Hunt/Anderson Family Reunion at Silverwood Themepark

During a trip to Utah in April 2018, I was in the family room at Oscar's parents' house while his sister Emily was talking to someone else. While there I overheard Emily say something along the lines of 'the kids keep asking me 'when are we going to go to Disneyland?' I don't know. Probably never..." They had six kids 9 and under, including an infant, and Disney is crowded all year long and ridiculously expensive. Even if money weren't an object, a trip like that with multiple little ones would still be an enormous hassle.  It's difficult to travel anywhere, even just to visit family, when you have that big of a group to lodge, feed, transport, and keep entertained.

Though I'd feel the same way had I been in her position, what she said really hit me that day. I felt sad for our nieces and nephews since themeparks were a big, exciting part of my own childhood, and I felt a little guilty since we'd already taken our small children to Disneyland, Universal Orlando, Lagoon, and Wild Waves. As I mused on this I remembered that while Oscar was growing up also in a family of six kids, his uncle Dale would fly each child out to his home in southern California and take them for a trip to Disneyland the year they turned 10. We'd felt for some time that we'd like to pay it forward and give our nieces and nephews something similar to look forward to whenever we had the means to do so. At that point I'd just had a miscarriage from our first frozen embryo transfer, but we still had a chance to have another baby with our final frozen embryo. That attempt was going to be completely out of pocket, so taking a cousin to a destination themepark with us probably wasn't on the immediate horizon.

Months passed, our FET cycle failed, and the $4000 we'd just spent was definitely going to prevent us from visiting any sort of resort that required an airplane, rental car, and hotel stays. However, our friend Wray had recently moved to Helena, Montana, and I'd heard good things about Silverwood Themepark, which is located about halfway between us and Helena. I knew Oscar missed his running buddy and wanted to run a race with him again, so I suggested we drive to Montana and visit Silverwood Themepark on our way back. Now that I wasn't pregnant and wouldn't be getting pregnant, I really wanted to take a road trip to a themepark with my kids, something that wouldn't have been very enjoyable while pregnant or with a needy newborn.

We did visit Silverwood, and I loved it immediately! There's a nice charm to it as soon as you walk in. It has some great thrill rides, plenty of family and kids' rides, and there's a fabulous waterpark too. We thoroughly enjoyed our two days there, but we weren't able to do everything we wanted to do since our kids needed a significant break from the stimulation both days. I figured we'd have to spend 3 days there to fit everything in next time. Buying our previous tickets online automatically signed me up for their promotional email, and in November I saw an advertisment offering early bird season passes for only $99. That's less than a 3 day ticket, so we went ahead and purchased them.

This past April we visited Utah again during Tyler's spring break, but it was a bit of a letdown. The weather was rainy and dreary, Oscar's parents were busy, and we didn't get a whole lot of time with cousins since they were still in school. Emily's kids all contracted RSV that week, so our time with them was even more limited. I wanted the kids to have a bit more time with family, but our next break wasn't until June 26th, and we really don't like trading our lovely PNW summers for high 90's and hundreds in Utah. Our kids aren't used to that kind of heat, and Tyler especially sunburns easily. When we have visited, they end up spending far too much time sitting around the house with air conditioning. I have to make them to go outside.

I started brainstorming ideas about somewhere we could meet up with Granny and Grandpa Hunt in the summer when I remembered we had Silverwood passes. I also remembered that they'd brought the oldest Anderson cousins with them when they went to the Flinders Family reunion in Walla, Walla. Since that's a fairly comparable drive for them as driving to Silverwood, I asked if they'd want to meet us there and if they'd feel comfortable bringing some cousins along with them. By now we'd recovered financially from the cost of our out of pocket embryo transfer, and we didn't have to worry about any children younger than Allison. Now it was doable, now we could afford it, now was our chance to pay it forward like Oscar's uncle, especially since their oldest had turned 10 years old that year. The kids might have been asking for Disneyland, but I imagine that's only because it's what their friends are talking about. As far as I knew none of these kids had ever been to a themepark of any kind. For a kid who's never been to a themepark, Silverwood would be just as fun as Disney (and a LOT more affordable).

While granny and grandpa were thinking about it I got on Silverwood's website to research ride height requirements and hovered over a tab that says "contests and fun." Along the menu something called "Family-A-Day" caught my eye. I clicked on it and saw "Do you have a family in mind that deserves a fun-filled day at Silverwood Theme Park? Enter that family into our contest and they could receive some well-deserved tickets!" Now I rarely enter contests since the chances of winning are slim and I don't like inviting more advertisements into my email, but this wasn't just a random drawing. This one allowed me to write a couple paragraphs about why I thought a family deserved free tickets. I immediately thought "wouldn't it be great if Emily's entire family could all come to the themepark?" I wrote a condensed version of what I've just explained here, and within 2 days I got an email from a representative saying they'd won the contest! I was so excited I ran up to my husband in tears! We didn't have to pick only 2 cousins. They'd all get to go, even their parents!

