Who's the BOSS?

I grounded my preteen daughter for LIFE yesterday, you heard me....I said for LIFE!!!

We took the kids to Six Flags yesterday! It was a gorgeous day, starting the morning in the mid to upper 60's and only getting to about 83 in the afternoon. It was perfect considering the day before it topped out at 100 around here. Princess stayed with her Aunt Kathy, really the first time I have left her for any long period of time with someone other than my Mom. I did miss her terribly but only called to check on her twice, I didn't want Kathy to think we didn't trust her. Morgan and Layne both brought a friend along so we were spending the day with 5 kids. FUN!

It is insane when you have to bribe your kids to ride different rides. It was looking like Layne was not going to ride anything more "thrilling" than the old cars and Evan was not doing that good. I promised them that 1) I was not going to let them ride anything that would kill them and 2) I wasn't going to ride anything that killed me. I got Layne in line for the Ninja, his first "loopy" roller coaster, if he was allowed to cuss I am sure that he would have been cussing a blue streak and calling me everything but a child of God. Instead he simply resorted to sending glares that screamed "Your insane and should die" my way, all the while planning his escape from the line of hell. I convinced him to stay, Morgan kept telling him how awesome it was and then he proceeded to have a meltodown when the safety bar was in place. All I could do was try to offer him words of encouragement like: "it'll be ok, if we die, we'll die together!" (JUST KIDDING!). The launch sequence was in motion and lift off was achieved....as we were heading up the first big slope, creaking and moaning on the metal tracks; my first born son, my darling boy, looks at me and with real venom says that he hates me. OH BOY! Well, what's done is done and we shoot off into roller coaster mania. While screaming like a banshee myself, I watch his expressions go thru several transformations. He goes from the venemous and terrorrized look to one of "ok, this might not be so bad" in which he screams to me" Mommy, I love you but I don't like this", to one of sheer glee near the end. As we are pulling into the landing pad, my little risk taker looks at me and says, "OK, I REALLY like that!" Stinker!

We ride Thunder River....this is a raft type boat that sits 12 people, propelling and spinning you down white water rapids. I choose the seat that looks the least wet, it's after 7 and I really don't want to get too wet.
YEAH RIGHT! I of course get hit by every wave and the teen boy operating the "spout" button grins and hits the switch, sending a huge plume of water straight at me. I look at him, sitting dryly upon his little perch above the water and say "how dare you!" What does the little tyrant do, he smiles his pimply grin and hits it again. He needs to be grounded, too!

Next it is on to the newest wooden roller coaster, "The Boss". This is supposed to be far better than the Screaming Eagle and Morgan really wants me to ride it with her. She couldn't convince her friend and Kurt just looks at us and smiles, obviously he isn't getting on it. Did I mention that he was there with a nasty cold and a fever? I read the sign posted of cautions and get a little concerned when they mention it might not be good for someone with neck/back troubles. I have permanent whiplash from my wreck years ago but thought it couldn't be too bad, I'd ridden other coasters and hadn't had too much trouble. WHATEVER!!!!!
Morgan was giggling and telling me where to hold on and brace myself while I was being rattled to bits. I am sure that thousands of dollars of orthodontic work just went down the drain, my teeth had to be rattled into new positions and I was hunkered down with my head glued to my right shoulder to keep it from being slammed around. I grounded my dear daughter, the one that said it was such a great and easy ride, FOR LIFE! Never lie to your mother!!!!! In the picture that they take while you are being beaten to death, all you see is Morgan looking at me laughing and my head down at an odd angle with black hair streaming about. I have proof of your untruths dear daughter! To add to my misery, I was still dripping wet from the Thunder River and it was officially dusk, I don't think that my teeth quit chattering until we were a couple of miles from home and several hours later.

Evan insisted on "winning" a stuffed prize to take home. We came upon a game that allowed kids 48" and under to play until they won. Evan set his sites on a long stuffed blue and white snake. He threw the darts and hit the balloon, only to be handed a tiny little fish. I don't even know where this guy pulled the fish from. All we saw were big snakes, plush DIVA and PRINCESS pillows and some big monkey. Talk about false advertisement. Evan proceeded to completely disintergrate before our eyes, how do you explain to a very tired little man that he had been mislead and this was a fact of real life. You don't, you look at the yahoo behind the booth and ask what it is that you have to do to get your kid the dang snake. I was willing to do most anything short of felonious/jailable acts to get the snake, to calm the storm that was my son. The kid says, "Uh, I don't know...I guess you can buy another chance and trade up". I threw $3 at the kid, Evan threw the dart and got his snake. He then proceeded to wrap it around his neck and act like he was being choked to death by the fluffy boa constrictor.

At the end of the day, Layne's favorite ride was the Ninja and he got to spend the day with his friend, Evan had his killer snake, the girls had a great time and Kurt didn't grumble too much despite being sick.
All in all, it was a great day but I am glad that we do it only once a year. It's kind of like childbirth, you give yourself enough time and you forget about the pain enough to do it again.