Mom/Abigail day at Great America

Abigail is my daughter at heart. She LOVES roller coasters and is often disappointed when we go over to Great America and we have to hang out in the little kid area. She's so ready for bigger rides. But, I usually don't have the option to do anything about it. We have the other kids who can't/won't go on the bigger rides so it leaves Abigail sitting on the kiddie rides, which she is DONE with. So, one Saturday morning the other three kids went to a birthday party and I took Abigail over to Great America for a little Mom/daughter bonding time on the rides. I also love roller coasters but Abigail put me to shame (if it matters to anyone at all except me, I had just run like 8.5 HILLY miles earlier that morning) so my legs were tired and I hadn't eaten very well.

Regardless of those facts, we set out to have fun and ride as many rides as she could handle or was allowed. Which turned out to be a lot. She is only not tall enough to ride 3 rides there. THREE! That just kinda surprised me. She's so little to be on some of those rides! But, she was happy and excited and ready to go. We started out on the big swings at the front. That was no where near the thrill she was looking for so we headed over to the Demon. She was nervous but she did it without hesitation. After the Demon was the Grizzly, which she LOVED. She was unfortunately, ok, not UNfortunate for me at all, too small to go on Drop Zone, which she whole heartedly wanted to do. After that was some Tiki Ride, which scared the crap out of me. It does NOT seem scary when you see it. It seemed like a more tame ride but I PROMISE you, you feel like you're going to get thrown like a frisbee off the ride. Holy crap I wanted off that ride. She, again, was in heaven. Then we went off to two, yes two, in a row, super duper spinny rides. Something called Centrifuge and something that should be named likewise but I have no idea what it really was cause I could barely see after all the spinning. Blech! Abigail decided after those two rides, it was time for lunch. And why shouldn't it be?? So we ate.

And after we ate, we headed over to Delirium. If it explains anything, during the ride at one point, Abigail looks over at me and calmly yells, "why are you screaming, Mom?" Then we walked over to the Revolution. Which apparently has a new name now. But that's what I grew up calling it so that's what I will call it for this post. The giant ship that goes around and makes you hang at the top. I could normally handle this but my stomach was not doing well after lunch and more spinning and twirling. No worries, readers, I hung in there. But I totally thought the little girl screaming was going to come from Abigail. Not from me. It's been awhile since I've been on some scary roller coasters---somehow my "love" of these things has shape shifted into "the mom who's afraid to die on rides and leave her children motherless the rest of their lives". Weird.

We ended on one last ride on the big swings only AFTER me turning her down to do some crazy human slingshot ride that costs $35! After paying for 5 people's season passes, we should be allowed to not pay for ANYTHING but apparently Great America doesn't agree with me. But, I was glad for the price. It gave me a good reason to say No. I was shocked, really, that she could go on this human slingshot but not allowed on Top Flight or Vortex. Again, weird.

All in all, we hung out for about 3 hours riding and playing. It was a fun day and I would totally do it again...even if it means my 7 year old making fun of me again. We didn't get many pictures, or even great shots, but here are 3 pics from our day:

Us in the car ready to head in


After lunch, she got a picture with...ummm...?? not Charlie Brown. Linus?


Getting ready for our last swing ride