The rides!

Several times we've been to the park in my hometown, but we seem to always be there when the train is not operating. But on our last visit, we scored! Helen prepared for her first go-round by filling up on "ap-pul".



Connor prepared by practicing his "toot toot". At the end of the ride, the engineer let him pull the rope to set of the real horn. Very cool.



When we went to Worlds of Fun, Connor got to ride on my favorite ride, known in my house as "the log ride". It seems there's a variation of this at every big amusement park. It's the one where you take a boat that looks like a log, you ride along merrily, getting splashed a little bit, and then you climb up a couple of hills, come crashing down the second one at full tilt, and drench the big guy in the boat. Every other time I have ridden this ride, I have been the little guy who hides in the front of the boat. This time, I was the big guy. Connor loved it. Helen would love it, except we went on the ride in the afternoon and she was completely wiped out, and chose to nap in my mom's arms. My mom, of course, was grateful for this as she loves a good excuse not to get on the dreaded log ride. This, of course, is another way Helen is working her way into favorite granddaughter.



As you can see from this ride, the children's portion of the park was completely loaded with folks - or not.



And oh year, Helen was totally ready with "the wave" whenever a camera was near. This was good, because last time I took my kids to an amusement park, Connor was completely oblivious to the fact that my dad was taking his picture, and I'm not even sure he looked at the camera, let alone provide a wave.



Elaine