Ultimate Memory Maker: Lagoon!

Lagoon is one of those places I remember going every Summer when I was growing up. It's a place I looked forward to taking my family to when they were big enough to ride the rides. Then I saw how expensive it had become and I no longer had that dream, haha. I also am one of those that doesn't love that they have the animals in cement cages and didn't want to give them my money if it wouldn't help that.

Well, I had been thinking about taking them this year as a one time thing. I was hoping to get a Get Out Pass that would've been a decent discount and I could convince myself that the money just went to the other venues, and not Lagoon. THEN a story came out saying they were going to re-home the animals elsewhere and I felt MUCH better about getting the tickets. I still don't love how much they cost, but figured we'd be using our usual vacation funds towards it so it didn't feel like we were spending anything extra on it. I even decided we'd do it on a Wednesday so that the crowds were light and we'd get more bang for our buck. I talked Larry into taking the day off with us so I can ride some big rides as well, he was hesitant at first, but we made it work.

It ended up being such a fun day! We got there bright and early and stayed until we couldn't do anymore. the lines were really short (I think our longest wait was Primordial, but I think that one just kept breaking down while we waited, which made it take longer). We even packed a bunch of snacks so we didn't need to spend money on the food (although looking at the food prices, they really aren't as bad as they used to be).

I was really happy I could do the spinning rides, the last time we went I tried to do them and got so sick and hated that I couldn't do too many rides if we did go. This time, though, I found that if I didn't look outside the ride too much I could handle it just fine. Cara and Gwen were so brave and did some of the bigger rides and seemed to like them. Cara said Wicked was scary, but that she wanted to do it again, haha. Pierce became obsessed with the haunted house rides, he just wanted to do those over and over and would have a melt down if we told him to wait (even though he did like the other ones we had him try). Poor Lucy was asking all day long to ride the Ferris Wheel, and I told her (over and over) that we would when we were in that area. Then when we got there, we saw it was shut down because they were waiting on some parts. So that was a bit of a bummer. She did let me rock her on the Roll-O-Planes ride though, so I'm glad she was brave there. Gwen always wanted to ride with me so on the bigger rides Cara had to ride solo (since Larry was with the smaller two). However, on the rides we could do as a family (which were actually quite a bit), Cara and Gwen would ride together while Larry and I took Lucy or Pierce. 

One of my favorite pictures!

One thing I was excited to take them on was Rattlesnake Rapids, they all loved getting wet (although I did have to protect Lucy since she's our little sensitive one). When we got off the ride, we sat out in the sun to dry off (and re-apply sunscreen) and the kids loved being at the fence/gate area watching the people on the ride about to go under the waterfall and warning them by yelling out "be prepared to get wet!" haha.

They really wanted to do the waterpark, but, unfortunately, we didn't end up having a lot of extra time for that. That was a bit of a bummer, but it's okay, we can go to other waterparks/pools through the rest of the summer.

I also loved that we got a chance to try the new rides (two in Pioneer Village that were really fun and Primordial). Primordial probably would've been more fun for me, but I lost my hat right at the beginning (right as the actual coaster part starts). I was so bummed because even though it was just a random hat, and I have a million others that work just as well, that one is my absolute favorite and is my go-to hat anytime we leave and I need one. BUT I got really lucky and as we were leaving the ride area and going through the gift shop (I was going to head over to the lost and found to see if they could call me if it's found and I'd come back to grab it) when I heard Cara say "look! It's Mom's hat!" I thought she meant she found one that looked like it in the gift shop, but then I saw her holding my actual hat (it's from Universal Studios so it's not one you'd find in a gift shop at Lagoon). Apparently, it was on the ground right outside it! What are the odds? I felt VERY lucky haha (and happy that it was found and I could take it home).

The day was going SO well I even was talking to Larry about maybe getting a season pass for next year (I've heard Black Friday has great deals on them and if we go one Sunday a month it would be MORE than worth it and I wouldn't stress about lines or wait times). I'm not sure if that'll happen, but we'll check it out. Of course, Larry was only like "eh" about that because he was DONE by the 2nd half of the day. He was over the heat and lines and everything, poor guy. 

The only bummer part for me was I started getting a headache. I noticed it was REALLY bad when I took the girls on bigger rides. I had noticed that Samurai had a very short line and that's my favorite ride, so after planning to take Cara on some bigger rides (that Gwen wasn't big enough for) I told Larry I was going to do that one last and then we could leave. Well then I took Cara on Cannibal and I got pretty anxious about her falling out and my head was feeling like it was about to explode. So when we got back to Larry, I told him let's call it and I was ready to go get ice cream and head home.

When we got to Pioneer Village, we noticed some friendly Peacocks that were hanging around. They weren't even remotely scared of the people walking around, so we got to get pretty close to them. And by the time we got our ice cream and sat down to watch them more, I noticed my headache was completely gone. So I assume it was more a stress headache with the kids on the big rides than anything. 

Overall, a great day as a family and it made me realize, you don't need to do big vacations, just going somewhere new and/or fun should be enough. We're not sure if we'll be able to do vacations next year (something big is in the works so we'll see), but if we can't, at least we know we can have a lot of fun staying close to home! AND I'll plan to make up for missed vacations in the years after that haha.