"The Wicked" deal...

(Halle, anticipating The Wicked...she doesn't look very thrilled!)

Saturday came around with a bit of excitement in the house. We had been planning a family trip out to Lagoon since about June, and the day had finally arrived. We anxiously got up and were planning on being out the door by 7:30am so we could be out there and ready to crash through the gates when it opened at 10:00am. But after the late night (check previous post) the night before, we didn't actually leave until about 8:30-8:45, which put us running a tad bit behind schedule. We haven't been able to take the kids on a "BIG" vacation this year (this is probably the biggest its going to get this year) so we wanted to make the most of our day there. Deron has been trying to get Halle to go on "The Wicked" for several years. Its his very favorite ride there. Halle is a bit of a chicken and doesn't like too many rides at Lagoon. We were sure if she would just try some of them out, she would change her mind and really love them (they are so much worse to watch than to really experience them) and want to go on them over and over. Finally Halle made a deal with her dad. If she went on The Wicked, he had to go on any ride with her that she wanted him to go on...the deal was then made and they shook hands on it. The closer we got to Lagoon the more Halle was trying to get out of the deal, she begged and pleaded but we decided that we also needed to teach her that once you said you would do something, that it was your word and you needed to follow through. We all went down and got in line, Halle too (not without her letting us all know that she was not going to go through with it). She continued through the line and we all tried to convince her that it looked so much worse than it was and to just have a good time. Finally we were on the ride, buckled in and ready to take off. Halle started to cry and said she was scared...and that's pretty much what happened before the car took off and went up the hill and down and then around and around and pretty soon it was all over. She was crying and screaming the entire time. When our car finally came to a stop the girl in front of us turned around and asked Halle if she was okay, which she said that she was. Then she told me how embarrassed she was for crying and wanted to go on it again....Moral of the story- "stick to your guns!" We ended up not going on it again because the line had become really long and we had many more rides that we all wanted to go on. Kim and Cameron took off on their own for a good part of the day, and Deron and I hung out with Halle. Everyone but me (I'm not a water person, when it comes to rides...I like to stay dry and warm vs. wet and cold) rode down the Rattle Snake Rapids and got wet, then we went over to the Pioneer Village for a scoop of ice cream from their little ice cream shop. We all had alot of fun. This year they had a "Monkey Show" at the park that everyone could go and watch. It wasn't as exciting as we thought that it might be, but it was interesting to see baboons out of their cages and experience their personalities. Some of them had been in different TV commercials and some movies. The trainers did some role playing with them and showed us some neat things that they could do. They are really welled trained and it was fun to watch. By the end of the day we were beat and exhausted and ready to come home. I think back on the years when all of our kids were young and came with us to Lagoon, those were good time too. It won't be long and we won't have any kids left at home to take. So I guess we'll just take in all of the time that we can with our kids, do all that we can with them, and make the most of the memories that we have made! Isn't that what life is about anyway...making memories?!