Lagoon

Last Friday Nu Skin had their employee summer party at Lagoon. I took my wife and kids, but we had an extra ticket we weren't sure what to do with it. I tried to call my mom to see if she wanted to join us, but she didn't answer her phone. Then I called my sister, but she didn't think her almost 1-year-old baby could stay very late (we were planning to stay until they closed) My sister was able to get a hold of my mom, and we worked it out that my mom would babysit while my sister came to Lagoon with us.



Traffic in I-15 in Utah County was awful, and it took us a couple of hours to get to Lagoon (we stopped in Provo to pick up my mom, and we also stopped in Bountiful to drop off my mom and pick up my sister). When we got to Lagoon I realized I had neglected to pick up the tickets that had been handed out for employees, so I had to go to the Guest Services office and plead my cause. They photocopied my drivers license and let us in. We ate dinner (provided by Nu Skin) and then started going on rides.



I have an extremely weak stomach, and most rides leave me feeling pretty nauseated. But I go on them anyway, because I enjoy them (even if I don't enjoy the after-effects). However, there are a few rides I refuse to do on. One is the Space Scrambler (which made me feel quite ill the last time I rode it) and now there is another ride on my list: the Centennial Screamer. Aubrey wanted to go on it, and no one else was willing to go with her. So, even though I was feeling pretty dizzy from some of the rides I had already been on, I agreed to go on it (and then regretted it). I felt sick the entire way home and didn't recover until the next morning.

One of my favorite rides is "The Rocket," which is basically a really long free fall with a soft landing. I went on it with my sister, and she was casually commenting on the beautiful view at the top while I was sitting in my seat petrified with fear. As soon as I began to fall I screamed so loud that my oldest daughter heard me (she was watching from the ground). According to her I screamed "like a girl," but I'd have to see the video footage to be sure.



Just before the park closed we were in an area with little kid rides, and we saw one that I thought looked kind of fun. There were some very young children riding it, and Gail asked Zach if he wanted to try it. I told Zach I would ride it with him if he wanted to go. He thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that he wanted to do it. The moment the ride began he became paralyzed with fear. I felt bad for him, but at that point there was nothing he could do but try to endure it. I reassured him as best I could, but at one point during the ride he screamed, "I can't believe this is a little kid ride!!!" The ride operator looked at us when he said that (we were the only ones on the ride) and I could tell she was trying not to laugh.



We were pretty tired when we left, and I was still feeling pretty sick from the Centennial Screamer. Unfortunately there was some construction work going on and the freeway narrowed to one lane, which caused a pretty serious traffic jam. We got home at 1:20 a.m. and I went straight to bed. The next day was a Saturday, and everyone was still so tired from our trip to Lagoon that they laid around the house all day, trying to recover. It was a pretty fun trip overall, but between traffic and nausea it definitely left me feeling glad that the next employee summer party is a year away!