I've got my Orange Crush

Oh, lordy!

Today, Mom and I took kid #1 and kid #2 to Six Flags. The plan was so simple....pick up Mom at the hotel around 9ish, head to Six Flags, and have fun. See? Simple!

This morning I get up and am gathering everything we will need - towels, sunscreen, change of clothes, lunch...all the important stuff. I had even thought to put Capri Sun drinks in the freezer so that 1) they would stay cold until lunch, and 2) they would double as ice packs to cool down the water I did not remember to chill.

Our first trip to NC this summer, I found out a little secret - put a smaller cooler inside a bigger cooler and the stuff in the smaller cooler? Stays cold a lot longer. Woo!

Our second trip to NC, R just looked at me and blinked (kind of like an owl) when I suggested my cooler in a cooler plan. So we just did the one cooler and drank lukewarm drinks. I'm just sayin'...

For our Six Flags trip in 2,000 degree weather? Cooler in a cooler baby. So I went into the garage to get the bigger cooler and discovered that someone had simply taken said cooler out of the van and put it in the garage. This wouldn't be an issue if said cooler hadn't also contained two week old spilled Orange Crush and several full, partial, and empty bottles of water. All glorious in their Orange Crust. Did I mention that the cooler had been sitting for about two weeks? So it was a bit smelly. And sticky. And orange crush-y. And that meant I had to clean it, even though it was already time to leave. Then again, T was still standing in his pj top and undies staring at the TV like it was promising him dinners of candy and ice cream and a puppy for his birthday, so I was already frustrated. I mean, geez, do they not realize I'm planning all this fun for them? No? Well, that explains it.

I start to pick up the cooler to clean it out in the kitchen sink and the top comes off. The top which I'm holding in order to clean out the cooler. Great. The cooler tilts wildly and splashes moldy, smelly, Orange Crush all over the kitchen cabinet and floor. Really? REALLY? So I scrub out the cooler, clean the floor and cabinets, yell at T to get dressed RIGHT NOW, and start heaving things in the car.

Well now. Doesn't today seem like it's gonna be a great day.

I pick up Mom and off we go. Six Flags opens at 10:30 and we've planned to be there by 10:15. All I really wanted was to get a parking space that wasn't a mile away and a shot at a chair under some shade (40% chance for rain today). By this point, the kids are so excited about the combo of Grammy and water park that they are amazingly easy to get along with AND they are listening. Like, to everything I say. I'm almost moved to tears, or maybe it's just the heat searing my eyeballs.

We get into the park and then into the water park, find a shady spot to put our stuff and head into the wave pool. Three minutes later? I hear Mom yell for me as she's trying to keep T from pulling off his bathing suit in public.

W.T.F?!?!

I grab S and trot over and it turns out that T has to go to the bathroom. Why he thinks that requires disrobing in public is a complete mystery to me. But T? Has absolutely no hesitation about being naked anywhere. It's caused some issues in the past, and I? Am terrified that he is going to end up in some serious trouble. Sigh... We make it to the bathroom with everyone's clothes all the way on and don't have any more bathroom/disrobing issues for the rest of the day. Still, though...what is up with that?

One of the great things about having Grammy with us? Was that I could ride all the water rides with T. The first ride? Looked like those slides you see at the fair - they are bumpy and you sit on a burlap sack to slide down. The water park version involved riding down on a foam mat on your stomach. Hmmm. But hey, if 6 year olds could do it, so can I right? T and I grab a mat, and walk up the steps to the slide. We go down with two other people - a mom and her son. Of the four of us? It's my mat that gets stuck at the starting gate. So I'm wiggling and trying to push myself off and getting nowhere. So the ever helpful lifeguard? Puts her foot on my mat between my legs and shoves. That doesn't work either, and now I'm giggling hysterically because I can just IMAGINE how awful it must be to have to unstick pasty chubby people for a summer job. Finally, her combination of shoving and my combination of laughing so hard I'm wiggling the mat gets me unstuck and off I go. Wheeeee! The force of the push off plus gravity plus my weight equals one very fast ride down the slide. I even catch air on one of the bumps. It was awesome and terrifying all at once. If I hadn't gotten stuck at the top I would probably have even done it again. T was all excited because not only had he gotten to ride the ride, he got to see my entire ride since I got stuck. Also, when I flew by him at the bottom of the slide I sprayed him with water which he also loved. See what fun happens when you keep your pants on, T?!?! heh.

The second ride we went on? Is called the Tornado. Uh huh. This is it:

I must have asked T a dozen times if he was sure, absolutely sure, that he wanted to do down this ride.

Of course he did! The covered tunnel that feeds into the funnel looking thing? Looks like you are going straight down when you are walking up the steps to the top and entrance of the ride. It was intimidating enough that I asked the lifeguard twice if he was sure our mismatched weights wouldn't cause the raft to flip and T to get killed or maimed. I'm a good mother like that. Most days. He assured me that we were fine and off we went. The drop into the funnel was as scary as it looked but the rest of the ride? SO much fun. No so much fun that we did it again. The raft really beat up T's back and and it was a long way up for such a long wait and short ride.

Sanity restored we drifted around the lazy river a bit before we headed to the Big Kahuna the family ride. All four of us went on this one. R, the kids, and I had done this one before. S wasn't crazy about it, but I figured she'd be okay. She seemed pretty game. I told Mom that it wasn't a bad ride, because last time I was the only one who really got wet. We finally got our turn and as we got into the raft, S freaked and refused to hold on. The lifeguard wouldn't let us go unless we were all holding on (thankfully), and there were a few tense moments and S refused to hold on but also refused to get out of the boat. There were hundreds of people waiting for their turn, and she finally decided she wanted to ride down versus walk down and off we went. Of course, she immediately let go of the hand hold and got popped in the eye with her own hand. Both kids wanted to sit beside Grammy, which meant that their side of the raft was heavier. The problem with that? As we went around the realllly big curves and rode up on the wall it was Grammy and Grammy only that got soaked.

The look on her face? Priceless. And I laughed and laughed. I laughed until my stomach hurt and each time she got drenched? I laughed all over again. The one thing she had wanted to avoid was getting her hair completely soaked and I assured her that this ride wouldn't do that. And then it soaked her 4 different times. Just her. The kids and I got wet, but not like she did. I was laughing so hard I didn't think I could get out of the boat. And then? I was laughing so hard once out of the boat that I was afraid I was going to pee on myself. (I didn't, thank goodness). I'm sorry Mom. I swear - I swear - I had no idea.

After that we went back to the wave pool. S was wearing a life jacket, so she was a lot more comfortable in the water this time around. T was actually diving through the waves, which was really impressive. We went out to the car and had a picnic lunch and as we headed back in, it started to rain. We jumped back into the wave pool until they closed it, and then we just decided to go home. All our stuff had gotten wet in the downpour, but it wasn't nearly as wet as it would have been if we hadn't gotten chairs under some shade.

Mom and S? Slept all the way home. T and I? Talked about our ride fun. The bonus plan? No one got sunburned. Now that's a good day. Even better? The floor wasn't sticky when I got home from the Orange Crush debacle and our water was nice and chilly to drink. Cooler in a cooler baby. Try it sometime.