The Big Lagoon Day

Eliza, Oliver and Silas are sorting socks and folding laundry and reminiscing about our big day at Lagoon (an amusement park near here) yesterday while Jared is out on a crazy mountain bike ride with the big boys.  This is the conversation Liza and the twins are having as they work:

"Remember how Wicked SHOOTS you up and then you go STRAIGHT down?"
"I like that part where you go upside down and twisty"
"I like the loops on Collossus"
"It's called Fire Dragon Collossus, not just Collossus, you know."
"Who cares what it's called."
"Well, I can't believe we got to go on that one so many times in a row"
"That rain was kind of cold.  My feet got cold from the puddles.  That was the bad thing."
"Yeah but it was good because it made everyone else leave and we got to go on EVERYTHING as many times as we wanted"
"That swing ride was really good too - it wasn't scary but you could feel like a bird."
"Yeah, I put my arms out like a bird the whole time."
"I'm so glad we got to go on the swing ride at the very end - that was SO cool they let us on when it was really supposed to be closed."
"Yeah, can you believe we were there from the VERY minute it opened until it was totally closed?"
"We did EVERYTHING."
"Ollie and Si, I think you are the smallest people to ever go on Wicked.  And you weren't even scared at all, were you?"
"Yeah, we were just barely tall enough on that tape measure thing but they let us on."
"And we went on it 15 times.  I can't even believe it."
"Your hair looked SO funny after you went on that ride from the wind."
"I feel like I'm still on it when I close my eyes."
"Put all that underwear in your cubbie, Oliver."
"Silas!  You can't leave!  There are still some socks here!"

As you can tell, Lagoon was a bit hit.

We drive past Lagoon every time we drive to Salt Lake and the kids have been begging to go forever.  Ashton and Isacc found some special deal passes for yesterday so we set the date and the kids worked really hard to save up enough money to go. Ashton babysat for neighbors.  Isaac mowed the lawn a lot.  Eliza did crafts with the twins and lots of other jobs around the house.  The twins used their recent tooth fairy money and did lots of jobs as well.

As the big day got closer, the kids researched every ride and measured each other to see who could go on what.  It turned out that the twins were just barely 46 inches, the magic height that gets you on 99% of the rides.  They were so excited to tell me the news.  They found Lagoon maps when we were at Antelope Island last week and used them to map out their preferred route.  We packed up lots of sandwiches and bought special snacks at the store.  We packed swimsuits and extra clothes and I insisted on bringing sweatshirts even though everyone else thought that was silly since it was clear and warm.

We really had a great day. It was so fun to see the kids SO excited about everything and to be able to walk right past the kiddie rides and all the people with strollers and wagons and go on all the big rides together as a family.  And it was so great to see Jared practically jumping up and down about it all right along with the kids - he loves amusement parks.  I wish I had a video of Oliver on the first roller coaster ride we went on.  He looked pretty freaked out and he had a vice-like grip on my arm.  And at the end, when I asked him how he liked it, he said grimmy, "I was scared to death."  Hmmmm.  I geared myself up mentally for a day of kiddie rides - but he wanted to keep trying the big rides and after a couple more rides, his fear was magically completely gone and he was as daring and excited as everyone else.

It was the perfect temperature and pleasantly sunny until about 5pm when a big storm moved in and it got COLD and rainy.  But the kids and Jared weren't remotely interested in heading home.  Jared went to the car to get those silly sweatshirts I'd insisted on bringing plus an umbrella and we stayed all the way until closing at 10pm.  The lines were non-existent and almost all the rides kept running. As long as we kept running around to keep warm and didn't mind soggy rear ends from sitting on wet seats or rain pelting our faces on the fast rides, it was great!  For the last few hours, it was like we had our own private amusement park.  What seemed like a big pain (the rain and cold) ended up feeling like a real blessing.

It was hard timing for us to Lagoon yesterday in some ways - we just got back from St George, I've got this Retreat on Saturday (got lots of little emails taken care of while standing in lines at Lagoon yesterday so I was able to keep up w/o detracting much from the day), and finances are tight.  But we all needed this. Sometimes you've just got to get away and live out your kids' dreams a little!