Six Flags!

On Thursday we went to Six Flags America, which is on the other side of the Beltway from us.  I didn't actually know it was so close!  I thought it was up in Baltimore somewhere!  Anyhow, Caleb, Jonathan, Anna, and Grace each got a free ticket with the "Read to Succeed" program, and I got a free ticket as their educator, so that meant we just needed tickets for Bob, Nathan, Luke, and Faith.  That was still expensive (tickets for a day are $29 at the Pentagon, which is the cheapest we could find anywhere--AND you need a parking pass, which was $11 at the Pentagon), but still doable.  We went with the McCs, who had also done the program (and without Christine, we wouldn't have gotten our tickets, because in the beginning of March, when you had to submit everything, I was so swamped, and she did it all for me!!)  Another family who used to be in Rivendell was going to go, but they ended up not coming because they were just really busy that day, and they had season's passes, so it wasn't a big deal to come that particular day.  We missed having the C's with us too, like they were last year at Hershey Park!

It was sooooo hot and humid.  I thought I was going to melt, and I was so glad I wasn't pregnant!  (I was also so glad I'm not Muslim.  I saw countless ladies covered, many in these heavy coat-like outfits, and I saw 3 in full black burkas.  What really got me was their men, walking around in swimsuits, t-shirts, and flip-flops, while their wives roasted in a winter outfit.  Ridiculous.  Just thinking about it still gets me riled up!)

The 4 older boys went off on their own, with Craig, Joel, and Jonathan and Bob (for a time) with them.  Christine and I took the 4 girls, plus Micah and Drew, as well as Caleb, who is not a fan of  rides, or even of amusement parks in general (huh--wonder where he gets that from?!).  The girls had a good time in the kiddie area, and it is so perfect that there are 4 of them to ride together! 

Micah had absolutely no desire to ride on any rides at all, not even the merry-go-round, even after copious amounts of coaxing and cajoling.  Sometimes he did walk, and then Drew got to ride in the front, which he preferred.  Poor Drew was mainly just hot and sticky!

After melting around the kiddie part for the morning, we all met back at the vans for a picnic lunch around 1:30.  I really wasn't hungry because I was so hot, but the boys were, and most of the food was devoured.  We even had cupcakes to celebrate Caleb McC's birthday, which was that very day! 

After lunch the older boys plus Joel went off to ride more rides, while the rest of us decided to go to the waterpark.  We put on our swimsuits (and if you know me, you know how out of character that is for me, so you KNOW it was hot!), and the water in the wave pool indeed was so refreshing.  Even Drew got on his swim diaper and splashed around!  When the lifeguards whistled for break at 4:45, we noticed that clouds were rolling in and the sky was looking threatening.  Sure enough, the heavens opened, and rain poured down.  After several claps of thunder (!) eventually the lifeguards closed the pool, but we were all standing under this shade thing, where rain was blowing in and soaking us!  I had already changed Grace, Faith, Micah, and Drew, but Anna and I were still in our swim suits.  It got a little chilly--what a change from the morning!  Eventually the rain stopped, but we all looked a bit bedraggled.

After the rain, we went back into the park, to an area in the back called Whistlestop Park.  It was another place with kiddie rides, plus a little play area.  We wished we had gone here first, rather than fighting the crowds at the other kiddie area, right inside the gates, all morning!  The girls had a ball here, and Micah even loved playing on the play ground. 

The older boys were so thankful for the rain because it cleared out the park, leaving them free to ride to their hearts' content!  They got to ride all the big rides multiple times and had a tremendously fun day.  It's so nice to just be able to let them go do what they want them to do, but we hardly saw them all day!  It was fun to run into them by the Apocalypse--what a nice-looking clean-cut group of young men! 

We closed out the park, finally leaving the parking lot at 8:30.  Nathan drove us back home--in the big van, in the rain, in the dark, on the Beltway.  Advanced driver's ed!  We were so tired--I think the kids are still recovering, LOL.