August 2019: Part III - Wild Waves and Oscar's Pike's Peak Marathon

While the kids were attending summer camp, I took a break from my deep cleaning to go down to Wild Waves with my friend Eva. It was cloudy for the first few hours, but it warmed up later as predicted, so we rode the rides first then hit up the waterpark until they closed at 8pm. Here we are before and after Lumberjack Falls. Good thing we had our swimsuits on underneath. We got good and soaked!

Oscar had bought a waterproof case for his phone during our last trip to Silverwood. This was my first time using it. Now I wonder how I ever went to waterparks without one.

I got a great GIF of Eva swirling down the bowl! This slide is better with a partner, but they only have so many double tubes. At least we got to do it together later when the lines died down.

Every slide was better in a double tube, but they weren't always available. They really ought to invest in more doubles. It's more fun for the sliders and it moves the line twice as fast.

Afterwards we ate a tasty dinner and slice of pie at Shari's. We just happened to be there on free slice of pie night.

A few weeks later my ministering sister Rena came over to be in the house with the kids so I could get Oscar to the Everett airport at the crack of dawn without needing to wake them up. He'd been training for over a year to run the Pike's Peak Marathon in Colorado.

We drove down to Wild Waves later that morning. Tyler hit a little growth spurt in August and measured right around 48 inches with his tennis shoes on with our yardstick at home. I really wanted to take him down to Wild Waves to see if he could do any of the nine 48 inch rides he'd never been on. Technically he's still a little short (46 and 3/4 inches barefoot at the doctor's office), so I knew it'd be hit or miss if they'd let him ride the 48 inch stuff or not. In July he was still a far cry from 48 with shoes on, but since shoes give him an extra inch, he's maybe 1/4 inch below it. Fortunately all but 3 ride operators said yes, and one of the three that said he was too short still let him go through.

Tyler LOVED all of the new rides, but he threw huge fits on the two that refused him. I'd tried telling him that might happen and that he just needed to accept it, but he won't. When I tell him that he measured 46 and 3/4 inches at the doctor's office and show him the paperwork the medical assistant wrote it on, he gets really upset and insists that he's 48 inches. I'm glad this close but not quite there height didn't happen until the end of the summer. By the time it's warm enough for themeparks again, he should unquestionably be at least 48 inches.

 

Here's my adorable Allison waiting for the train while Rena and Tyler rode the Timberhawk roller coaster.

Here they are riding the airplanes and the Pirate Ship. Allison is about as close to 42 inches as Tyler is to 48, so she might have been able to do this ride, but she didn't want to. She's gained a little timidity around rides this year. Last year she was fearless.

From there we went on the Coastal Clipper and took the kids on the kid rides.

Wave pool time! It was too crowded to attempt any of the big slides with Tyler. I decided to just stick close to Allison and Rena in the Wave Pool and Hook's Lagoon.

Hook's Lagoon was crazy busy! At least I got to do the slides within Hooks Lagoon with Tyler while Rena stayed with Allison.

The hot tub was lovely! The lifeguard was less picky this time about Allison hanging out floating in the middle. Last time they kept giving her an evil eye and whistling at her to sit on the sides.

And Allison, of course, spent lots of time on the ground slides within Hook's Lagoon.

While we were at Wild Waves, Oscar was flying to Denver and meeting up with a former co-worker. This was also his first flight out of the new Everett airport. 

They went out to dinner and visited Castle Rock.

Here he is at the start of the race. The man next to him in the top right is Shane, a Vice President at Comcast who challenged Oscar and all his other managers to do the Pike's Peak Marathon with him. It's a full marathon up and down a mountain over 14,000 feet in elevation. Shane's already completed it 4 times.

Someone was holding up a sign that said "All toenails go to heaven."

He's still in good spirits after a few miles in.

Here he is at the top! He had phone service and was texting me fairly regularly up until 5 miles away from the top. Then I didn't hear from him again for almost 6 more hours! Oscar's had trouble with altitude sickness before when we were on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, so this had me a little worried that he'd passed out. Turns out he wrote me a text when he reached the summit and just forgot to press send. He told me his brain was too delirious to function properly.

Lovely peak views!

