Early Summer 2018: Part IV - Tour de Terrace Festival

At the end of July each year the nearby city of Mountlake Terrace holds a Tour de Terrace festival with an amazing fireworks show. Since the kids loved seeing the fireworks on July 4th, I wanted them to come see this show too. It'd be impossible for the kids to see the fireworks without also seeing the carnival rides, so I figured I might as well get them all day ride passes too. We worked out at the Shoreline YMCA in the morning then made it over there around 1pm.

Here's Tyler and Allison riding the boats

It's too bad they didn't open earlier in the morning because it was crazy hot with zero shade when we were there that afternoon. Oscar paid $3 for a bottle of water, which he never does, and he even took the leftover ice from some stranger's cup of soda and dumped it on his head.

 Allison loved the thought of the strawberry ride more than the actual ride. She was super excited about it and even wanted to do it again after it was all over, but she never seemed all that happy on it. I think it made her a bit too dizzy.

I'm so glad the kids got to ride on this pirate ship together and that I didn't have to do it this year. Tyler insisted I do it with him when we came 2 years ago, which was very nausea inducing. They often keep rides going extra long at these sorts of temporary amusement parks. I imagine it's to make it worth your money, but it often ruins the ride for me.

The kids loved the gator coaster! They were talking about it for a long time afterwards.

 Super slide with mommy! There were some rides that required an accompanying adult, so I got in line to get a ride pass when someone came up and handed me 10 tickets. They saved me $26! It was more than enough to cover the rides I needed to do with them, especially since the ride operators didn't always insist on a ticket. I'd often put my my hand in my pocket to grab a ticket and they'd just wave me on through.

Allison accidentally slammed into a wall in the house of mirrors then shortly afterwards got a friction blister on her knee while riding down the exit slide. She cuddled with daddy and he cheered her up with selfies while I rode a 42 inch ride with Tyler.

It was so nice to be able to go home and get the kids some downtime and a nap. That's not an option when we drive all the way down to Wild Waves at Federal Way.

Allison woke up from a long nap still seeming tired and miserable. Oscar offered to stay home with her while I took Tyler back to the fireworks, but I'd been getting her all hyped up for fireworks that whole week, so I didn't want to take that away from her. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to see the fireworks. We figured she'd be miserable at home or at the festival, so we all went back around 8pm to wait for the 10pm fireworks.

There was one ride we hadn't gotten around to earlier that Tyler really wanted to do with me. It was called Octopus, and we spent the entire 2 hours waiting in line for it. Oscar or I would stand in it while the other took the kids on rides. Allison wanted to do the gator coaster and strawberry ride, but then all she wanted to do was cuddle with daddy in line. I took Tyler on some of the bigger rides while they cuddled. He did great on the plunge ride. He seemed terrified during the drop, but when I asked him afterwards if it was scary or fun, he excitedly exclaimed "scary and fun!"

Octopus was a neat ride, but like many of the others, it was too long. I had fun for the first half then felt a bit queasy for the rest. Shortening it would have made it more fun and cut the line down significantly. Ty and I had a view of the fireworks from our ride as it unloaded. Ty and I were stopped at the top while others were being unloaded when the fireworks started. It was a neat view, but both of us wanted to be back with the family sitting in the lawn chairs we'd brought. I got a little lost trying to find them but we made it in the end and were still able to enjoy plenty of the show seated down comfortably.

Allison cuddled with daddy in the chairs, but then enjoyed the fireworks show and seemed back to her happy little self again once they were over.

It really is an impressive show! It's right in your face and the entire thing seems like one big finale.

The pic on the left was taken from the top of the octopus ride above the crowds.

We knew from our previous visit that it'd be difficult to get back to the freeway if we left right after the fireworks, so we stuck around a little bit longer since the carnival was open until midnight. Allison happily rode rides again, I loved seeing everything lit up at night, and we had zero traffic getting out.

See how much happier she looks! It was great to see her smile again.

We wondered if she was feeling better after seeing her smiling again, but alas, she was definitely sick in the morning. I kept her home from church while Tyler had fun with his primary class.

Fortunately she got significantly better throughout the day. Nibbler cuddles helped cheer her up that evening.