Waldameer and Waterworld

Have you ever had one of those borderline days? Those days you begin to wonder if you should cancel your plans, put the kids in bed, and just curl up with a good book and a mug of coffee? This was one of those days for me. No, no, not today, but this day that we went to Waldameer and Waterworld. It was the day before Josiah's first day back to school; it was our last chance to go to Waldameer (at least it was in my mind because the other option was to wait until Saturday which would be overcrowded with end of summer last chancers like myself.) Thankfully, we pressed through the fussiness of the morning and we packed the cooler, the diaper bag, the swim bag, and the miscellaneous bag. Seriously? Any other bags? After packing all the bags for this short, half-day trip, I was feeling pretty grumpy myself. But I said, "We will go and we will have fun, dang it!" or something along those lines or did I just think that to myself?

First we went to Waterworld and we entered the Tadpool area. There was a wading pool, little water slides, and fountains. It was so cute but Nathan and Noah hated it. But did we leave? No, we did not; we were going to have fun, dang it! We were able to introduce them to water slides which all the boys did well with as long as they were on our laps. Then we moved on to the Endless River. Josiah loved it. Noah was content to sit back and enjoy the tube ride. Nathan hated it. John and Josiah went around again while I waited with Noah and Nathan. A change was in order. LUNCHTIME! After leaving the water park and having a little picnic of Pb&j sandwiches, popcorn, crackers, and juice boxes, everyone was in a better mood. I am talking about a drastic change in attitude. It was as if a switch had been thrown. Finally, the proper adventure had begun!

We rode all the kiddie rides except that Froghopper ride which my boys wisely skipped.

Noah couldn't go on as many rides as his brothers but he didn't seem to mind. He would wait with John or I and play or watch.

I took Josiah and Nathan on their first roller coaster ride - The Ravine Flyer 3. Josiah picked the front seat of the first car and Nathan and I sat right behind him. It was really hard to gauge how they liked the roller coaster as we were riding. Josiah seemed to be holding on for dear life and I couldn't see Nathan's face to determine if he was terrified or delighted. As we rolled in to disembark, I asked Nathan if he liked that. He response was, "Oh ho ho! YEAH!" Josiah was happy to hear that he will be tall enough to ride the bigger roller coasters by next summer.

We took a break at midafternoon. At this point, Nathan and Noah had ridden all the rides that they could. My mom agreed to watch them so that John, Josiah and I could return and ride some of the "bigger" rides.

We did the Wacky Shack which is a combination of an indoor roller coaster and a fun house.

We rode the Giant Gondola which I will always pronounce as "Ferris Wheel" (I mean, really, why call it by any other name?)

Then we rode THUNDER RIVER. Josiah did NOT want to ride this! He didn't want to ride it so much that I almost skipped it for his sake. But I reminded him how scared he was of taking swimming lessons before he did that and he loved them. The log ride was all that I remembered it to be: fast drops and big splashes. When we were leaving the ride, Josiah said to me, "That was NOT fun!" But I think I saw just the hint of a smile. We rode several more rides including the Sky Ride and Dodgem until it was time to get Josiah home and in bed, after all, it was a school night.

At the end of the day, the rocky start was all but forgotten; we had a fun and memorable day. It was so worth pushing through the bumpiness of the morning to have a new, exciting adventure together.

Thank you, Nona and Papa, for the tickets!

P.S. The "professional-looking" pictures are from waldameer.com since amusement parks/water parks don't mingle very well with cameras.