Amusement Park Fun

Recently I told you about my wacky wedding day. I left you saying that we created a family of nine. I have three children, who are 15, 13 and 9. I also now have four stepchildren, who are 11, 10, 6 and 4. That gives us four boys and three girls altogether.
Now, however, if you've read my bio, you will see that my kids are now 21, 19, 15, and my hubby's kids are 17, 16, 12 and 10.
You might imagine things can be little bit hectic at our house at times. There is jealousy. ("How come HE gets to play the Nintendo, he's had it all day!") Apparently, anything over 10 minutes constitutes all day to a kid. But there are always the fun little things that siblings do-the older girls fixing the youngest one's hair, making pizzas, listening to the youngest scream orders at someone, or driving to Florida and splashing at the beach in the Gulf of Mexico where their grandma lives, despite stinging jellyfish.
It also occurred to us that getting season tickets to Weirds of Fun—I mean Worlds of Fun (that's how the four-year-old pronounces the name of the amusement park), although very hard for us to afford, would be a great way to occupy some weekends last summer with seven oft-bored kids. Not bad, but with ages ranging from four to 15, and us parents, it's difficult to ride some of the rides.
Puzzling to me is the rule that our four-year-old can ride things that fling riders into the air as long as they're accompanied by an adult, but cannot ride a big tire-type water ride down the Fury of the Nile, even with a parent.
So, we take turns staying with the younger ones in Camp Snoopy while the others go ride the roller coasters and water rides. I've been given the privilege of being Sydney's riding partner on the Wacky Worm and the "Mini
Detonator.” (Snoopy's Airmail is its real name, but it is much like the adult ride called the Detonator, just kid-sized.)
When I first saw the adult-sized Detonator years ago, it looked like no big deal. You go up, you come back down. I decided to try it to see what the big draw was.
Riding the Detonator is like sitting in a seat that has a rubber band attaching it to the ground. You hear a rush of air, nothing happens. “OK, this is no big deal,” I thought. Then, when you least expect it, the rubber band breaks and you fly up the 200-foot-tower and fall back down, and back up again, lather, rinse, repeat.
The first time you shoot up in the air, it takes your breath away and your eyeballs retreat to the back of your head. I screamed as the shock hit me. I vowed to never ride it again. (Turns out, I broke the vow, and have come to like the ride.) The pure surprise is worth it. And the view up there is awesome.
It's amazing that Sydney, the youngest, likes the "Mini Detonator,” because she doesn't like the bumper cars. I thought everyone liked the bumper cars. She and her brother, Richard, wanted to drive the kiddy bumper cars, so we headed that way. We sent them to stand in line, and when it was their turn, she ran straight to the purple car. She had never done it before, but she got in her car, and she was a perfect driver. She didn't run into anyone and obeyed all traffic laws, while her brother, (who was 5 at the time), was gleefully bumping into his fellow drivers. I guess she didn’t understand the ‘bumper’ part of bumper cars.
Suddenly, she ran into the curb and it jolted her into the floor of her car. She got upset, but we yelled for her to get back into her seat and keep driving. "And start hitting some cars," I called to her.
She again was driving along, not bothering a soul, when, WHAM! she hit the curb again. This time, she fell out of her seat and hit her little chin extremely hard on the steering wheel and scared us and the poor ride operator to death. We made our way to the exit to get her and hold her and after a little TLC, we were able to proceed back to good ol' Camp Snoopy.
Unfortunately, I don't think she'll ever drive the bumper cars again, and who knows about a real car. But she has asked when we're going to Weirds of Fun again.