A Day in Kid Heaven

Last month, Anna and I joined my brother and his wife and their three kids on an all-day excursion to Salt Lake, which basically turned out to be an entire day spent in kid heaven.

First, we started out at the children's museum. Games were played, knowledge was increased, creations were . . . created. It was magical.

Waitin' on the customers

inside the helicopter, although you'd never know it was a helicopter by my amazing photography skills

Then we went out to lunch and got pizza and kid sundaes. (Let's be honest, I was also in heaven.)

After lunch, we headed over to Liberty Park, where the kids played at the splash pad in their clothes and then played on the super hot playground sets. (It turns out that was the only way to survive. It was 9,000,000 degrees that day.) For some reason, Anna sometimes likes getting wet in her clothes more than in her swimsuit. She must like feeling rebellious, or something. But I'd totally take this over stealing or drugs. Anyhow, she was delighted that I actually encouraged her to get her clothes wet. And it cooled her off nicely.

After some play time, we walked through the park over to the part with a merry-go-round, ferris wheel, and crazy-fast swing ride.

I rode with Anna and my niece Emme on the ferris wheel, and Emme was a little uncertain about the ride. She said anxiously, over and over when we got to the top, "I did not think this through. I did not think this through." She turned out to love it by the end, and Anna loved the whole thing.

Then, after a lot of questions from my other niece about the swing ride (how high does it actually go? how fast?), five of us decided to give it a go.

Now let me explain. I haven't always loved big amusement park rides or roller coasters. I had a pretty substantial fear of them until I finally decided to get over it around age 15. Even now I'll go on them, but they're not my favorite. But I do like swinging.

However.

I have known for some time that I may have reached the age where my equilibrium no longer enjoys swinging, making me a real adult, I guess. I still try it every once in a while, just to make sure, but these days it just kind of makes me want to throw up. So depressing.

Anyhow, the ride probably went faster and higher than any of us planned on, and my swing got turned around so I was flying backwards, so I spent most of the ride trying hard to not throw up. I really wondered how Anna was doing, since she had never been on anything besides a ferris wheel or two and a kiddie ride. But I shouldn't have worried. When I asked her how she was doing in the middle of the ride, she yelled, "This is the best ride ever!!!" She LOVED it. And I couldn't believe it. So I, the scaredy cat, yelled, "Then you're no child of mine!" So crazy. I don't know where she came from.

On our way home, and once our stomachs had returned to normal, we decided to take advantage of the free slurpies at 7-11 since it was, in fact 7/11. I had a lemon creme one, and it was fresh tasting and delightful.

By that time, we had to go home and rest from all the fun. It turns out that games and creativity + pizza + sundaes + splash pad + getting wet in your clothes + amusement park rides + slurpies = a magically fun and totally exhausting day for everyone.