Lily's Fun Day

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The day had come. Once a quarter, on each of my breaks, Lily gets a "fun day", where she gets to basically do whatever she wants for a whole day. Within reason of course :) For her Summer Fun Day, we had picked this day, Friday July 11. It was the last weekday before starting her new school! She had decided that she wanted to go to the North Pole, mostly because now that she had finally gotten over her fear of characters she was looking forward to an early visit with Santa! She had seen him once at school, but I wasn't there to see it, and in the picture she looked totally terrified. She would never go near him at the mall. We hadn't been to the North Pole since she was 2, and she had seemed so much younger then!

At 5:45am she bounced into my room, waking me up and proudly showing me that she was all dressed and ready to go! Unfortunately the North Pole didn't open for another 4 hours. She finally managed to drag me out of bed. We hung around the house for a while, then headed out for breakfast at Chick-fil-a. She usually gets an egg and cheese biscuit there, but decided to try it with sausage this time, and after tasting it couldn't figure out why she had never wanted it that way before! The lady at the register told us it was "Dress like a Cow Day" and encouraged us to come back for dinner. We didn't have any cow costumes, but I thought it might be fun to come back anyway. After eating she played on the playground there for a while and then we were off to see the elves!

We arrived around 9:30, about a half hour before they opened. There were already some people hanging out in the parking lot but I figured we might as well go stand at the entrance - we were the first in line! It was a bit of a wait, but soon there were lots of others there as well and we chatted a bit with some of them to pass the time. Finally the doors opened, we paid, and made a beeline for Santa's house (the only thing at North Pole that can have exceptionally long waits) Of course we were the first to arrive, and she went right up to him and sat in his lap! She didn't have any idea what she wanted for Christmas yet, but we got a nice picture. Something I had been waiting over 3 years for! Afterwards we talked about his outfit, and decided that must be his "summer wardrobe."

Lily wanted to ride the Paratroopers ride first - this was the ride she loved last time but I was nervous the whole time because she was so little then I was afraid she was going to fall out! I still can't believe how relaxed their height requirements are. This time I felt much more confident. And Lily squealed with delight throughout the whole ride! next we did the Sky Ride, a chairlift-like ride that makes a loop along the outer edge of one side of the the park. It made me think of the upcoming ski season...still a little ways off I know!

We did the Himalaya next, a ride that takes you very rapidly in a circle, first forwards, then backwards. This was Lily's first ever "thrill ride" when we came last time. We weren't ready for the Tilt-a-whirl yet, and the Peppermint Slide was still closed so we headed toward the back of the park, stopping for a drink at Mother Hubbard's Cupboard along the way. I couldn't believe how hot it was already! It was going to be a scorcher. We climbed the massive hill to the Dive Bomber and Space Shuttle - the Dive Bomber was completely empty so we did that one first and got a solo ride. It swings you in a circle - and your pod has a sail that you can move to catch the wind just right. We made some pretty cool moves.

She wanted to do the Space Shuttle, which is one of those rocking things - a lot of amusement parks have the same thing as a pirate ship, or dragon. Last time we came it made her tummy hurt, but I figured we would give it a try since we were here. It's really just a giant swing, and we all know how much she loves swings! I think this actually ended up being her favorite thing there - she screamed (happily) and laughed the whole time - said it made her "sizzle"! Then we went to the Farris Wheel. This is the world's highest Farris Wheel at around 7400 ft above sea level. And it is not a Farris Wheel for the faint hearted - perched on the side of the mountain, instead of a cage you are in a seat with a small bar across your lap, and it launches you with breathtaking speed into the air overlooking the landscape below.

There was a magic show starting soon so we walked over to the Showhouse Building to watch, and saw some pretty cool tricks and illusions. Afterwards we rode the Dive Bomber and Space Shuttle again, and Lily did some of the kid's rides in the Enchanted Forest section, including the kid's Farris Wheel (much tamer than the big one) and the Candy Cane Coaster. We had thought we would do Tilt-a-whirl on the way out, but decided that we should do it BEFORE eating lunch, so we headed back to the front of the park. On the way we decided to do the Paratroopers again, and by now the Peppermint Slide was open so we climbed the tower and sailed down on our flour sacks! Lily went two more times by herself, then finally it was time to get dizzy. After stumbling our way off of the Tilt-a-whirl we went back towards the Enchanted Forest for lunch at Miss. Muffet's. The seating was outdoors, but mostly covered and we got a table right by the stage where Rudolph was doing a show! After lunch we finished the Enchanted Forest, and then it was time to be heading out. We had agreed to meet Brian back at home at 2:00 and it was already 1:30. We stopped for some ice cream on the way and picked up her Santa picture before leaving.

Once home, we were so hot, and with a cold front moving in that night it seemed like the perfect excuse to go swimming! So we changed into swimming suits, grabbed the towels and headed to Wilson Ranch Pool! Brian was home from work so he came along. Once there it took us a few minutes to get our stuff situated and get everyone sunscreened - finally Brian and Lily jumped in the water. I snapped a few pictures and made a stop by the restroom - I was on my way to put the camera back and join them when they announced a 10 minute break. Rats - and I hadn't even gotten wet yet! Lily sat in my lap to cool me off for a while since she was soaked already! Shortly after the water was open again it started to get cloudy and noticeably cooler - that front must have been moving in already. Oh well. It still felt nice to not be melting.

After a couple of hours Brian and I were starting to feel like we had had enough, especially with it cooling down so quickly. Lily agreed to go ahead and leave if we could still make it to the 7:10 showing of Wall-E. It would be close, but I figured we could if we hurried. It was now around 5:00. We hurried home and changed clothes to make ourselves more presentable, and I bought our movie tickets online. We still needed dinner, and I remembered that it was Cow Day, so we stopped by Chick-fil-a. So many people were dressed in their cow atire, I felt bad that we weren't but it was fun to see anyway. Not only did Lily get a free stuffed cow, but it turned out to be s surprise Character meal - the Cow himself was there! Wow, with rides and characters it almost felt like we were back at Disney World....almost.

We munched down our food quickly after meeting the Cow and headed for the theater. Even though we had just eaten, it isn't a move without popcorn and candy so we had to stop and the concession stand. We actually ended up having plenty of time, and the theater wasn't very crowded at all when we went in. We sat on the top row! It ended up being pretty full by the time it started, I was glad we got there early enough to get good seats. The movie was very cute - Lily wanted to know if the robots were going to marry afterwards! She was pretty worn out and of course fell asleep on the way home. Who could blame her, we had had quite a day!