Great America

I can't believe how fast the summer is going! The boys earned free tickets to Great America for completing 6 hours of reading last spring. I was talking to my friend on the phone a few days ago and she mentioned that the tickets would be expiring next Saturday. Uh Oh! We had not used the tickets yet, Spencer has a very busy week at work next week and the boys were absolutely not going to FORGET that we told them that we were going to Great America this summer.

So, Friday night, I called my mom and dad to see if they wanted to *borrow* Charlie for a day. The only day that worked for them would be Saturday (the next day) so, that is what we did.

First of all, it sounds like Charlie was living the good life as the only child with Grandma and Grandpa. They went to a festival, he got a fish painted on his arm, went in a jump-house, got a balloon fishing pole, ate at McDonalds and went to church (He's very holy this weekend because we took him again today.) If you were starting to feel bad that Charlie got left out of the family fesitivities at Great America...don't....Charlie was just fine.

As for the rest of us, we had a really nice time. We ended up surprising the boys. We did not tell them where we were going until we got there. We ended up being able to squeeze all 3 booster seats into Spencer's car so, we rode up to Great America in style. The boys thought that was pretty cool.

The park ended up being very crowded, but we did end up hitting quite a few rides. Ben was willing to go on anything that they would let him on. If it was less crowded, we would have taken him on the Demon, but it was just too long of a line for us to split up. Jack also did all of the rides and was "considering" doing the Demon. Drew did awesome. He has always been more afraid of the rides, but he did all of them with the exception of the Whizzer. The Whizzer is the only real rollercoaster that the boys went on. It doesn't go upside down, but it is pretty fast. It is not too brutal so, it is perfect for families. For a while I really thought Drew was going to do it, but he decided against it. He changed his mind just as everyone else was getting off of the ride. I hope he remembers that next year!

We did ride the Log Flume and the Racing Rapids. I got DRENCHED!! Ben and Spencer also got pretty drenched. Jack and Drew were sitting next to eachother and they made out pretty well. Since I'm not to keen on wearing wet clothes and I had enough of wet clothes after our trip to the zoo the other day, I brought a change of clothes for me and the boys. I mentioned the extra clothes to Spencer before we left the house. He laughed at me. I'll just say that he wasn't laughing after riding the Racing Rapids. LOL!!

Overall it was a great day. We were all pretty exhausted when we were leaving the park at 9:30 last night, but I am very glad that we were able to sqeeze it in. My camera is on the fritz so, as a special treat, the pictures are from a trip that I took to Great America a long time ago. I've always loved that place and it is really fun to see the boys get nervous and excited about the same rides that I used to get nervous and excited about.