What spring and summer would be complete without season passes to Six Flags? One of the nicest perks we have living where we do is making quick trips to Six Flags. 5 minutes down the road and you are parking your car. A few minutes after that you are in the park.
We ride the same rides every time we go. The kids don't mind. I think they prefer the routine. One bonus on going late in the evening is that all the other children have gone home. Leaving our kids with the run of the place. So much that the Bugs Bunny Airplane ride didn't have anyone in line providing Alyce and Luke the opportunity to fly their own planes. Upon taking off Alyce went straight up to the top. Luke well it took him most of the right to figure out that he had to pull back hard on the stick to go up. He managed to get off "the ground" but never got all the way up. No worries though he enjoyed himself.
Saturday Alyce hit a major milestone, 42 inches! 42 inches? 3 1/2 feet? What's the big deal with that? Well 42 inches is the height one needs to be in order to ride the majority of the rides at Six Flags. Before 42 inches and you are relegated to the more mundane rides like the Ferris Wheel, antique cars, and kid rides.
Saturday after handing over the deposit to the builder we thought a trip to Six Flags would be a nice diversion from all the craziness of the past few weeks. Mom and I had talked in the past about Alyce getting close to 42 inches and thought now would be a good time to check her height. After a ride on the Fog Horn Leg Horn train we stood Alyce next to a height check stick and behold she was 42 inches on the money!
You'd think the first thing we'd do is to get her on a roller coaster but that was not the case, in fact we took her to go ride down the slide. For some odd ball reason the slide in the kid's playground has a height limitation of 42 inches. You can run, jump, and play on anything else on the playground but there is a Six Flags employee at the very top making sure you are of proper height before going down a slide. Proof positive that insurance companies are sucking the fun out of childhood. Alyce in the past wanted to ride the slide and we thought this would be a great way to celebrate the accomplishment. For the next 20 minutes she'd circuit down the slide, back around, up the steps, and back down again.
After that Mom wanted to take Alyce on her first roller coaster ride. The two of them then stood in line for 45 minutes to ride the Tony Hawk's Big Spin roller coaster. This roller coaster is pretty tame if only based on height, however, as the cars go around the track they spin. For the 45 minutes I took Luke on a few kid rides but was back in time to catch a video of the two of them on the coaster.
Catching back up with Mom and Alyce I asked Alyce what she thought of the coaster. Her response was an unenthusiastic "that was really NOT very much fun". She wasn't traumatized from the experience but wasn't jumping for joy. Next we rode the carousel and that seemed to wipe any memory from the coaster from her mind. We showed her a different less exciting coaster later and she said that she would ride that the next time we go to "Sfix Flags".
Saturday, the second day of our crazy weekend brought us to Six Flags. We were joined by Josh, Tammy, and Gideon. We met up with them after nap and dinner time. This is the first time that Alyce has gone to Six Flags with her best friend Gideon.
The first thing the kids did was to play on the playground for a while. Seeing the two kids in action really shows the difference 18 months can make. Alyce is 3 1/2 and Gideon turned 2 in June. Gideon was moving pretty good up the stairs, across the bridge, and down the slide. But for every two round trips he took Alyce would take three or four. Alyce was a bit more sure on her feet and sure of her abilities because she would run up the stairs sometimes taking two steps at a time while Gideon would only go up the stairs slowly one at a time. I find all of this interesting because when I think of Gideon I always think of him as Alyce's equal.
After the playground both of the kids rode the kiddie rides. Both Alyce and Gideon rode the planes together making for a great photo op. The planes are old hat to Alyce but this was the first time Gideon had been on them. I think before this point he was reluctant to try. Peer pressure probably had something to do with it this time around as he rode without hesitation. After the planes I rode the balloon ride with both Alyce and Luke.
Later on after a few more rides we were confronted with the Tweety Bird ride. This ride has been Alyce's nemesis for some time. The ride isn't intense, in fact it is pretty tame. However, it is loud and Alyce has been shying away from loud things for some time. But peer pressure came to the rescue as Gideon had no qualms riding and Alyce followed his lead to get on the ride. Once it was finished Alyce was super excited and wanted to ride again as all fear of the ride had fled.
After the kid rides we went to the Ferris Wheel as that was one of two rides that pregnant Tammy could ride. The other being the steam train that we rode down from the kids area. As we were walking towards the Ferris Wheel Alyce and Gideon did something totally cute, they started holding hands! I'm not exactly sure what got them to start but the cameras came out in a flash to document the moment.
Towards the end of the night Six Flags had their "Glow in the Dark" parade. This parade was pretty good, surprisingly so. It would never hold a candle to a parade at Disney world, but it was well put together and worth seeing at least once. It started at 9:00 but it was 9:15 before it made its way down to us. Alyce and Gideon were doing just great as it wasn't too late past their bedtime. Luke on the other hand was starting to tire. But we bared our teeth and made it through the parade to be caught up in a flood of people heading for the exit. It was so crazy that we didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Josh, Tammy, or Gideon.
Sunday the family took a trip to Six Flag's Hurricane Harbor for some fun in the Sun. We had to take Gram's and Papa's van to the park because ours died on Friday. A dead fuel pump didn't dampen our spirits as we took Grams and Papa along with us.
We got a later start than we wanted. It is never easy getting the kids both going in the same direction but throw in the fact that we had to put some "scum scream" (sun screen) and swim suits on the kids it gets even tougher. To explain the "scum scream" quote from above, scum scream is Alyce's name for sun screen. Her language is just about perfect to us but sometimes she will still butcher words giving both Mom and I a tickle.
