Fun with friends

My friend, Amy, and I decided last minute to take our children to Six Flags today. Our children all get along with each other, especially Gillian and Mary, who are exactly the same age. Their birthdays are on the same month, too. Gillian says that Mary is her kindred spirit friend. I feel the same way about Mary's mom. James and Zoe were inseparable as always. And Jefferson had a grand time with Caleb. All of the children enjoyed Uncle Abe's company, and I treasured his help. We truly had a fantastic time, getting on rides, laughing, eating, and talking. The weather was refreshing and wonderful, the rides were thrilling, the children were all well behaved, and the shows were all entertaining. We were impressed with the Killer Whale's graceful moves,
and we were taken back by the magnificent beauty of the tigers. The children especially enjoyed the tigers' act of diving into the water to catch their meal. I really liked seeing for the very first time a white tiger up close and personal, well as close as it gets with a glass divider.

Gillian and Mary were fearless. They wanted to try all of the scary rides. Amy and I would get sick just by looking at other people riding in them. We did allow them to ride on some family rides. Gillian's favorite was the Scatabout. She said that she felt she was being twirled as fast as the speed of light, and she loved it.
The boys joined them in some of the mild rides. Amy and I smiled at the fact that our girls are the feisty ones, and our boys are the sensitive ones. I love nothing more than a strong girl, and I'm so glad that my one and only girl is all power and determination, especially when I know that I have three sweet boys to fall back to when that powerful girl of mine will reach teenage years.


My favorite ride was the this one where all of our kids occupied all of the seats. Isn't it wonderful to have marvelous children that fill your lives with such happiness and joy!

The children's favorite ride was one of the water slides.

They wanted to do it over and over again, but we kept distracting them by taking them to other nearby rides. I told Amy that when we came with Elijah the first time, we stayed at one particular area the whole time we were there, and that was very manageable. But today we had been all over the map. We had seen many shows and tried many rides for the younger children and then for the older ones, we had seen many live animals and we had let the children play at the enormous playground, the children had emptied our back backs, previously full of food and water, and they had shared their food and jokes and laughter with one another. It is exhausting when you think of it, but we truly had a grand time. I will truly miss my children when they go back to school, but for now I'm enjoying every minute of my time with them. Aren't these kids beautiful and full of personality?!