Six Flags!!!

What a fun weekend. As former employees, Kathy and I were invited to attend the opening day ceremonies at Six Flags on Saturday to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the park. And even better, we could bring our families along for free too (a $120 savings just for me, Jim and Gracie). So Kathy came up with her family, and we headed over, dropped Alex off with the grandparents (thank you!) and all went to the park.

Now the drawback was that in order for us to get in free we had to be assembled at the employee entrance by 8:30am. The park doesn't open until 10am, so it was an agonizing 1 1/2 hour wait, explaining to Grace that we can't go on any rides because they aren't running yet. We sat through some speakers (the voice of Ameriquest Field Chuck Morgan, Miss Texas, Tom Vandergriff, some Dallas Cowboy), the Hardin-Simmons Cowboy band (yeehaw - love those guys!), and a cheesy dance number by some of the Six Flags show people. But once we finally got to go in the wait was worth it. There was virtually no line for any ride all day. And the weather was awesome; probably got to the mid-70s, and slightly cloudy.

Poor Grace was so excited about going, but unfortunately had been running a low fever since Wednesday. But we took her anyway and are glad we did. We got stuck having to carry her a lot because she would get wiped out. But she had such a great time with her cousins all day, not to mention the rides she got to go on. A couple of rides didn't go over too well - if you have small kids DO NOT go on the Spongebob "4-D" ride. And she said the Conquistador "made her tummy hurt", and I think the Cave ride just creeped her out. But all the other ones she rode seemed to go over great. And she really liked my two former haunts - Chapparell (Old Time) Cars and the Log Ride.

Grace was a trooper and lasted until about 4:30pm (the park closed at 6pm). That was pretty good considering we left our house at 7am and got to the park a little after 8am. And then we got to have a fun dinner all together with Mom and Dad and Grandma Lu.

Now every time we drive by the park on the way to Ft. Worth, Grace can point out the tower and say that she's been on it. It's so much fun doing things for the first time with your kids. Hopefully they'll give all the former employees a free ride again in five years for the 50th anniversary; then both kids will be old enough to have a great time.