Lagoon 2012

Living where we do, we drive by Lagoon pretty often.  Most times, one of the kids will point at it and yell something like "There's Lagoon!  We are going there in the summertime!"  When it was summertime, they would yell something like "There's Lagoon!  Mom, it is summertime now!  When are we going to Lagoon?"  "Soon!"  I would reply. 

 

As July turned to August, the driving past Lagoon chant got louder and more whiny.  "Mooooom!  There's Lagooooon!  You said we could go there in the summertiiiime.  When can we gooooooo?"  Since it was the very last week before school started we decided we better get to Lagoon and make good on our promise.  Also, we were afraid that if we didn't go, we would have to hear about it each and every time we drove by Lagoon until next summer.  So to Lagoon we went!

 

It was the best day to go to Lagoon, since a lot of the surrounding school districts started school the week before us, there was hardly anyone there.  We walked on every single ride.  Awesome. 

 

Here is Dax riding a dragon (since that is the closest thing he could find to a dinosaur) on the merry go round, with Cora in hot pursuit astride a regular, boring old horse.





We brought Arden's friend A along to make the numbers even and to make everything more fun!  Here are the two girls, manning a rocket and shooting aliens from both sides:

 

After a few kiddie rides got everyone warmed up, we started moving up to the serious stuff.  Here is everyone on the jumping dragon ride (Cora is riding with me, she LOVES it).  I am only good for one jumping dragon ride and I need a little break.  

We did another kiddie ride or two until my world stopped spinning backwards, then we headed over to the OdySea ride.  For those of you that may not know, in this ride you sit in a giant fish or a shark and go around in circles trying to avoid getting spit on by various sea creatures.  Dax (shockingly) wanted to ride on a shark.  He ran around trying to find a shark to ride in, and unfortunately they were all taken, so he and Preston decided to wait for the next round.  While they were waiting, a bee was flying around Daxton's face, so he quickly smacked his hands over his forehead to protect himself.  Problem was, he smacked the bee ONTO his forehead and then left his hands there, screaming.  Preston tried to pull his hands off, but by the time he did it, the bee had stung his forehead.  Through all of this I am stuck in a fish going around and around.  The stinger was still in Dax's skin, poor kid, so Preston grabbed him and they headed off to the first aid station. 

We got off the ride and wandered around a little looking for them, and they soon returned.  Dax's forehead had a band aid, and his face was tear-stained but happy.  Since he didn't cry while they pulled out the stinger, they gave Dax a small stuffed shark with a fire patten on it.  He was so in love with that thing, I was worried he was going to start looking for another bee to sting him so he could get another toy.  Luckily, the sting didn't hurt or bother him, and you couldn't even tell anything had happened after an hour or two. 

After that, it was a little bit of lunch and then back to the rides.  Everyone was a good sport and rode on even the little kiddie rides like "Bulgy the Whale" to keep Cora happy.

Pretty soon, though, it was off to the Tilt-A-Whirl.  I have a rule against throwing up in public so I don't get on this ride.  Arden and A rode it a couple of times while the rest of us were finishing up our lunch, and then Preston and the other kids got on too.

 

After a few Tilt-A-Whirls, Arden started feeling it:

Poor thing.  That is the worst!  I sat with her on the bench for a while, but Daxton seized his opportunity.  He quickly volunteered to ride with A on the Tilt-A-Whirl again.  Then when Arden didn't feel up to the Scrambler, he again gallantly escorted her.  Pretty soon, he was putting the patented Daxton moves on the poor girl (it is hard to see, but he is holding her hand):

 Then he took her for a nice cozy drive (Arden rode with Cora).

Arden started to feel a little jealous, but it was nothing a little ice cream couldn't solve.  Luckily, as you can tell from this picture, when ice cream is involved, Dax can't focus on anything else.

We walked around Pioneer Village and rode the log flume a couple of times.  The big girls didn't want to go on Rattlesnake Rapids, so Preston took the littles.  This is the result:

 

They were completely soaked.  It was a hot day, so they didn't mind too much. 

 

We rode on nearly every ride in the park (well, the ones that you didn't have to be more than 46 inches tall to ride, anyway).  Arden loves the Bombora roller coaster best, and Cora went on it twice, but she was more than ready to get off both times.  Dax was game for anything.  I think his favorite was the Bat, which is one of those coasters where your feet are swinging loose.  Cora and I watched the others since she was too small to go on that one, and I could see Dax's feet kicking happily throughout the ride.  A couldn't quite convince Arden to go on Wicked, though, so Preston and I both took turns taking her on that one, since neither of us had been on it before ;)  Cora's favorite was the zoo train, I think.  She made us go on it twice.

 

Here is a picture of the big girls (in the back) and the boys (3rd from the back) on Bombora:

We rode more rides and more rides, and Arden was feeling better so she rode on the Music Express and a few other spinny ones again, and even was ready for some food.

We stopped briefly to eat some pizza for dinner, where all the kids entertained everyone around them with an impromptu karaoke performance of "Call Me Maybe."  (What can I say, they all love that stinkin' song.  Even Cora has been boppin' around the house all summer singing, "I jus met you, and dis is cwaaaazy!  But hewes my numba!  So caw me maybe!")    *Sigh*

Since we only go to Lagoon once a year, we Lagoon'd our guts out and stayed until the moon rose and the lights went on.  It was a superfun day!

Unfortunately, Arden started not feeling so good on the last couple of rides.  Even more unfortunately, there is serious road construction going on near our house, and we had to drive down a very bumpy dirt road and then several curvy detours on the way home.  Arden puked on her shoes in the car, about 2 minutes from home.  Poor little thing.  I guess we Lagoon'd her a little too hard.

I guess the positive thing is that next year I will have a buddy to sit by me while everyone else rides on the Tilt-A-Whirl.