Six Flags-a dream realized and 1 lost kid

I took the kids to six flags with my sister in law. It cost me zero, zilch, zippo...Carli gave me their guest pass and the kids had passes they earned at school. I was nervous to go without Adam but Carli helped me out and watched Lochlan so I could take the kids on some of the bigger rides.

On the way to the park Celtin said "I hope we can go upside down, it has always been my dream to go upside down on a roller coaster." We found one they could both go on, but they got really nervous, after some coaxing we decided to go on Demon-a really big coaster that goes upside down a couple different times. I couldn't sit by both and they wanted to go at the same time so they sat by each other and I sat behind them. I sat behind Celtin so Anika could see me because she was the most anxious. The entire time I kept saying "It will be okay, keep your head back, your doing good, almost done". After the first loop she was fine and said "That wasn't so bad", but then we went into the corkscrew loop and she bonked her head and started crying. I couldn't see or hear Celtin so I kept asking Anika how he was doing and she would say fine. When it slowed down I yelled to Celtin "Are you okay" and he enthusiastically said "Yes." I asked him "How was it...did you enjoy living your dream?" He said he smiled the whole time and can't wait to ride it again. I kinda wish I could have seen his face through the ride but there is always next time.

After that we spent the rest of the day in the water park. Anika and Celtin went on the kid waterslides while Lochlan and I hung out in the kiddie pool area-the water is only about 6 inches deep with a little slide that he went down about 50 times. After they would go on a slide they would come check in with me but one time Anika came back alone...she didn't know where Celtin was. He didn't want to go on the green slide so he told her he was going to the blue slide. After he left she remembered they were supposed to stay together and went to find him, but she couldn't. I was stressed but tried to remain calm. By this point Carli had left and I didn't know what to do-I had to stay where I was in case Celtin came looking for me. I sent Anika to check the blue slide while I tried to hang onto a slippery 1 year old and pace back and forth trying to find him in the thousands of kids. After 5 minutes I thought "Great, now I lost both my kids." I turned around and walked back towards the center of the kiddie area and then I saw Celtin walking towards the water with a lifeguard. He was crying, I called him as I was walking towards him but they couldn't hear me until I was 5 feet away. I hugged him and he clung to me for the next 30 minutes. I am so glad he knew to find a lifeguard! She asked him what I looked like, but he didn't know how to describe me, so I had a discussion with my kids on how they can describe me and in the future before I send them off to play I will make sure they know what I am wearing. A couple minutes passed and Anika finally came back...she was running around everywhere looking for him...I think she thought it was her fault he was lost. :( We were all happy to be back together, it was almost time to go so we went over to the wave pool but it was closed so we just decided to leave.

Later that week we spent a day at our friends house playing in their kid pool, lounging, eating a totally kid friendly lunch and visiting. It was a super fun time and the kids loved it. I loved that I didn't have to stress about one of them getting lost.