"Mommy, I think this may be our lucky day."

In an effort to share the role of "fun parent" every once in a while, I decided to take the kids - on my own - to 6 Flags today. I proposed the 6 Flags trip yesterday - out loud - so when I lay down to go to sleep last night and began worrying about the logistics of taking two relatively small kids to 6 Flags with only one adult, it was already too late to take it back. We had a talk this morning on the way home from swim practice about the fact that Mommy wouldn't be able to ride with both of them on rides, so sometimes they'd have to ride with each other or one would ride alone while the other rode with Mommy. They took it surprisingly well. In fact, at one point I wondered why I didn't just drop them off and go get a pedi they seemed to be taking it so well.

Oh, I kid. I never contemplated leaving them alone.

We got there this morning at 10:30, when the park opened. We got all sun screened up and headed into the park. The rain last night had cooled things off to a pleasant 73 degrees this morning, but we knew it wouldn't last. And it didn't.




But, let me tell you. The lines were really short. We walked onto many, many of the rides without waiting at all. Before lunch we had ridden the Mindbender, Monster Mansion, Wiley Coyote Canyon Blaster, several kiddie rides in Bugs Bunny World, and Splash Mountain Falls. Oh, and Evan had ridden the swings.

Pressley cried, and cried, and cried, and cried some more while Evan was riding the swings. (There were some other swings in the kid's section that she could ride and did ride - picture to follow - but she would not be consoled.) It was so unfair that Evan was tall enough to ride and Pressley was not. I tried (really hard) to empathize with the kind of understanding that only a fellow little sister can have. But, dang was it frustrating that we were less than 2 hours in and she was having a giant melt-down. So, I had to shift from empathetic-fellow-little-sister to mean-counting-to-five-and-you-better-be-done-with-this-tantrum-mommy.



Once we found the next ride that she could ride, all was right with the world again. Thank the Lord.

Until we rode Splash Water Falls. Perhaps you might refer me to Kali River Rapids Debacle of Spring Break and ask me if I have learned nothing. Well. I thought I had. I took the child's bathing suit in a ziplock baggie in my purse. And I took her to the restroom to change into it before we rode the water ride. I asked 17 times if she was sure she was ok getting wet since she was in her bathing suit. She said yes.




Then, the 16 year old girl working the ride said she couldn't ride in nothing but her bathing suit and did she have some pants she could put on over her suit.

Seriously?

"Young woman (who clearly has no children): I had a plan. It involved being able to make my water-ride-lovin' son happy without having my baby-girl-drama-queen have the epic melt down of the century. And you've ruined it."



So, Pressley put her skirt back on over her bathing suit. And the questioning began again. Are you sure you are ok getting wet in your bathing suit and your skirt? We will try to keep your skirt as dry as possible, but I can't make any promises.

Yes. Yes. And yes. I'll be fine, silly woman. Why do you patronize me?

Alrighty then. So we went. And, she cried the minute she noticed there were drops of water dripping from her very wet hair and bathing suit onto her otherwise dry skirt.

For the LOVE!



Back to mean-countdown-mommy. I will leave this park and go home!! But, we took off the wet skirt, ate lunch, and all was right - once again - with the world when the skirt was dry by the end of lunch and we could change her back into her dry clothes.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. But pleasant. On our way to ride the All American Scream Machine (how many times will I say never again after that ride only to ride it again the next time?), Evan looks at me and says, "Mommy, I think this must be our lucky day. We haven't hardly had to wait in any lines. And I've never seen the Scream Machine line this short." Our lucky day indeed.



We did wait in one line. Evan wanted to ride the new Dare Devil Dive coaster and it is new and it was closed most of the morning. So by the time they opened it, there was a 45 minute wait. And at the beginning of the wait, Evan told me he was pretty sure he wouldn't like it. I asked him why on earth we were standing in a 45 minute line to ride it if he didn't think he'd like it. And he informed me (basically) that he has a policy that he likes to try all new roller coasters before he rules them out. Very practical.

All in all, it was a great day. I think I earned (and retained) a few fun parent points. (I often earn them and then blow it by getting all mean-mommy on them before it is over, but this time I managed to maintain my fun parent status all day.) And now, I'm letting them watch Scooby Doo and skip dinner because we had too much pizza for lunch and treats (nasty Icee things that they insisted they wanted) way too late in the afternoon. I may try to sneak some fruit in them later, but for now, I'm just relishing being the fun parent.

I'm certain that when it comes time to brush teeth, I'll fall decidedly out of the fun parent role once again...