Playland!

Today was Playland day! Every year, James' work does a social event for employees and their families at Playland. Can't go wrong - all day ride pass, game tickets, burgers and ice cream for only $10! The boys had so much fun. We got there after the boys woke up from their naps, so we arrived around 4:00. We headed to the rides right away. The first was the cars.

Next we headed to the motorcycles. Unfortunately, you have to be between 36 and 50 inches to ride it. So Adam couldn't ride alone and James and I couldn't go with him. Here's his sad little face while Daniel was on the motorcycles. We made sure to distract him for all other rides that Daniel could go on that he couldn't.

Next was the train ride. Adam loved the "woo woo," as he calls the train.

The helicopters were next.

The really big slide was a lot of fun. James went on most of the rides with the boys, since everything said that one should not go on rides if you are inflicted with such conditions as heart problems, back pain, pregnancy... :) This one, especially, James didn't think would be good for me. He had problems fitting at the top of the slide - he didn't think I'd be able to sit down comfortably up there!

And then we made it to the kiddie roller coaster. Daniel must have ridden that thing five times in a row. He loved it! Adam didn't know what to think the first time. By the second time, he was screaming and completely freaked out. You can see James covering his face in the third picture! Adam and I hung out and watched Daniel and Daddy continue to ride the coaster for the next few times. Finally, it was about 6:00 and we needed to get our dinner. Daniel was not too impressed to be leaving his favourite ride, though. Can you see the thrilled look on his face in every single picture?

We finally got away from the roller coaster and went over for a dinner of burgers, hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches. We timed it perfectly - soon after we sat down under the big tent and started to eat, it started to POUR rain. It was a huge downpour! We were definitely not prepared for rain since it was very hot and sunny when we left the house. But the boys didn't mind because they had ice cream!

Once the rain subsided a bit, we ran over to the midway to play some games. It was great, since James is on the social committee at work. He got a bunch of extra "game bucks" so we had $20 to spend on games. The boys cleaned up. They eat won three prizes (they each got a stuffed mouse, a stuffed turtle, Daniel got a stuffed lamb and Adam was thrilled with his pencil!). They really liked the horse racing game, which was kind of like playing pinball and getting the ball into the right hole made the horse move faster. I thought the names of their horses were quite appropriate!

Once the rain stopped, we headed back out to the rides again. A lot of rides were closed because it was too wet, but we managed to get on the merry-go-round.

James then decided to take Daniel on the Scrambler. That kid is a daredevil - he loved it! Adam didn't mind at all that he wasn't allowed on that ride.

After two times on the Scrambler, we looked up at the sky only to see that it had turned so dark and we were having an amazing lightning storm. I don't remember ever seeing a storm like that and it was really close to us. So we quickly packed ourselves up and hurried ourselves back to the van before that lightning got too close. It felt like it was right on top of us - it was a little scary!

(Not the greatest picture, but it gives you a good idea of what the sky looked like.)

Overall, it was a really fun day. James said it was his best day ever at Playland - it wasn't hot, he didn't have to wear sunscreen, there were no lineups because everyone went home because of the rain, we won lots of free stuff, we got a great deal on tickets and didn't have to spend a lot of money and we got to see a cool light show. And we had a great time. What more could you ask for?