SPOOKY FRIGHTMARES DELIGHTS

I've obviously never been to Frightmares, which is Lagoon's Halloween adventure. I've always heard it is kind of scary and it never interested me. After having the season passes though I kept hearing how fun Frightmares is, and how it is a lot less crowded and how it also has stuff for the kiddos so I was excited to see what it was all about. I do enjoy seeing all of the clever things people can come up with for this holiday that I am starting to actually come around to liking...

Our first visit was with Asher and Lindsey on Friday September 30. Stella was way nervous about the scary things that were going to happen to her, but she warmed up to it right away. We loved all the fog and the decorations when we walked in. She took on the baby ride that had scared her all year, Ladybug Bop. And she loved it. She also loved riding the Music Express and The Spider for the first time too. She is getting so brave, I can't believe it. She still would scream when we saw a scary person walking around, but I think she secretly kind of loved it. Another thing that was great about Frightmares was the kid walk-throughs, the kids loved going through the kid mazes and getting candy and treats along the way.

We ended the night with the kids riding the Tilt-A-Whirl while Lindsey and I got in line just in time to ride the bumper cars and there were only two other people riding it at the same time as us. It was pretty hilarious and a really fun way to end the night.

On Saturday October 8th, we went with Ava and Finn. It was SO FREAKING BUSY. Like crazy. Nothing like I had seen all year. Some lines were completely impossible. We did still have a really fun time and the kids had fun. Stella was able to share the Music Express with Ava and they were so cute riding it together. Finn was a bit unsettled by the scary elements. At one point we were over by the zombie haunted house and the girls were having the best time walking over to the zombie cage and then screaming, giggling, and running away when the zombies would escape. It made me not as worried about Stella being scared of the dressed-up characters, so when I promised her no one would scare her when she got in the coffin for a picture and then a vampire came and hissed behind her she jumped sky high! She HATED it and started crying. I felt kinda bad because I didn't feel bad at all. I sort of thought it was hilarious. Finally the crowds got to be just too much and our last ride was to go over the park on the Sky Ride. Finn did NOT want to get off and his auntie had to carry him out of the park kicking and screaming for his mommy. He was just tired and we decided that even though it was so exciting to go to Lagoon (when he saw it that morning he yelled "Lagoooon!") the next time we came, we were coming without him.

We made plans for a Friday night visit on October 15th. It was a really fun time. It was busy, but not impossible. And Lindsey finally had a friend that would walk though the haunted forest with her. Stella refused to go and I wasn't going to make her. Overall, it was just a warm and fun night.

So I would have been happy to end our amazing Lagoon season right there, but Stacy told me that she and Gracy were going to be there with Tex. I knew it was going to be crazy busy, but I thought it wouldn't cost us anything to go so we decided to go. I invited Brent and he totally shocked me by saying he was interested in coming with us. His ticket was going to be expensive, but I figured we had gotten our money's worth and THEN some already so it was ok with me. Stella was SO happy to have her daddy with her. She was sure that if she could just get him on one ride, he would remember how much fun rides are and it would change her and his whole life. It didn't quite work out that way but it was a really fun night together.

The park was the busiest I had ever seen it. We almost couldn't even find a place to park way out in the field. It was kind of insane. I was just glad that we had had the summer to go on all of our favorite rides and it didn't matter about lines anyway because there was no getting Brent on any rides...no siree!

We met up with Tex and Stacy and it was fun hanging out. Tex also doesn't really like the rides so I was happy to go on the White Roller Coaster one time with Stacy. I'm glad I got to go on it one more time this year. Stacy was also really scared of Ladybug Bop, she wouldn't even open her eyes, it was hilarious.

Brent was serious about trying food. The whole year I think I had only bought one pizza and Brent had chicken and then a funnel cake. We then headed to Tidal Wave, Gracy had never gone on it and Stella wanted to share the excitement. I couldn't get Brent to go on it. He kept reading all of the warning signs about how it looks like a gentle ride, but it is actually a ride that makes you feel weightless sometimes. Anyway, I wasn't going to push it.

We broke off with our friends and Brent agreed to ride Puff the Fire Dragon, a ride for tiny children. He thought it would be no big deal for him, but the moment we went down the first hill he put his face down in terror. It was hilarious, so of course I videoed him "enjoying" the rest of the ride. It was kind of mean to laugh at him, but he actually thought the video was great. He did go on the bumper cars after that and liked them, so he did like one ride.

He then let Stella do the one thing I never let her do that she wanted to do so badly and that was play some games. It was insanely hard for me to sit there and watch her blow $20 bucks in no time at all and have these lame toys to show for it. But she loved it and is still snuggling one of her winnings every night almost a month later so I guess it was fine.

The last thing they did was Brent bought tickets for Stella to drive the race cars. Something else she had been wanting to do. It was so late by the time they made it on and Stella was exhausted, but so happy. It was a really fun night as a family and I am so glad Brent decided to go with us even though a night I thought was going to cost me zero dollars actually cost me almost $100. Worth it though.