I asked the representative if I could have a couple days to get some things figured out before they sent Emily's family their winning email. I highly doubted they'd ever heard of Silverwood. I worried if they got an email saying they'd won free tickets to some random place in north Idaho they'd just assume it was spam and delete it. We told Oscar's mom first to see if they could commit to coming and helping out with the kids. Once we had them on board, Oscar called Emily's husband Ryan and Ryan told Emily. It took a while to set some dates and have a plan in place, but once we did they shared the news with their kids. Here's how they reacted.

Dylan's enormous gasp when she says they're going to spend two days there is my favorite part!

They won one free day, but we all decided it'd be good if they had a little more time to really take it all in. We wanted to go as soon as possible, but Tyler had school until Tuesday the 25th. The original plan was for them to leave Monday, stay a night in Butte, Montana, arrive Tuesday, and go to the park Wednesday and Thursday. However as the date got closer and the weather forecast became more accurate, Thursday looked like it'd be rainy and cooler (67 degree high) while Tuesday and Wednesday looked warm and sunny. Even Wednesday was a little iffy with a decent chance of thunderstorms in the late afternoon, so I recommended they come to the park as soon as they could on Tuesday and take advantage of Silverwood's discount admission after 4pm. Oscar's parents generously offered to cover our lodging, and we booked a house on airbnb that would house all 14 of us.

We let Tyler miss his last day of school for a family reunion and left around 8:45am. While driving we informed him he'd be allowed to stay up late with cousins if he got a nap (he would have stayed up late anyway, but at least he got a nap!).

Our family arrived around 3:15pm and went right to the waterpark. I don't have many pictures since I was busy taking Allison around the lazy river, but here are the kids sunbathing while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Oscar caught a butterfly on his finger.

We stayed at the waterpark until it closed at 7. Bonnie didn't have anything to change into, so I let her borrow Allison's extra outfit. This became a trend for the trip. She wore something of Allison's everyday after that.

From there Grandpa Hunt and I took the kids on a few rides over at  Garfield's summer camp while Oscar ordered pizza and Ryan and Emily got their little ones changed and taken care of. We started off on the butterfly swing. Bonnie was not a fan, but everyone else loved it.

Then we went over to the froghopper. It allows for one adult, and we had 6 kids, so I got to ride with them too! Bonnie didn't want to go, but Grandpa told her he'd give her $10,000 if the ride crashed to the ground. She wasn't a fan and I held her hand the whole time, but she made it through.

Oscar texted to let us know the pizza was ready so we walked back to the restaurant. Two pizzas was pretty much perfect for our group. Dillan and I had finished before some of the others and asked if he could go do Aftershock. I took him down and we ended up doing Aftershock, Spincycle, and Panic Plunge before Ryan and Oscar caught up with us at Tremors while everyone else went on kids' rides. Dillan was getting a bit motion sick by then, so I took a cue from grandpa and told him I'd pay him $20 if he threw up (he didn't).

On our way out we got ice cream, Allison cuddled with granny, and the kids had fun running through the big tunnel leading out to the parking lot.

The next morning the kids played at the house before we left for Silverwood around 10:45am. We'd picked this house largely because there was a fenced in back yard with a small playground and sandbox. We wanted it to be somewhere granny and grandpa would feel comfortable staying with the little ones. James, Joseph, and Allison stayed until after their naps then arrived at the park around 4:15pm. I have to admit I felt guilty about Allison missing out on the fun we were having, but I was also relieved not to have to worry about her running off, and I knew she'd have more fun staying there until 9 if she got a nap than if she didn't.

We decided to do the water rides in our swimsuits and then continue getting wet in the waterpark. We had a huge load of clothes to change into and a packed lunch, so Emily and the kids rode the carousel near the entrance while Oscar and Ryan took all our stuff over to Boulder Beach. Bonnie wore Allison's extra shirt since I was a little concerned that the dress she'd brought would be too hot and that they'd insist she have a shirt on over her swimsuit.

From there we all did Thunder Canyon. There were 9 of us but only 8 could fit on the same boat, so I went on the one before them then took a few pictures as they arrived. We started walking over to the bumper boats after that, but Justin, Mary, and Tyler wanted to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl. I was the only adult willing to do it with them, and Tyler and Mary couldn't do it without an adult since they were under 48 inches. They loved it and wanted to do it again, but I told them "no." I was up for exactly one ride on Tilt-a-Whirl. The motion sickness didn't get to me as much as the last time I rode it, but I wasn't going to push things with a 2nd ride.

