Happy Birthday Matthew

And thanks SOOO much for letting us tag along for the birthday celebration -- we all had a GREAT TIME!!!

We spent last Saturday at Lagoon with Aunt Jeni, Uncle Brenden, and the whole clan. We realy had a great time. Besides the three of us, only Jordan had been to Lagoon before. And Matthew hadn't ever been to an amusement park. (I can't even imagine such a thing growing up in California and practically living at Disneyland, Knott's BerryFarm, and Magic Mountain -- especially when someone came to town.)

So not too surprising, everything was AWESOME, with a capital A for Matthew. The rest of us had fun, but I think it paled in comparison to Matt's fun (although his enthusiasm was contagious).

The first ride of the day after we found a locker and dropped off our blankets and cooler stuffed with chicken and water (not combined) was the newest ride in the park called Jumping Dragon. It was a bit and Matthew swears he was going to be propelled out of the seat with every turn of the ride. Thank goodness for safety bars.

After that, we made it over to another fairly new ride called Odysea (the picture below was tagged from the web, since we all were able to ride -- including Cole (with an adult). I had the camera but spent so much trying to keep Cole and me dry, no pictures.

But as you can see, we were no worse for the wear ... just a little wet.

We went on a few more rides although we were so wrapped up we apparently stopped taking pictures, so I've posted in more pictures from the web, most of Matthew's favorites (of the day).


Samurai (the kids were very brave for this one, especially because we did this one at dusk which intensifies the experience)


JetStar 2 (Speedly little roller coaster)


Spider (one of Teri's favorites) where the four man car spins on the tracks while going up and down through it's twists and turns. Matthew and Teri rode on this one together with Jeni and Autumn on the other side. Apparently Autumn kept her eyes closed almost the whole time. Whereas Matthew and Teri screamed hysterically between laughing fits.


Turn of the Century (big old swings that raises and rotates). Matthew rode with Teri again for this one and kwhile laughing kept repeating the phrase 'well this isn't so bad is it', over and over.

After a few rides, we headed over to Laguna Beach... sadly the camera didn't work at all with Teri in her swimming suit ..... Shawn, Jeni, Teri, Autumn, and Cole floated around the river (water temperature recorded at 70 degrees ... it was a nice day but cold water). Then Shawn, Brenden, Matthew, and Autumn took a few rides down the assorted water slides. We hung out inthe sunshine and warmed up and then headed back to the blanket and broke out lunch.

Once we were nourished, we realized some of the party wasn't nearly wet enough so we headed up to Rattlesnake Rapids -round boats spinning while floating down 'rapids'. Brenden, Teri, and Cole hung out on top. Hey someone had to take pictures!!

See how happy (and relatively dry) everyone looks... clearly they don't know about the water fall ahead.

Ah yes, the waterfall. See Aunt Jeni sacrifice (her daughter) to stay dry!!! Hey Autumn's little she likes the water and she'll dry fast! (see Jeni's pics for even better close ups!)

In fact, Autumn (and Matt) like getting wet so much, they went again - right away. Not a big line for the ride in the late afternoon ... hmm, wonder why? Uncle Shawn was a good sport and went with them

Yep, there's that waterfall again! I think Autumn may have been more wet than she was floating around the river in Laguna beach.

We decided to dry off and head over for some more traditional rides on the midway (like the scrambler and the tilt-a-wirl). Cole was enjoying some dinner so we were able to take some shots of the family loaded up. It had nothing to do with not wanting to be with Autumn, affectionately known as the screamer.

Brenden was the lucky rider... I can't tell, is he looking for ear plugs or an plotting his escape.


See the ride hasn't ever started, and she's nearly beside herself with anticipation ... Uncle Brenden too! But both clearly warmed up. (I couldn't get a picture of the others in motion, but I have lot of other pictures of other people who went swirling by - but just imagine similar looks!)

Jordan and Uncle Shawn are here waiting for a ride a ride called the Rocket that shoots the rider up 200 ft straight up in less than 3 seconds, the initial blast creates a force on the rider of 4.5 G upward and then 2 G downward (according to the web site)

It was a fun day and while we're old and exhausted by the end of the day - but we'll go with you guys again in a heart beat. Hopefully we can make it again before the end of the season.