Fathers' Day Remembered

2010-06-20 Sunday

Happy Father's Day!

We went to Dutch Wonderland! Think Enchanted Forest. Think Disney. Think, electric powered, full-motion water cannons and Evil Five Year Olds.

M and J went on a quick coaster ride. It was fast enough that they got smooshed together on the curves, but not so fast that M didn't get sick. It was kind of too fast to be romantic.

M and J reconnected with Aunt M, Cousin D, and A back at the Frog Prince show. This was a diving show, featuring three guys in frog costumes leaping into a deep pool to Renaissance Knight Music. Insert Wicked Magician here, and obligatory splashing of the audience by a frog using the Old King as a target. Luckily, a quick fetal curl around the digital camera saved it.

Then we went to a portion of the park that provided Very Large Water Guns for small children to practice their marksmanship with. This place was an oasis of gushing opportunity for the wicked. While every song ever sung by The Beach Boys played. Loudly. "...Do you love me, do you, surfer girl..." Of course, A loved it; probably because he found another Evil Five Year Old, and they poured water on younger children.

We took many turns down water slides. Along the way out we stopped at various carnival rids. On the carousel, J tried to recapture the romance of the Playland Carousel with M, A insisted that his horse had gone the fastest, and M worked hard to not throw up.

When the day was over, A and Cousin D fell asleep leaning on each other in Aunt M's van (sorry no picture). They woke up twenty minutes later almost fully re-charged.

The evening ended back at Aunt M's, when J suggested that "Snap" would be a less violent card game than "Slapjack." He was wrong.

A was disappointed when we didn't go back to Dutche Wonderland the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that.

A day-trip to Thomas

Grandma J and Grandpa H recently funded a trip to see Thomas the Tank Engine.  A was very excited to go and spoke about the impending trip for a week.  

The trip to the city where Thomas was was a long one.  Luckily, A managed to get a bit of a nap before the crinkling of potato chip bags woke him from his slumber.

A likes his new car seat, and spoke about it about as much as seeing Thomas.

Along the way to see Thomas, we stopped for a picnic.   The setting was idyllic.  A ate a lot.

It was pleasant to get out of the car, as the trip one-way was a little under three hours.  

Originally, A wanted to wear his pirate costume on his visit to Thomas.  However, these plans were thwarted by his own tiny body.  We're not quite sure why, but about ten minutes before we pulled into the parking lot for the Thomas extraveganza, A threw up.  I think "geyser" would be the right word to describe what was happening.  The volume was incredible.  

Fortunately for the car, A's brand new car seat -- er -- acted as a bucket.  But the pirate costume was drenched.  At the parking lot, M cleaned A and I disassembled the seat so it could air out in the 85 degree weather outside of the car.

The parking attendant was extremely helpful and even radioed in someone with a garbage can.

We must have asked A about a hundred times how he was doing.  He said he was fine, so we entered the Thomas area and then stood in line to board Thomas's train.   About this time, the temperature really picked up (or else the humidity), with the result that Grandma and Grandpa kind of slowed down and A became quite flushed.  

Finally, we boarded the train.  Somehow A acquired a balloon animal, and spent a large portion of the train ride chewing on it.   The ride itself was 30 minutes, with a good view of a local river.   I hadn't expected the pre-recorded Sodor Island Children's Choir to be singing snappy songs the entire trip, but I should have.

After the ride, A and M got to speak with the engineer of the diesel locomotive which did the real work of moving the train.   Then we went up to the "front" of the train for photo opportunities with Thomas (and Grandpa). 

Grandma and Grandpa found a shady spot (and water) and A continued to find photo ops -- this time with Sir Toppham Hatt (aka "The Fat Controller").  Sir Toppham got his knees hugged by A when they were through, which elicited a heartfelt "Aw!" from all the staff.  

There was lots to do (or at least stand in front of).  A managed to get some play time with all the toy trains there (the grandparents were taking the equivalent of a nap under a concessions tent).   The day was winding down, and I began to notice that other families were hitting the "pre-dinner toddler-jags."    I was getting pretty hungry, myself.

So we gathered up and headed for the exit gate.  We decided that it was a nice experience, but that next time we'd wait for Thomas to come a little closer to home and we'd make sure to get good seats in the caboose.  

We got A's car seat back together (it didn't smell too bad after two hours in the dry, windy weather) and drove off to find food (and just in time, because a half and hour later a huge thunderstorm hit the area with lots of rain and lightning).

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We figured A had some kind of kid's stomach flu, because I caught it the day after we got back, and M caught it a few days later.  Luckily, neither of us threw up (although I had full-body burps reminiscent of Mt. Vesuvius).