Elitch Gardens

There was a lightning storm last night and everything I wrote was erased. I don't have the heart for a second attempt at being witty about sharing Elitch Garden's Amusement Park with a couple thousand eighth graders (you'll just have to guess how much I enjoyed that) but here are some pictures:

First ride was the Tea Cups. I have become much more choosy about rides and will go on any roller coaster or thrill ride but don't enjoy spinning for the sake of it anymore. It gives me a headache. Here is Jacob, Sammy, Erin, Seth and Michael. Michael and Jacob had their cup going extremely fast and we adults who were watching, wondered if they noticed the look of worry on the younger faces. They must have because after a minute, they slowed down and told us afterward that they didn't want to get thrown-up on. Good choice.

Rex martyred himself and took the younger two: Brooke and Henry. His heart was bigger than his stomach, however, and he felt sick the rest of the day.

Next up was one of my favorite rides - the octopus (or spider). The up and down combined with the spinning makes me giggle. Of course, since Henry and I don't exactly equally distribute the weight, we only spun in one direction. Still... it was all fun except for the minutes we were hanging out in the air while the other people loaded on and off and Henry kept trying to stand up and see what was happening. Not good for a mother's heart.

I took off and rode a couple of coasters with Sam, but Jay stayed with Henry and took some pictures of him enjoying the park's kiddie rides. He's all smiles here, but Jay said he found this smooth swinging boring.

What he really liked was the roller coaster. The operator gave a spiel each time with the gist that if they wanted to go around again to give a thumbs up. Henry spontaneously gave this gesture each time. He loved it.

Sam was all thumbs.

click to enlarge to see the faces of glee.

Each time around, Sam and Brooke tried something else. Arms up. Eyes closed. Eventually tongues out. They made the little coaster as scary as they could.

Tough guy brothers, Rex and Jay.
It was not a warm day on Tuesday and the high was only 61, but somehow they thought a ride whose sole attraction is to get wet was a good idea. Here is the initial splash when the boat comes down the ramp....

Then they pass underneath a bridge that drips more water onto the already wet passengers....

And you're left with cold and wet riders. Some (and I'm not mentioning any names) handled it a bit better than others.

Wet and happy Rex and Brooke.

Sam had a good time and wanted to ride again but his boring mom said, "No."

Jay finally got in on the action and rode the Sea Dragon with the rest of the family. He'd been on Henry duty the entire day while I went and rode some of the big roller coasters with Sam (so fun...except Sam got a little scared when I put us in the front cart on the Boomerang coaster), so watching him sit on the back row, the seat that goes the highest in the air, was funny to watch. He never took his hands off the bar and told me he thought the boat was going to flip upside down for sure.

Once Jay got started and most of the eighth graders left, the lines for the popular coasters shortened considerably and he wanted to ride the Twister II with the boys and Erin. That left me on Henry duty and we headed back over to the Octopus. Here we are on the top as Henry struggles to get out. As long as we were going, we were both having fun, but Henry doesn't have the patience to stand still.

This is one of the best roller coasters. It's called the Half Pipe and it mimics the motions of a skateboard going up and down in a U-shape. The seats also spin and the feeling of being completely vertical while spinning is unique. Unfortunately, you can't see Seth, who is sitting on the other side of Rex, but he is quite the coaster junkie now.

Nothing like expensive food and sodas to get us through the day.

It was another fun day in Denver and if we can manage to plan it around Free-Pass-For-Eighth-Grade-Day, I think this will become a nice addition to our Bolder Boulder tradition.