Abusement Park

All in the name of FUN we went to Stake Lagoon Day. It had been overcast and rainy for three days and Friday was still gloomy, but with less chance of rain. We thought that would mean the park would be less crowded. We were wrong. And, because it was chilly, no one was in the water park part and so everyone was waiting in line for rides.
I didn't bother to get a ride pass since Rosalie was too young for rides and I knew I'd be with her all day. So Casey and Rex took the older kids around while I stayed with the little ones.

I won't go into all the details, but I will say that 3-year-olds do not enjoy waiting in lines. In fact, they become quite cranky and impatient. Even violent. At least, mine (Meredith) does. My nephew Andrew remained placid, although he did say quite early and at regular intervals (politely), "I want to go home."
Meredith decided that there had to be a better way. And she kept running off to look for it. Luckily Andrew would tell me each time Meredith ran off, because I couldn't always see her with Rosalie on one hip blocking half my view of the ground. Each time we would ditch the stroller and chase after her. I kept trying to convince Meredith that there was only one way to get on the rides, and that she really needed to stay with us or she could get lost. She got mad, she went boneless, she cried, and she did it again. I began to feel quite angry just as Andrew told me he needed a potty break. So we got out of the line for the Merry-go-Round, again, and headed to the bathroom. I put all three kids in the stroller because I didn't want to lose anyone on the way. This meant that the two kids in the back weren't buckled. I guess Rosalie resented having no view from her position in the stroller. She kept standing up. And I kept pushing her back down. I had just gotten the stroller into the bathroom when she made a determined jump sideways out of the stroller and onto the tile floor, on her head. In my peripheral vision I could see all the surrounding women stop dead and collectively gasp. I shrieked. Rosalie wailed. And Andrew still had to go potty. (And so did Meredith, even though she didn't want to, because I told her we were not leaving until she did, as we were not coming back.)
That's when I began the barrage of phone calls and text messages to the other adults in our group. Because of the noise and vibrations involved in an amusement park they didn't hear or feel their phones and only knew I'd called because they checked. It took another hour for us to meet up. I pretty much knew it was time for me to take the little kids home, but we had talked about getting one of those old time portraits. After some discussion we decided to go ahead and do it. And here is the result.
Can I say that the picture turned out remarkably well considering the amount of bellyaching going on? And entirely on the Songer side. Harrises are wired differently. My kids go to pieces from too much excitement until they are at least eight. There was serious bribery involved in getting Anderson and Meredith to be in the picture at all. Rosalie is too young to bribe. This represents her cheerful face when compared with the other three pictures. We left her out of the last one.
How happy was I to finally have all three little kids strapped into their car seats for the drive home? Happy isn't really the word; relief from severe stress just feels so good by comparison.

Casey, Rex, and the rest stayed on for another five hours. And aside from getting drenched and nearly freezing to death,(not from rain, but from a ride the kids begged to go on) and Ani going missing for forty minutes, the kids enjoyed themselves. Casey wonders how he manages to keep forgetting that he really doesn't like going to Lagoon. It makes me wonder how much fun my Mom and Dad were having all those years we kids dragged them on Stake Lagoon Day. I guess it serves us right.