They Don't Call It "Great" For Nothing

Made the annual trip back to Six Flags last week. Went with one of my besties - Shea, her dad and my dad.

The park was literally empty. We never stood in line for more than ten minutes, which means we rode about every ride we could ride and in the neighborhood of 4-5 times each. A lot of the rides they never even made us get off.

We don't have a lot of good ride pictures because dad's phone died, but let's get started.

This is The Orbit. Goes super duper fast and then tilts upside down so you're going in a huge circle at top speeds. Shea and I rode this nearly ten times throughout the whole day.

We played some games, which were really fun, too; this one in particular. Shea went first, trying to walk that ladder all the way to the top. 

It was all quite a hoot watching it go down.

And then it was my turn. I made it all the way to the top and won a 5-foot tall stuffed penguin! No, I didn't.

But we did get these out of the deal.

We spent 11 hours at the park, so naturally there was a lot of really fun chillin' out as well. Pics by the pool, some ice cream and shared lemonade...

And what we called The Cement Picnic. We laughed at how different the lunch and dinner experience would have been if the moms had been in the mix (no offense dads).

Then Dad pulled one over on me a little bit. I think he wanted to up the ante from last year when I went on The Demon so many times, so we went on The Eagle. Had I known what I was getting into I probably would've passed this up. But I'm still alive and now I have this puppy under my belt.

This next pic is pre-ride. You can see a little apprehension in that smile but trust me, this was much better than if we did a post-ride pic. Not. Happy.

Eagle Selfie!!

Lastly, I'll show you our favorite non-rollercoaster ride. This one is called The Fiddler's Fling. It goes a million miles an hour and throws you out towards the side of the car as it spins. This puppy really gets moving, as you'll see.  

And after a loooooong day running around Six Flags with our dad, here's a recap of the conversation that ensued as Dad started the car in the parking lot.

Fin: I'm going to sleep in like 2 minutes
Shea: Me too, maybe even faster

... ... ... 90 seconds later...

So that's that. I think when they named this park they could've gone in a few different directions, but what they COULDN'T have named it was "Good America" because, well, it's pretty freakin' Great!

A Great Day in America

So I got a certificate for a free ticket to Six Flags Great America from school for finishing 100 hours of reading over the course of a month or so, so off Dad and I went to Great America.

Not a lot of pictures in this one because we were busy conquering rides. I was an inch and a half too short for some of the bigger roller coasters but we took advantage of the three I could ride on. In case you don't recognize the overhead harness in the photo below, that's the Demon, my friends. Conquered it... nine times (no exaggeration). Rode in the front row, the back row and several rows in between.

And here's a list of the other rides we went on:

Three roller coasters

-Demon (nine times)

-Dark Knight

-Whizzer

The rest of the list includes:

-Fiddlers Fling (4-5 times)

-Hometown Fun Machine (2ice)

-Orbit

-Triple Play (three times, naturally, since it's called Triple Play)

-Condor

-The new water park in the middle of the day for a few hours where we went on several big water slides

We went on some of these rides multiple times because they were just so much fun. Couple side notes, though...

Orbit: Didn't get a chance to watch this one first, we just saw the line still open with no one left in it and ran in... got a little spooked when we went airborne while spinning in a small container. Note to self, watch the ride at least once before you get on.

Condor: This one Dad wanted to go on, til we got way the heck up there in the air - again, in a small container - and he was like, "WHAT?!!" Needless to say, we only went on that one once.

Odds and Ends

So my photo editor was going through the past couple weeks of photos and we've been up to a lot of random stuff so thought I'd share.

Mae and I went deep sea diving in the tub.

We've been doing laundry basket rides upstairs, taking turns being the driver.

Mae and I made a Six Flags theme park in our backyard while Pax took his first swing on the swing.

Paxton got his first haircut. Just a trim off the top swiping the original mohawk hair he had when he was born as it was turning into a nasty comb-over.

Pax giving himself a little comb when it was done.

And then last night Mae decided we should do our best Kermit D. Frog impersonations. As you'll see, mine needs some work but Mae might be getting a call from Jim Henson's folks soon.