Easter Weekend Extravaganza

Pam and I have had a hectic week with work, dealing with car troubles, and the usual of running the girls around to their various sporting events. So to make our life a little more hectic, we decided that a trip to Dallas would be in order. Pam's grandpa, BobBob has had a rough go lately and has found himself back in the hospital. Pam decided that it would be nice for us to leave a day earlier and go visit him in Abilene and spend the night.

We rode into Abilene in time to see BobBob and BJ in the hospital and bring them some dinner. After a nice meal and visiting with him a while we headed back to their house for a relaxing nights rest and to prepare for the big trip to Dallas. Pam's Aunt Jaye Nan has also been in town and helping out with BobBob being sick. It was also nice to catch up with her for.

Pam and I were both up earlier as neither of us slept much. Maybe it was the ultimate comfortable full size bed that we both jockeyed over position for; or maybe it was our pure excitement of getting to spend an entire day at Six Flags waiting in long lines to jostle our middle-aged bodies around on rides we should not be on while we pretend to be enthusiastic for the girls. Either way we pushed the girls to get ready so we could embark upon our adventure!

Being the one that wears the smart hat, Pam decided that we needed to load up on protein before we set out on the road. Since Chick-fil-A was close, we decided to get a to-go order so we could put the hurry up offense into full effect. The only issue was that Chick-fil-A did not hold up to its usual quick service as spent over 30 minutes waiting for our food. Once we got our food we pushed the girls into the car and were on our way!

The ride was uneventful other than the discovery that the car troubles that we have spent several days dealing with, will continue to have to be dealt with once we return. Beware Roger's Ford! You have officially made the Mama Bear mad. After a long winter of hibernating, it was unwise to wake her!

We finally arrived to Six Flags to discover that 96% of the rest of the population of Texas had the same idea as us. Luckily Pam had brought season passes the following year and the cut down on waiting in line to get in. We now would just have to wait in line for all the rides. While walking through the gate we were handed a brochure. Pam looked at me and gave me the nod knowing full well that we were headed to the parent of the year award since we now had official directions on how to get it.

I decided that we needed to hit one of the bigger rides first. The theory behind this idea was that the line would be shorter earlier in the day than it would be later on. So it was off to the Texas Giant to kick off our day of fun and amusement. It turns out that my idea was not one of my better ones since we officially had one ride under our belt after waiting in line for an hour an a half.


Being the motherly type that Pam is, she could tell the girls were starting to get cranky. The number one rule of thumb with the girls is that when they get their grumpy britches on it is time to feed them. Pam sprinted off to the local snack shack to get a pretzel with carnival cheese, a churro and the $20 refillable soda cup. Nothing makes parents happier than spending a bunch of money on their kids to see them smile with glee. We were tickled pink with AK's excitement!

After fueling up, the girls wanted another roller coaster ride. We waited in another long line to go on a roller coaster that was entirely inside and in the dark. The girls loved it and both Pam and I felt our brains were a little on the scrambled side. Pam had a great suggestion of having the girls go on a water ride alone. This allowed us to sit for awhile. It turns out the AK just needed to be soaking wet on a 70 degree day with the wind blowing to be happy!

With two soaking wet girls we made our way to several other rides only to find that they needed more fuel. Since we didn't get enough carnival cheese early, Pam decided we needed nachos and another pretzel. While she was in line AK saw the ultimate prize hanging and she knew that she had to try the ring toss so she could win Rigo a dream come true!

Unfortunately AK's ring tossing came up short and Rigo would have to wait another day for his prize. As the rides wore us down, Pam I found ourselves slowing up and wanting to leave. But Delaney was having no part of that idea. We dug into our old bag of tricks and we reverted to what all the great parents do, bribery! We decide to let them play some more expensive games and go on another ride before we called it a day. On the way out we were met by some super hero's for a final picture.

Starving and needing some none carnival food Pam drove us towards Steak n' Shake. We normally love some Steak n' Shake, but today they were off their game. Not only did it take a long time to get our food, but they messed up my order twice with no apology or a visit from the manager. I finally gave up and told them to forget my food. Boo on you Steak n' Shake. Your poor food preparation and lack of customer service has left me with no choice but to give you a low rating. On a scale of one to five sips of a milk shake, you earned one sip followed by a belch!

We went to check into the hotel so the girls could chill out at the pool and we could relax a bit. After eating carnival food all day, unlimited amounts of soda with our $20 cup, walking at least seven miles, waiting in lines no less than four hours, feeling dizzy, sick and roughed up from the rides, the Desparrois family crashed after being exhausted from a day of fun!