This weekend Brayden bravely faced a big adventure—his first trip to an amusement park! My parents and I took B to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, and we all laughed, screamed and ate to exhaustion.
I had an inkling Brayden would enjoy his first trip to a theme park. He is, after all, the cutest little daredevil this side of the Mississippi. (Just look at him catching major air in the pictures from Big Moves and Birthday Grooves or taking on climbing walls in American (Toddler) Gladiator). But even I didn’t realize how much fun he would have.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is a great park because in addition to three, large kiddie areas, they also have a great variety of marine and land animals. I wanted Brayden to get some zoo time in right away so we started our day with the stingrays, penguins and sharks.
The shark exhibit was particularly cool because you stand on a moving walkway through a glass tunnel surrounded by swimming sharks. I thought he might be a little scared at first but he wasn’t at all. He wanted to get in the water with the sharks!
After we at crossed off a bit of educational fun, it was time to show him the real appeal of Six Flags—the rides! I mistakenly thought little b needed to “warm up” to all this so we all took a group ride on the toddler train…
…but afterward, Brayden left us in the dust and made a beeline for the high impact kiddie rides.
Some we had to go on with him, like the fast swings, carousel, high drop ride and roller coaster. My parents and I took turns as the de facto “adult over 54” tall" and got our “whee!” on.
Since Brayden is taller than three feet, he was able to go on quite a few rides on his own. Again, crazy mommy over here wasn’t sure if he’d be game but Brayden barely even looked back at us. He was so, “Yeah, mom, I got this.”
One of the funniest moments was during the ride “Flight School” when Brayden had to pilot a plane. He didn’t get the whole “pull down to go up” and vice versa but it was hysterical to watch.
After a couple hours of rides and a proper theme park food court lunch, we wrapped the day up with more wildlife.
Brayden gave veggies to a giraffe with the looongest tongue ever,
…admired butterflies in a conservatory,
and fed fish to very loud, boisterous sea lions.
As a matter of fact, the only thing missing from this very full experience was nap. Yes, Mr. “I’m Wide Awake” rebuffed my attempts to try and get him to sleep in his stroller. Brayden has only ever missed one other nap in his life, last year’s Fourth of July. With the memory still fresh in my mind, I decided to abandon the idea of nap and blaze through the day without worrying about it.
(Note: If you haven’t read Independence (From Nap) Day, I highly recommend it. It’s a favorite of mine, and one of the most read ever on the blog.)
We left that afternoon and drove home to Reno with a crashed out, but blissfully happy, toddler.
When we got home that evening and we were getting ready for bed, Brayden and I had our standard quiet time rocking in the chair. And without even having to be asked, he said to me, “I had good adventure today mommy. I love you.”
I love you too, little b.
It was a precious way to end such a wonderful, long, fun day.
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