Lagoon 2017

I have decided that I need to bring the kids to Lagoon every year. We went last year and even though Sophie was only 1 year old, she loved riding all the rides she could. This year was no different. And I realized that it is probably just as fun for the kids to go to Lagoon as is it for them to go to Disneyland and it's a heck of a lot cheaper so I should take advantage of our local amusement park.

We went on the last Tuesday in June so Anthon had to work, of course, and Danielle and Jr. were at EFY so Avery and the three younger kids and I drove up there in the morning. We had planned on meeting some of Anthon's family there so all the cousins could have a fun day and the mom's could divide and conquer.

I packed some food and picked up some Subway sandwiches before we went in. I was also able to get some discounted tickets from Costco. When we got in, we first put on sunscreen. Monson said, "Mom, did I get too much?"

We were the first to arrive so we ate some sandwiches and then started riding rides!

 

This egg drop ride was Sophie's favorite! It brings you up and then drops you down over and over. She rode this again and again. When we dropped, before it was even done dropping, she would say, "Again!"

 

When the rest of the family got there Sophie rode this ride with her cousin Caitlyn. Caitlyn got scared during the ride, but Sophie loved it. The next ride they went on, I put Caitlyn in the back seat and Sophie in the front, but Caitlyn got up and moved to the front and only wanted to ride the rides right next to Sophie. It was cute.  

The people that came included: Anthon's parents, his siblings Rachel with her husband and 2 of their kids, Jessica with her 4 kids, Tressa with her 7 kids, Maureen and her 3 kids, me and 4 of my kids, and Mike's 3 kids. There was a bunch of us so we split up and looked after different age groups.

My boys LOVED riding the rides. The lines were really short that day and some rides had no line at all. There was one roller coaster called Bombora that Damon, Monson, and 3 of their boy cousins that are the same age rode over and over and over. There wasn't a line so when they got off the ride, they ran right back on. The probably did that ride at least 15 times before I got bored of standing there.

I was able to do a couple of the big rides with Tressa and a couple of the older cousins. I was ok just watching my kids have fun, but it was also fun for me to do a few rides too.

About half way through the day Rachel and I took our current group of kids to the bathroom. Among them were all my little kids and then 4 of the boy cousins. Somehow in the midst of all of us going in and coming out of the bathrooms, Monson got lost. I had Damon go in the men's room and check for him twice, but Monson was not in there. Rachel stayed there with the kids while I sprinted back to the most recent ride we had gone on to see if he had gone back there, but there was no sign of him. I started to panic a little bit. I wanted to stay in that same area in case he came back so I went to the closest worker I could find and told that high school student, "I can't find my kid; what is your protocol?!" He responded with, "Uhhh....I'm still on shift..." I knew time was of the essence so I said again, "What is the protocol for a lost kid?!" He sad, "Uh, let me ask someone." He slowly walked to a door that was in his game booth and then a girl high school student came out. I said to her quickly, "I can't find my kid! He is wearing the same clothes as this one, (pointing to Damon because I dressed them in the same outfit that day) what can you do?!" She said, "Um, there is the lost child place in the front of the park." I just looked at her with disappointment so she continued, "or I could call security to come help you look for him." "YES! DO THAT!"

While she was slowly contacting security I thought to myself, "What would Monson do?" I have taught my kids that if they ever get lost they should find a mom with kids around her, tell her they are lost and give her my phone number that both my boys have memorized and that we had practiced before we walked into the park that morning. I realized in that moment that he would call me. I looked at my phone that was sitting in the stroller and it was ringing.

Me: "Hello!"
Kind Mom: "Marie?"
Me: "Do you have my kid?!"
Kind Mom: "Yes!"

They were not too far away so I quickly ran to where she said they were. Monson started running to me when he saw me coming and we immediately hugged. The first thing I said to him was, "You did the right thing! Thank you for finding a mom to call me!" He said, "Yeah, she had kids with her." He must have come out of the bathroom and not seen us so he walked away to look for us.

We had a great day. Sophie took a little nap and we rode tons of rides.

A sweet thing that Damon did was while a worker was helping him get on a ride he looked at her name badge that had her picture on it and said "I like your smile in that picture." I thought that was so cute and thoughtful of him to say to her. She didn't really respond to him so I told him that was such a kind, sweet thing to say. He has such a kind heart.

Some of Anthon's family left around 8:30pm, but we stayed and kept riding rides until they wouldn't let us anymore. It was 10pm and the kids wanted to keep riding, but they shut down everything so we headed out. It was a fun-filled, 11 hour (13 if you count driving time) day! Within minutes of driving, the boys were asleep. Sophie stayed awake the whole drive home.

We will definitely do this every year.