and hit up the gas station so we could make a quick, clean break before the kids next to us woke up.

When we got back to the campsite, beer cans were everywhere, and the kids were passed out on the ground/chairs. Campers around them started stirring and let's just say if their looks could kill, those teenagers wouldn't be alive. We talked with a couple who's campsite was directly behind ours and we were laughing about how stupid they were. The pictures are priceless!

While we packed up, the group next to us started to wake up. Let's just say they were completely embarrassed because not one word was spoken to us. I hope they learned their lesson, but if not, they will someday.

As we got back on the road home, I agreed to drive so that Skyler could rest. While he slept, I had such a great time with God, just driving through the Ohio/Indiana country side, listening to some really great music. Some that moved me to tears, and some that made me laugh out loud. I think everyone needs to experience this at least once in their lifetime.

So, while laughing/crying on the road, I missed a turn. Yes, I really missed a turn, and ended up going about 20 extra miles out of the way. I was supposed to get on US-24 from US-6, but instead, I kept going on US-6. We ended up getting back on I-69 in Auburn, Ind., so it wasn't a complete loss, but I had to admit my navigation mistake...  It ended up causing Skyler and I to laugh so hard that tears streamed from my eyes and made my stomach hurt. Those memories are the ones that I cherish the most. Skyler's my best friend; my buddy.

We made it home about 4:00 p.m, jumped in the shower and then into bed. We were asleep about 6:00 p.m. and didn't wake up until our alarms went off this morning at 7:00 a.m. 13 hours of sleep. It was needed after the roller coaster of a weekend we had; but one's thing for sure, even through the ups and downs of life and this pasat weekend, I found and continue to find peace through Christ. If I remember nothing else from this weekend, I remember that God is still good, even in those rough times.