I was worried that since the girls are two years older now than they were when we last visited Story Land, they would have outgrown some of the fun. But nope. They were SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED to be there that they were literally plowing into smaller kids as they scampered off to check out all the sites they remembered. The first twenty minutes of Story Land was a constant barrage of talkings-to about awareness of our surroundings when there are so many people around.
After we toured the Story Book area, we took the girls on a bunch of rides. There is a brand new ride at Story Land this summer, the "Roarasaurus," which is a legitimate roller coaster. Very different from the kiddie "Polar Coaster" that we had previously ridden. The girls, of course, were desperate to take a ride on the Roarasaurus.
The ride was as wild as it looked, with a huge plummet near the beginning that sent MY stomach into my throat, so I can't imagine how thrilling it was for the girls. When we finished, Julia was jubilant. "I LOOOOVED it!" she proclaimed, so I looked back at Madeleine, who was sitting with Ethan, to see if she shared Julia's joy.
Madeleine instead looked rather shell-shocked.
ME: Madeleine, what did you think of that ride?
MADELEINE: Uh, Mama, well, THIS is the face I was making: (spreading her lips outwards into a grimace), because Mama. I was FA-REEEAKED OUT!
Madeleine was less fareeeaked out by the flume, which has just one stomach-lurching drop, right at the end of the ride. In fact, both girls loved the flume so much that we probably rode it about five times in a row. On the last round of flume-riding, I sat out while Ethan took the girls:
Since we were already pretty wet by then, our next activity was the fountains, through which the girls ran wildly in their bathing suits, once again somewhat oblivious to all the little kids around them. In fact, Julia and Madeleine were at least a foot taller than any of the other kids in the fountain, so Ethan and I spent a lot of time calling them out for not being aware enough of the kids around them. Julia, in particular, looked HUGE, especially since she's so tall for her age.
As Ethan put it: "I wonder if the other parents are looking at Julia and thinking, 'What's up with this NINE-year-old who is acting so immature?"
After the girls had had their water fun, we offered them the chance to ride on one last thing before we headed back to the hotel. For once, they were in agreement: the Roarasaurus. Yes, that's right, despite having been FAREEEAKED out, Madeleine was gung-ho about riding it again. And so we did, and everyone had a blast, even the four-year-old.
Everyone was so tired after our exciting day that we all slept late this morning, with the kids waking before the parents but playing and reading so as to let us sleep in. In fact, we nearly missed the hotel breakfast, which is served from 8-9am, because we slept until five of nine, so we had quite a scramble to get over there and seat ourselves.
Now that the girls are older, they're able to order for themselves; Julia, in fact, can read the menu on her own and choose what she wants without any help from us. However, there's a huge difference in the ordering style of both girls. Case in point, this morning's breakfast:
JULIA: Can I please have chocolate chip pancakes?
SERVER: Certainly. And would you like any bacon or sausage with that?
JULIA: Um...no, thank you.
SERVER: (turning to Madeleine) And for you?
MADELEINE: (speaking so quietly the server had to lean forward to hear her) Uh, I want chocolate chip pancakes too, and...NOTHING else.
We'll work on those pleases and thank yous, Madeleine.
Today's fun adventure was driving over to Lincoln in order to play in the water at the Whale's Tail. Despite some cloud cover that made us all a bit chilly, the girls had an absolute BLAST. I have never seen such simulataneous teeth-chattering, blue-lipped shivering combined with gleeful delighted head-first plunges into water before. Julia kept up her totally bad-ass love of all rides wild and crazy, and tried out even the most nerve-wracking of waterslides, including one which starts with a vertical drop before curving into an actual slide. Apparently, the thing that prompted Julia to give the drop-ride a try was going through the tunnel waterslide in the kiddie Pirate's Cove.
JULIA: So Mom, what made me realize I was brave enough to try the drop slide was that I went through that red slide where it's all dark inside the tunnel, and I thought: if I can go through a waterslide in the DARK, then I can probably do the DROP one!
Yes, because going on a slide in the toddler section, albeit a dark one, is definitely the equivalent of going on a slide that even adults were afraid to try. (Not this adult, though, and not Ethan, either. We totally went for it.)
Both Madeleine and Julia loved the wave pool, and of course, when it was time for the massive bucket of water to dump all over the Pirate's Cove, they both stood in prime position to get as soaked as possible. These are definitely kids who love getting wet and wild.
At any rate, days 2 and 3 of vacation have been a lot of fun, and we're looking forward to what lies in store for tomorrow!
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