Six Flags

 One of Z's buddies (and his family) have season passes to Six Flags, and with those passes they got coupons to get friends in.  We had a free ticket since Z read during the school year, and another of his buddies had a free pass that he didn't use.  Their family kindly let us go with them one day, so we piled my 4 kids plus her 2 big kids into our van and used their parking pass to park for free, and paid $13 each for 3 tickets...$41 total to take 5 of us to Six Flags for the day! 

I hoped that Jeanne (the mom) would be ok with it...I don't love to take my kiddos new places without Nate to scope it out first.  We took them last year, but we went with our friends Rob and Debbie and their 3 big kids, so it was 4 adults and 7 kids.  This time I knew it would be 2 adults and 6 kids.  I also knew that N wasn't tall enough to ride several of the rides, and that we would have to split up.  He had thrown a fit about it the night before and I was worried that he might melt down there with her (he didn't at all though!).  She was fine with splitting up and each of us taking a few kids.  I was nervous about that...not that I don't trust her, or my kids...I just don't love to have to rely on other people THAT much (so prideful, I know).

But they all did SO SO SO well.  I dressed them in orange (the first time I have pulled that trick out in a long time) and actually wrote their phone numbers on their arms....just in case!  I knew that she and I would get along when we met and her kids were dressed in orange too!  :)  

We didn't even attempt the water park, because I am willing to go beyond my comfort zone a little bit, but that is just NUTS. 

The kids all did great!!!  No one got lost ;) They all loved the Log Flume, and were not thrilled with Scooby Doo (pansies).  Everyone loved Thunder River, and then we split to take Z and R (his buddy), along with C and L to Mine Train.  Jeanne stayed with her daughter and N in the little kid area where they had a great time.  I couldn't figure out how to have the kids ride...clearly I couldn't ride with each little, so I just made the big boys split up (much to their chagrin) and they each took a little.  L liked it, but C bonked his head at the end so cried and didn't like it so much. 

We took C and L back to meet Jeanne and dropped them, and I took Z and R on the Screamin' Eagle.  I headed back and stayed with the littles while she took the big boys in the Rush Street Flyer. 

We all did a few of the rides in the Looney Towns land, then all rode the Colossus and the Joker, although C cried the whole way through the joker.  C and L stayed off with me while the others went on again. 

The Ninja had no line, and I pretty much forced Z to go on.  I knew it was best because there was no line so no time for him to consider/back out.  We got on and put on the harnesses, and he immediately started saying he didn't think he wanted to ride.  He was starting to cry as we pulled out of the station, and was bawling (loudly) as we went up the hill.  I felt HORRIBLE but was also kind of cracking up.  On the second hill down, I start to hear, quietly then louder "wheeeeEEEEEEE!!!".  Hilarious!  At a kind of pause, he said, "Hey, this is awesome!".  We got off and he immediately rode again.  Whew.  But I felt like such a jerk!

We headed next to the Scrambler.  You can only fit 3 on there, and Jeanne didn't want to ride again...and we couldn't figure out how to split the kids...so I opted out and let them ride 3 and 3.  Holy smokes, talk about out of my comfort zone.  I knew they would be ok, I just didn't want it to be my kid bawling, or having to have one of the big kids try to calm down one of the littles.  Thankfully that was not the case and they all did fine.  It was pretty funny though, as we sat on the side and watched them, trying to read all of their faces.  We could only see C and L's eyes, and couldn't even see N's eyes.  So funny :)

We rode on the Colossus, Log Flume, and Mine Train again, then headed out to eat a late dinner. 

We spent almost 8 hours there...and the kids were wiped out that night...the first kid woke up at 830 the next morning, and the last woke up at 915.  It was so much fun!  I think we're going to get passes for next year :)