(First off, this is a bit long and if you want to skip ahead just to the photos of the fam at Six Flags, feel free to... although you will miss some interesting facts - including the fact that the kids EARNED the tickets!)
We finally made it to a Six Flags! Frank and I have wanted to go to Six
Flags since we were so young! We've wanted to go since back in the day when I
could actually ride ALL rollercoasters! LOL Now a days, I have to see if it
will hurt my back first! Most of today I said, “You try it, and let me know if
it will be easy on my back or not!” lol Anyway, Six Flags was a blast! The kids
had a great time. We went from rollercoaster to rollercoaster throughout the
park then headed over to the waterpark! I used to LOVE rollercoasters! I
especially loved upside down loop to loop rollercoasters! Unfortunately, about twelve
years ago, I was with my husband on my favorite local upside down rollercoaster,
which had two loops. As we were going up the gigantic first hill (right before
a loop), I checked the seat belt restraint (bars that go over your head and
across your stomach) and it went straight up in the air!!! I tried getting my
husband’s attention since he was right next to me but the rollercoaster was SO
loud he couldn't hear me (let alone trying to get any attendant’s attention
since we were already on our way up the first hill). I also couldn't reach him
either around my seat edge!!! Since I’m still here, I obviously got his
attention, thank goodness! He saw my restraint up above my head and slammed it
tight up against me right as we got to the top of the hill (before we went down
and into the loop)! So, needless to say, ever since then I've been a bit traumatized
when it comes to rollercoasters! So, now that I have kids and while I’m in line
for a rollercoaster, thoughts go through my head… hmmm… is it worth the fun of
the rollercoaster for my kids to possibly lose their mom? LOL! Then, my kids
are saying come on mom, ride the rollercoaster with me! I feel so bad that I’m
sooooo scared to ride them! That’s on top of the fact that it might possibly hurt
my back. That’s a whole other discussion of how I hate that I can’t do all the
things that I used to be able to do, or be able to be the hands-on mom that I
used to be able to be!
Anyway, it’s not all about me; it's about the kids, what they did to earn this day, and the fun we had
today! :) First, the kids EARNED this amusement trip today by reading books! Can you believe it? They earned all of this fun by reading books! Six Flags has this program called
Read To Succeed. All you have to do is read so many books each week and document it. It is submitted to Six Flags by either a public/private school teacher or a homeschool teacher. Once the information is submitted and it is verified that you have met the requirements, you get a FREE ticket to the Six Flags of your choice for each child that completed the requirements along with ONE teacher (even one homeschool teacher)! So, this trip was an awesome earned trip for the kids and very cheap entertainment for us! We only had to buy one adult ticket to complete this fun! I did have to do a lot of watching today because the rollercoasters were a bit
on the extreme side; but, that’s okay! I enjoyed every minute watching my kids
having a great time (even my big kid Frank)! Toward the end of riding the rides (before heading to the
water park, it began to rain! Kristi was extremely disappointed because we had
just told her that she could try this interesting game along the concession
area! She wanted to try this thing where they had a ladder tied up and you just
had to balance on the ladder (without using your knees or legs on the bars) and
make it to the second to the top rung and ring the bell! Kristi and Brad
thought for sure they could do it! Mom encouraged them too, telling them how
balanced they were in life! :) Unfortunately, since it was raining they shut it
down and we had to wait for it to quit raining. So we bought some dot ice cream
and some fries and waited! It was still raining so the kids tried the Tower of
Doom for a second or third time (which is like the Shooting Star or whatever
that straight up one is at Adventureland... lol)! By the time we were done with
all that, it quit raining; but, for safety purposes, they said we had to wait
another twenty minutes for the equipment to dry off. We waited some more. They
didn't quite make it to the top but they had a pretty good time trying to get
up there!
After all the rollercoasters were ridden
at least once, if not more, we moved onto the water park! I was so happy when we
finally got to the water park! I could get into the water and just relax!
R.E.L.A.X. We all grabbed a tube and got into the lazy river just glided around the lazy pool once and then the kids were ready to take off and
GO! LOL! So, as a family we went to the wave pool and enjoyed the waves for a
while! This was the first time the kids could remember being in a wave pool so
they had a lot of fun with it! They only have the waves going
for a short time then a fifteen minute break then a short time and a break and so
forth. After riding the waves the kids were ready to try some of the water
slides! So off they went! Since the water slides are right in the middle of the
lazy river, we let them buddy up and go to the slides while Frank and I enjoyed
some alone down time around the lazy river
a few quite a few more times!
:)
As the day winded down and we knew it was time to head home and take care of responsibilities (yes, we haven’t forgotten about Christian!), the kids were not quite happy that it was time to go! They wanted to try this one more time and that just one more time… how about just one more ride! No, no, no… but how about a funnel cake instead? It was a deal! :) Overall, we had a great time! The guys were VERY beat up from the rides though. For all those that loved the pictures of the rides that I put on Facebook, both Frank and Brad said, “Although they were fun, they weren't smooth riding at all. It was neat that they had different types of rides (i.e., stand up, laying on your back, speed, etc.); but, the majority of them beat up your head back and forth or were very jerky. From our time around the United States, Frank and the kids have ridden lots of rides and have found a lot smoother rides. They would prefer to try other parks including other Six Flags to see if they have smoother rides. None-the-less, it was an action-packed tiring day.