Father's Day - Great America

A collegue of Paul's offered him some discount tickets to California's Great America Theme Park. We have been going so strong for so long that I hesitated.....and it was Father's day. Did he really want to spend it at a theme park? "YES", my energizer bunny husband said! Since his collegue offered on a Sunday, we went to church on Saturday night, benefit of a mega church. We started at 10am at the park. We were excited!















We had a GREAT day. The Peanuts gang is the general theme of the park. Andrew gave Snoopy a BIG hug.















Andrew is so tender. If any future girlfriend dares to hurt him, she'll be hearing from me!!! (Can't believe I'm even thinking of these things, but seeing how fast they went from 1, 3, 5 and 7 to 4, 6, 8 and 11, those days are RIGHT around the corner!).

Andrew was a SMIDGE too short for any of the "good" rides. He handled it SO well. Fortunately, they had some roller coasters for kids his age, and he JUST made it onto Psycho Mouse, a bigger kids roller coaster. (this picture is of yet a different roller coaster)














The park wasn't crowded and we were able to more or less walk up to a ride and ride it. The water rides had a little longer wait.

We did some of the big rides first. It was Father's Day after all, and Paul went on some giant roller coasters. He loved it. Then we hit the kiddie area. Believe it or not, all of our kids loved all of the rides! We actually spent quite a bit of time there. Megan was EXCELLENT in going on rides with John and showing enthusiasm and excitement for him. He loved it!














After the kiddie area and lunch, we headed for the water area. First they had a couple of watery things where you walked/climbed/slid through them and got wet randomly.














Turns out the water was pretty cold and California is not overflowing with heat. It was in the low 80s, but cool air with a breeze, so they spent about 10 min on the spray water things and wanted to head for the actual water park.

Paul and Andrew did the soaker ride. It was a round, yellow raft that floated down a flume and generally soaked you along the way. They came out drenched. They loved it.

Our whole family did the logger ride. I had NO desire to get wet, seeing that it was not too hot. I'm all for comfort, especially when everyone turns to me for comfort! I'll be a lot better at helping console/dress/dry/feed/care for a person if I am feeling comfortable. I carefully kept an eye on the logger ride while waiting for Paul and Andrew to do the soaker ride and I decided that the people were splashed, not too wet for comfort. It WAS really fun!

Then we headed for the lazy river.













Again, the water was cool and although it was a beautiful day, it was by no means "hot" in my books, so I watched while everyone went on the lazy river. I also got several chuckles. Andrew had some crisis with his ring and Paul was trying to help him and keep John safe at the same time. Neither of us anticipated the crisis, so Paul and John were already in the current and Andrew was in danger of being left behind. Paul did a FANTASTIC job of handling that. Megan came around first and just went right on around again. Kathryn showed up next and she noticed that Andrew was off of his ring and trying to fight through the current by struggling. She pulled him "ashore". Then Paul and John showed up. Paul stopped them and motioned for me to switch places with him. I motioned that I was quite happy staying with the stroller and backpack and for him to enjoy himself.














He was so happy to hear that, and then another snafu happened. Andrew happily headed back out and was "carded". He was "caught" by the pole police - the people who hold a pole next to you to see if you are allowed on a ride or not. The girl pole holder thought he was too short. The boy pole holder explained that it was "yellow" that was too short, not light blue. They had a quick discussion. The boy won, and Andrew was allowed to head out again. Whew. The poor boy was SO GOOD when being told "yes" or "no". He did have some disappointments, and shed a few tears, but he controlled himself and allowed us to get him excited about the next ride. His height was SO borderline. Next summer he'll be high enough for sure!

It was already 5pm when everyone finished the lazy river, but they headed immediately for the wave pool. I was thinking that this day was going to end in a giant meltdown, but I went along for the ride.

We left the park at 6 with everyone still in a good humor. At dinner we discussed favorite/not favorite rides and what it would be like to work at Great America. Kathryn pointed out how "boring" it would be - reading the same announcement over and over and over during the whole day. Hopefully we got her excited about the reason to go to college - not because high school grads work at the park (college people work there too, obviously), but it lent itself to a discussion about the opportunity for people who choose education vs. the more limited opportunities for those who don't.

Per usual, our kids didn't fall asleep during the 40 min drive back until the last 5 min. We even allowed 1 of them to skip the tooth brushing routine, and I prayed the shortest prayer for them I've EVER prayed at night!

Happy Father's Day, my wonderful husband! We love you, and we love how much you love us!!!