Brave, Stupid or Seasoned?

I have an equation for you.  What do you get when you add 4 teens, 2 tweens, a disgruntled, vertically challenged 8 year old just getting over illness, a 6 year old thrill seeker, a meek Sunday drive style 6 year old,  2 battle hardened moms, 90+º F temps and the roller coaster capital of the world?

YOU GET THE WEASEL VACATION!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was the pinnacle of the annual Weasel trek to Lake Erie, the day the Weasels anxiously await year round........ the trip to Cedar Point Amusement Park. 

That's right, my dear friend and I ventured out yet again with 9 kids into 364 acres of thrills and insanity.  Don't worry, we are professionals and have a combined 38 years of trench warfare parenting experience.

We entered the park as soon as it opened and executed our game plan of fulfilling Monkey Weasel's life long dream of finally being tall enough tho ride the Top Thrill Dragster.  Monkey strong armed me pleaded with me to wait and extra hour in line in order to ride in the front car of this roller coaster of death that launches you via hydraulics from 0 to 120mph in 4 seconds in order to send you corkscrewing vertically up 420 feet, immediately followed by a vertical death spiral decent back down in 17 seconds of hoping you remembered to pay up your life insurance policy pure thrill and excitement.  They should really rename this thing The Near Death Experience.  Yes, I would ride it again.  It is pure awesome sauce with a side of Holy Crap!  Monkey Weasel however, swore off mega coasters for the rest of the day.



 With 9 kids at the park at one time, there is bound to be someone having a meltdown at any given time.  BFF and I could be decorated fire fighters, purely based on the number of fires we managed to put out in one day.

Our thrill seeker of a six year old was absolutely indignant at having to spend some time on the 'baby rides' with her meek counterpart.  She's too cool for school and wanted to feel the wind through her hair in the front seat of the Iron Dragon and felt the humiliation of being seen riding the Merry Go Round in the same way a teen would feel at being seen near their parents, complete with menacing stare and eye roll.  Not to worry though, she did get to ride the coaster of her dreams, in the front seat no less, before the day was out.

With all of our experience having herded cats taken this same crew to Cedar Point many times before, BFF and I were savvy enough to send the 2 teenage boys off on their own and bribe the 2 teenage girls with cold hard cash to take the kids on rides for a while so that we could go grab ourselves some ice cold beers and relax have some grownup time and ride a few things ourselves.

I had a good laugh when we were carded and BFF didn't have an ID with her.  Her oldest daughter is of legal drinking age, yet she couldn't get served a beer.  I did what any good friend would do pointed and laughed and bought one for her.  It felt reminiscent of high school.

A few more rides after meeting back up with the entire gang and it was time to stop for dinner.  Here is the best tip I can give you about Cedar point:  Right outside the park gates there is a Famous Dave's BBQ right at the marina.  You get to sit down and eat a real meal in air conditioning.  It is refreshing and relaxing and we can feed 11 people for $120, including tip.  That's about the same you can spend in the park on hot dogs, burgers and fries for 11.   Our waiter was Dave (sadly not the famous one) and he was fantasmic!   He patiently and laughingly took the orders of 11 picky eaters and got it all right.  He was fun and jovial and even let the kids take a picture of him wearing a sombrero that they had won inside the park.  We like Dave.  He deserves a raise.

After dinner was a few more rides, adventures and meltdowns to enjoy before the park was closing.  After a day of being extremely careful about the type of rides I personally would go on (as to NOT aggravate my back problems), I got on a small children's  ride with the youngest 2, one of which was too short to ride unless I rode with her.  Sure enough, it screwed up my back, bad.  That's embarrassing.   I can handle the colossal coaster of doom, but the 'baby rides' proved themselves too daunting.  I'm pathetic.

All in all, it was a great day of fun, sun and thrills and after a full day like that, today will literally be a day at the beach.