At the park everyone had a good time. Once a home base was found Alyce took off towards the kiddie play area. The kids area had three parts. A big rope house with lots of water jets, water slides, and a pirate ship. The pirate ship was the area dedicated to kids Alyce's age. The other two areas probably would have gotten her run over. The first thing she did was go up in the pirate ship and down the slide. She did it two more times and then something must have happened because she would have none of the slide. She would go up in the ship, turn the captains wheel, and even look at the slides but not go down. A few times the number of kids in the boat probably exceed a maximum threshold and parents weren't allowed up there (more on this later) so I'm guessing Alyce got spooked or pushed around by some other kids. Alyce being the shy girl she is, shriveled from any sort of confrontation. Later in the day Mom and I finally devised a way for Alyce to go down the slides but with our help. One of us would be along the slide and as long as we held her hand she would go down without any trouble. We didn't offer our hand unless she asked for it and sure enough a few times she did it without our help.
To better explain this pirate ship you go in it on one side and slide down the other. This presents a dangerous situation for a parent. Do you hold your child's hand after each trip down the slide to the stairs so they can go up the stairs and back down slide to be out of your sight before you get back? Or do you wait at the bottom of the slide and let your kids out of your sight as they walk around the pirate ship and for you to catch them at the bottom. In both cases a single parent has to let their kid out of their sight. Ignoring drowning hazards in the 6 inch deep water in such a public place with so many people it is a recipe for a lost child. Such an event happened to me! One time Alyce seemed to be taking a bit longer get back up the stairs than she should and I started peering around for her. Luckily looking through the pirate ship I saw her walking away from me and already 30 feet away. I tried calling her over to me but due to all the running water around she couldn't hear me. Panicked I ran around the ship (losing sight of her momentarily) and eventually caught up with her as she was over half way through the kid's play area. I gave her that hug that parents give to kids they thought they'd lost even though she was only lost from me for about 20 seconds. I told Alyce that she scared me and shouldn't wonder off and I'm sure she probably wandered what the big deal was as she knew where she was.
This is one of those lessons learned by a parent where they finally realized where their parents where coming from when they were grounded as kid. Because when I was a bit old than Alyce I left home during nap time to see if preschool was still open without telling anyone where I was going. Sorry Mom for scaring you like that. I can only imagine what you were going through.
The only other event of note at the water park was the wave pool. While I was holding Alyce she seemed to enjoy herself by going up and down with the waves. I Kind of played it up a bit by jumping up saying "wee" when every wave came.
This was a good introduction into water parks for Alyce but me having to hold Alyce in the wave pool is highlighting the fact that she doesn't know how to swim and really isn't comfortable in water above her knees. I think it is time Mom and I find some swim class for her, even if they are early on a Saturday.
Sunday we took Alyce and Luke to Six Flags. It is Luke's first trip ever and the first time this season for Alyce. Another first for Alyce is that she got her first season pass. This is the first year that Alyce was old enough to need her own pass. It was also her first ever picture id. Getting the season pass was the first thing we did once getting inside the park and Alyce seemed pretty excited about it.
The first ride we rode was the Enchanted Carousel. It was close and a good introduction to rides at Six Flags. Luke was even able to ride the horses even though Mom had to be there to hold him. After the Carousel Alyce played on the playground. This was also the first and only ride that she couldn't ride on because of her height. The two biggest and best slides available were only available to kids 42" and taller. Can you believe it? You have to be 3'6" to ride a slide? Before we got busted on height Alyce and I managed to go down the slide so she got the experience. Hah! Take that height checker.
After the playground Alyce rode all manner of rides in the Looney Tunes kids area. Some rides she was very excited to go on and others required a bit of cajoling. The balloon ride and the the boat ride were her two favorites while the plane ride was her least favorite. The best part about the majority of these rides is that the parents get to go one them too. They aren't anywhere near as exciting as an adult ride but Alyce's excitement was so infectious that was impossible not to have a good time.
Toilet training continued even at the park. Alyce was a big girl and told Mom and I she needed to use the restroom and didn't have any accidents. Upon exiting the restroom I caught this great action shot of her running into my arms. I love it when she runs into my arms. I pick her up above my head, swing her around, and we come to rest in a big bear hug that I want to hold as long as possible.
The last ride we rode for the day was the steam train. The kids area is right next to a train station and the train came through more than once while we were there. Alyce noticed this and asked repeatedly to ride the train. We figured we could do it last and ride it back to the front of the park. Before the train left the station I hopped off real quick to get a picture of Alyce. Alyce voiced her displeasure with my actions by saying "daddy get on the train it's going to leave without you". Adorable. This was also Luke's 2nd and last ride of the day. Had the Ferris Wheel been open we could have gotten Luke on three.
Luke was an angel during the whole trip. He spent most of his time in his stroller but he didn't seem to mind except when he got hungry. I'm thinking he was too busy taking in all the action going on around him.
The last thing we did before leaving the park for the day was to pick up a cape for Alyce. Mom and I on previous trips to Six Flags say kids and adults wearing superhero capes. Rather than wanting one for ourselves we knew that Alyce would love one. So as we were leaving we were $5 poorer and the proud parent of one super girl and owner of a pink super cape. It will need some hemming to fit perfectly but we know a few people with a sewing machine.
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