UT trip // day two // LAGOON!

Saturday was Lagoon Day, yeeehaw! We gathered the whole family at a bus stop across the freeway and counted the shuttle as our first ride of the day:

I'm pretty sure everyone hated us by the time we all got loaded on the bus (eight adults, six kids, three strollers, two coolers). Whatev, Quinn and I had already made a pact to go with the flow; nothing could ruin Lagoon Day!

Once inside the park, we unceremoniously dumped all our stuff in a nice grassy area and split up to hit the rides:

Will and Jack tested out the little kiddie whale ride. Well, first they let their girl cousins try it out and Hazel gave it a hearty thumbs-down, so I was a little worried about Jack. Luckily, my sweet religious boys said a quick mid-flight prayer and all was well! 

(Or I yelled at them to fold their arms so Jack would stop reaching out and trying to touch machinery that looked like it shouldn't be touched. One of the two...)

Will did such a swell job with Jack that his services were engaged to ride with Isaac next. Isaac went in with some pretty serious doubts, but seemed to calm down as the ride went on - we're pretty sure his arms were quivering out of excitement, not fear...

Next up was Red Rock Rally, aka some jeeps that seemed pretty chill but then you got in and were basically catapulted around each turn. It was brutal. I should know; I went on that ride at least four times and hated it almost as much as Jack loved it. Hence me getting on again and again - who can resist that little smile??

The  boats! Good times were had on the boats, we returned a few times throughout the day. Our favorite (and I use that term loosely) was the worker in the evening who insisted on carefully getting each child in the boat and buckling them with painstaking precision... and showing them individually how to turn the wheel and ring the bell... before returning to let the next child in and through the gate. I applaud his attention to detail and commitment to his work, but in the meantime the wait was like twelve times longer than the actual ride :).

At about this time we met up for lunch (we may have borrowed a reserved table. If anyone asks, we were absolutely part of the 'REGIS' company gathering). Quinn and Eden are grocery shoppers extraordinaire, and we had a pretty awesome spread for sandwiches and fruit and chips and cookies.

This is also when I was reunited with Chuck and Clyde, who had spent the morning living out my worst nightmares:

Anyone else's stomachs drop just looking at these pictures?? Just mine? Well, Clyde is definitely his father's son and happily rode Wicked, Colossus, Wild Mouse, the Spider, and the white roller coaster. RIDICULOUS. 

Almost as ridiculous? After lunch it was Will's turn to go out with Daddy and ride crazy rides!! We knew Will would be borderline on being able to get on the big rides (he's 46 inches if you squint) so when he got the go-ahead for Colossus, they opted to stick around and ride it FOUR times in a row.

There was also some Flying Aces action for most of the group; I wisely chose to stay close to the sleeping Jack and not lose my lunch so soon after eating it :).

Some merry-go-round fun! Will loved his ride on the giraffe, which he apparently named Logan, possibly after his friend from church :). It was around this time that thrill-seeker Clyde took one look at the kiddie-rides and quickly recruited Uncle Cody to take him on some more big rides. Goofs!

A few random shots. My three brothers may have gotten suckered into a throwing game, although seeing as how we walked out with five or six prizes, maybe they weren't suckers after all!

We reconvened around five to make a plan for the rest of the day; we had all kind of thought we'd be done with Lagoon by this point but the kids were still doing awesome and we had just enough food for dinner, so we decided to stick around longer. We relaxed and ate dinner and then headed in to Lagoon-a-Beach, which is always a good time. 

We didn't have too much time before they closed for the evening, so we had to use our time wisely. Jack and Will and I plopped into a tube and made it around the lazy river a few times (thanks Dad for helping a lot in that endeavor!!) and right at the end I handed Jack off to Grandpa so I could made a couple runs down a super fun water slide.

As we were leaving Lagoon-a-Beach, Jack and Clyde and I all became a bit mesmerized by this seemingly-cool roller coaster right next door. 

It looked pretty mild and played Beach Boys music and my little niece Bailey was tall enough to ride it, so in my water-logged mind I thought it would be fun. I passed Jack off to Grandpa once again and got in line:

It. was. dreadful. I sat next to Clyde and he helpfully told me beforehand to close my eyes if I was scared... let's just say my eyes were closed basically the whole time. At the highest point I briefly opened them and thought "WHY did I think this was a good idea?? My body should not be suspended this high above the ground! I have children!!" So I was happy when it was over. Everyone else got back in line to ride it again, crazies!

Random shots from the day:

Quinn makes me laugh.

By this point we were winding down a bit - which makes sense, considering we'd been there a solid twelve hours. Everyone made the rounds to fit in a few last rides:

Poor Coders didn't have time to make it back over to Blast-Off or Re-Entry, so he settled for the Ladybug Drop with Bailey. Honestly, it looked just about as terrifying...

Jack and Hazel got hooked up at the car ride. There was seriously NO line, so Terri and I would drop them off at the start and then walk over to the finish just in time for the worker to pluck them out and hand them to us... so we could walk back over the start and buckle them in to start again.

I tried to get the guy to let us leave them in there, but it was a no-go. 

It was around this time that we checked the UTA schedule and realized we had a short window of time to get to the shuttle, lest we have to wait a whole half hour for the next one. This led to a comical (albeit not at the time) Home Alone-type mad dash out the gates and across the parking lot. Somehow we made it with all eight adults, six kids, three strollers, and two coolers in tow!!

And thus concluded our fantastically fun and looong day at Lagoon - we opened and closed the park! :) Thanks Dad for sponsoring such a fun adventure for all of us and thanks to Quinner for doing so much of the leg-work and planning!! We had a GREAT time!