While the boys waited in a long, slow line for the bumper boats, Emily got in line for the ferris wheel with Bonnie and Mary. Bonnie didn't want to do it so I took her over to the Climbing Trees play area.

Mary rode the helicopters then joined the boys in line while Bonnie made a friend and rode the airplanes.

Mary requested to ride the bumper boats with uncle Oscar while Tyler, Justin, and Dillan all wanted to drive their own boat.

I'd brought quarters to shoot water at them, but Oscar had put them in a locker while we were at Thunder Canyon and hadn't taken them out yet.

We all rode the log flume then walked over to the waterpark.

Granny and Grandpa met up with us after our waterpark fun. Emily had been meeting up with them to give them their tickets while Ryan and Dillan were off doing some slides, so Martha and I were left with Justin, Mary, Bonnie, and Tyler just sitting around wiating for Ryan to bring back their clothes. We didn't know how long they'd be (for all we knew they were still swimming), so rather than sitting around we walked them over to the magic show and wrapped them up in extra towels. This was a different magician than the one we'd seen in May, but I thought his show was just as good. Allison still talks about how "the magic man ate the fire!" The big tricks were largely the same, but he didn't use an assistant, so he levitated himself and made himself disappear with the help of stage hands.

After the show Ryan and Emily got the kids changed while I ran our swimming stuff out to the car. We met up at the train and barely found spots for everyone. Unfortunately the show was shortened and we were rained out when a thunderstorm rolled in. We let the kids ride the Carousel while Oscar went back to the car to get coats and rain ponchos, but even that had closed for lightning when he got back. Though all the rides were closed, we decided to stick around and grab dinner in the hopes the storm would pass. It did, so after eating we went on rides again with zero lines. The storm had completely cleared out the crowds.

Oscar, Tyler Dillan, and Ryan went over to Timber Terror while Emily, granny, grandpa, and I took the other kids back to Garfield's Summer Camp. Allison at one point ran off and grabbed the hand of some mom in another family. She would have been more than happy to just hang out and play with them, but fortunately that family brought her back over to us. Sometimes that's the danger with too any adults. Everyone assumes someone's keeping an eye on whichever kid you can't see at the moment.

I sat next to Justin on the butterfly swing when he saw the paratrooper and said "I wish I could ride the paratrooper. I wish my mom would let me!" Emily had just been concerned that some of the faster rides would upset him, but she wasn't against him going, so he and I headed over there. While we were on the paratrooper he said "I wish I could ride a roller coaster. I wish my mom would let me," so we met up with Ryan and the rest on Timber Terror. They'd just done it, but they decided to do it again and Justin rode with his dad. He loved it! He gave us a big thumbs up when we asked him what he thought of it afterwards.

Justin ended up being a little daredevil that evening, asking to ride Tremors and Panic Plunge too. Tyler was sad he couldn't do it with them (48 inch requirement).

He was even more upset that he couldn't do the Bumper Cars with them either, so I got him some ice cream, which cheered him right up.

Tyler zonked out hard on the drive back. He couldn't have stayed awake for anything!

The next day was gray, cooler, and rainy as predicted, so we didn't get to do as much exploring the city as we would have liked. The older boys went hiking when the rain stopped while the rest of us hung out at the house watching Netflix.

They had fun being silly.

 And they saw a deer.

Eventually the sun came out so we took kids to the fun park we'd discovered on our last trip here.

The girls found the splashpark.

They had fun climbing on the beaver and bear. Bonnie completely soaked herself, so she left in Allison's spare clothes yet again. Good thing I always have some! Allison and Mary played plenty but just got a little splashed.

 
That evening we took Tyler, Dillan, and Justin over to the nearby indoor waterpark - Raptor Reef. They discount admission after 6. It was fun, but it paled in comparison to Boulder Beach. There were 4 slides, including one that has a big bowl like you're being flushed down a toilet. There's a wavepool too, but it's small and the waves are gentle, not like the great waves at Silverwood. There wasn't much in the way of lines, so we all went down the slides many times and definitely made it worth the money. We finished up around 8:30pm and the boys gave each other taffy eyes while we ordered pizza.

Allison stayed and was in bed by the time we got back. She is so cute when she sleeps!

And the next morning Oscar and I took all the cousins over to the neighborhood park while Ryan, Emily, Marcus, and Martha finished packing and loading up.

On our drive back we made our usual stop for food in Moses Lake, WA then made the rest of the drive without stopping. I always love seeing this view of the gorge when we pass through.