Joyland!

We have a little fair-sized amusement park in Lubbock.  I always hear people give bad reviews of it, and I suppose if you grew up here and went to Joyland a few times a summer every year, I can see why you would be sick of it.  But the first time you go, lemme tell ya, it is pure magic.  The agency that we foster through, Buckner, has a foster parent appreciation there every year, and this is the first summer we were actually in town for it!  Ironically, we got a babysitter that night, so we didn't actually take any of our foster kiddos with us. 

The boys were soooo excited and talked about nothing else for days.  Ollie would waffle between extreme excitement and then suddenly decide it was all too much and declare it wouldn't be fun and we should probably just not go.  I haven't felt that level of excitement about anything in a good long while and it was fun to re-live the extreme anticipation through their eyes. 

Pizza before the gates opened!

 

Silly games and running around before the gates opened. 

Is it time? Is it time? 

 

Where the Fun is!!   

 

Our first ride!!  Bumper Cars!  Ollie's face was total glee until he realized the point of the ride was to smash into other people, then he was NOT a fan.  

 

Bumper car selfie!

The bumper cars were Seth's favorite ride, he returned to them two or three times.

 

From the bumper cars we took a left and walked down to this roller coaster.  This was probably a mistake, as it turns out all the younger kid rides were to the right.  Seth really liked it, Ollie declared it scary, and no one wanted to ride it again.

 

This is one of those big swing type rides.  The lady in charge of the ride had a mic and would ask, "who wants to go higher?!?" every few minutes and Jon told me later that Seth would say, "No thanks!" every time.  Haha! 

 

Next up was a smaller roller coaster, but it was super herky-jerky and rough on the turns.  Zoom in on Ollie's face, it says it all.  

 

Then we opted for the gondola, the slowest and longest gondola possible.  The boys pretty much declared it torture to be stuck on it so long.  We did get to see all the rides though, and made our plan for what to do next. 

 

 

Gondola selfie!

 

After a soda and water break we headed over to some rides that were more our size. 

Helicopters! 

 

Carousel! 

 

Semi-truck drivers! 

 

Then the boys spotted the log flume and I was really surprised that they both wanted to go.  After the big bad roller coasters, I figured they would stick to smaller rides for the rest of the evening.  This ride was a total blast though, both Ollie and my favorite of the night.  We went on it three times in a row, the attendant seating me in front, Ollie right behind me, and Seth in the back.  Seth was sweet and told me he felt bad for me for having to sit in the front on such a scary ride.  :)

 

After getting soaked on that one a few times, a train ride, and one more bumper car ride for Seth, sadly it was time to head home! 

 

Joyland, we'll be back!  I don't know if it will ever be quite the same, but we will be back!