Here he is coming back down. He finally texted me again at 5 miles to the finish line once he wasn't so high in altitude and his brain was functioning enough to read my texts saying I was worried about him. The heat and elevation made a bigger difference than he'd planned on, and not just for him. More people than usual didn't complete the race this year. He made it to the peak just in time to still receive a finisher's medal. It wasn't long before they started turning people around a few miles down.

And here he is "sprinting" to the finish line!

Afterwards Shane took him out for pizza. Here's what Shane wrote about Oscar on Facebook

I challenged my 200+ Managers to run the Pikes Peak Marathon with me and only one accepted.

Oscar Hunt from sea level Washington flew out and knocked it out with me. He was only 15 minutes behind me too. He definitely danced!!! #Proud!

And because Oscar's insane, he still went on a hike the next day to the Garden of the Gods.

He took some pictures for Allison of the dinosaurs that were discovered in the area.

And that evening he flew home to us!

The following Wednesday I dropped Allison off with a babysitter and took Tyler down to Wild Waves. We picked up Eva again and brought her two boys who'd recently returned from Phoenix.

We started off at the waterpark since it was already around 76 degrees at 10am, and I knew it'd only get busier later in the day when it reached the mid-80's. Tyler was excited to go down the Konga slides on his own but still had a hard time carrying up his own tube. I went with Arrow in a double tube while Eva went with Mace.

Here are the 4 of them going down Zooma Falls together. Only 4 can fit on a tube, so I tagged along with the group behind us.

I took Tyler in the lazy river while the other three did the 48 inch Riptide slide. We called it the Toilet slide since it's like you're being flushed down a toilet bowl. Tyler is definitely not 48 inches without shoes, so we opted out of this one.

From there we rode everything in the Mountain Dew complex (yes, that is what it's called. And all the single tubes have the Mt Dew logo on them). Mace still wanted to ride with his mom, but Tyler wanted to ride with Arrow, so it was me going solo.

Tyler really liked having a buddy to ride with. He gravitates toward older boys more than kids his own age.

After that we went on the Raging River Ride, or as Eva and I like to call it, the Lazy River with drops. This is techincally a 48 inch ride too, but no one was measuring, and the measuring stick they had there was broken at 36 inches, so they wouldn't have been able to measure him anyway. I wasn't concerned about his safety on this since this isn't a fast slide (those are the kind where you shouldn't dispute the height requirements), but I did insist on riding it with him in case we capsized at some point and I needed to help him get back on.

In the end we never did capsize and it was a huge hit with everone. After that we wandered over to the wave pool before we hit up the themepark side. The waterpark was starting to get super busy by then, and we'd already done everything we wanted to once. We planned on coming back to the slides after 6pm when the lines die down again.

The boys all enjoyed the Brain Drain and Hangglider then Eva took Mace over to the Carousel while Tyler and Arrow rode the Ring of Fire. You have to be in a pair to ride this one. I was more than happy to miss out on it since it makes me a little queasy.

From there we went over to the Disk'O flashback. This was one of the ones that told Tyler he was too short last time, but he got to do it this time and loved it! Eva and Mace came over while we were riding and went just after us.

From there we walked up the hill to ride the Timberhawk roller coaster. I went with a single rider on the coaster before so I could take pictures and videos of them doing it after.

Next was the paratrooper, train, and airplanes

We kept walking around the hill over to the Bumper Cars. This was the other one that wouldn't let Tyler on last time, so he was thrilled. 

Spinning on the Coastal Clipper

 Then hit up a few kids rides before working our way back to the Wild Thing Roller Coaster and the waterpark.

Poor Tyler wasn't allowed to do the Wild Thing coaster this visit, which really upset him. At least he was able to do it last time, so between the two visits he was able to ride every 48 inch ride. Mace was tall enough but didn't want to do it, so Eva took the youngest boys while I rode with Arrow.

And we spent the rest of our time back at the waterpark. We mostly did the wavepool and the hot tub since the boys were getting too cold to stand in line. It was still in the 80's and the water was warm, but with the sun low on the horizon it was chilly whenever you weren't in the water. Fortunately Arrow was willing to brave the cold to ride Riptide with me, and he said it was way better going with me than when he went alone. On that slide, the more weight you have the better you swirl.