Elitch Gardens

VERY FUN!

Sean is in the second car, just coming out from behind the steel girder.  This is the Mind Eraser.  It was the first roller coaster Heidi and I did together.  I laughed until I almost cried, screamed a bit, and didn't hear a peep out of Heidi.  Turns out she's not a fan.  Poor kid.  I totally tortured her.  Nicole adamantly refused to go on this ride with Sean, so he went by himself.  When he was done, he told me he couldn't believe Heidi did it, and he was very glad Nicole refused.  We then headed over to the Tower of Doom.  Nicole and Heidi both agreed after much persuasion.  When the ride stopped, Sean and I were laughing our heads off, Nicole was crying, and Heidi was completely terrified.  She smiles about it now (24 hours later).  I wonder if Nicole will ever get onto a big ride again?  Probably not.  Are we awful parents?  It was supposed to be FUN!

Nicole refused this ride at first, but after a bit of walking around, she talked Sean into it.  I think she did this while Heidi and I were on Mister Twister (wooden roller coaster, which also scared Heidi.)  I didn't think it would be so bad, because it doesn't do any flips or whatnot.  I also told her there would likely be one big hill in the beginning and then pretty mild after that.  Not so much.  I laughed my head off, while worrying about Heidi.  Couldn't control myself, ya know...but since she had already experienced the Mind Eraser and Tower of Doom, Mister Twister wasn't so bad.  But she didn't like it anyway. She's so brave to keep agreeing to accompany me on these different roller coasters.  Oh, so back to Coley.  She went on this one, called Thunder Bolt, and it freaked her out. She was screaming her little head off, but she sort of liked it.  She and Heidi ended up going on this one again later.  Sean felt really bad after spinning so much, so we went to find some food and stuffed ourselves silly with Panda Express.

I like this one. Sean is just enduring, Nicole is scared.

She's found her niche: dizzy, spinning rides and she's finally smiling after her near heart attack on the Tower of Doom.

After eating, Nicole wanted to go on this one.  Sean's stomach revolted, so I obliged.  I shouldn't have done it...felt queasy the rest of the night...progressively getting worse.  Nicole and Heidi went on this one together once, and Nicole did it once on her own as well.  

See?  Look how brave she has become?  Riding these rides all alone!  She did the teacups about 4 times.  She and Heidi did the kid version of Tower of Doom, a fun little bus ride, and a little kids' roller coaster.  There were lots of fun rides for kids.  Nicole was just short enough to make it on some of those ones which were more up her alley.  I'm hoping next time they'll be ready for the big coasters. I tried to talk them into another big one with all four of us.  They began climbing the stairs and the higher we got the more scared they became, and eventually turned around leaving me on my own but I still loved it. :) I began to feel really sick, though.  I was hoping to get in two more of the big rides, but it didn't happen.  I got onto the Boomerang and that did me in.  I'm grieving the loss of my youthful ability to ride roller coasters all day long.  :(

We borrowed Papa Curry's camera and the battery died after this picture.  So sad!  All in all, TOTALLY FUN.  I'm still sick today, I think my brain got rattled a good one, and I'm in recovery mode.  The pains of old age!  These are two of the cutest little tea-cup loving kids I've ever seen....