Knott's

The day after the beach, we headed to Knott's Berry Farm, my all time favorite amusement park in Southern California (love it even more than Disneyland!) with my dad, his wife Melanie, and her three grandkids.

When he woke up that morning, Joe was feeling a little under the weather, but not bad enough to stay home. As we started to drive to the park in the morning he became increasingly worse and within an hour after our arrival, he was really struggling with flu like symptoms. We split up into two groups for about an hour and a half--My dad and I took the older kids on roller coasters, while Joe and Melanie took the younger kids to the Camp Snoopy rides.

I had so much fun taking Joseph, Grant, and Hans on their first roller coasters. Going on "Montezuma's Revenge" with Joseph and Grant was a blast. That was one of my very first roller coasters as a kid and it was just as fun riding it as a grown up. Hans was a little unsure about roller coasters, but agreed to go on one called the Sierra Sidewinder with me. As we were going up the initial climb Hans said "Well I can't get get off now, so I might as well have a good time!" He LOVED it!!! We only went on about three rides before it was time to meet up with the others for lunch.

When I saw Joe I knew he was toast. He looked terrible. We ate a little lunch and Joe said he couldn't go any further and parked himself onto a bench in the shade, sipped a bottle of Gatorade and told us to go on without him and check on him in a while.

Austin really wanted to go on the roller coaster that Hans went on, and was tall enough if he went with an adult, so I accompanied him. He didn't seem a bit nervous waiting in line. He made a surprised face for a split second right when the coaster started it's inital descent, but after that not a single scream, tear, or fazed facial expression whatsoever. I, on the other hand, was screaming my head off.

I checked on Joe afterwards and he was laying on the bench, asleep. He woke up when I approached and said that several people came up to him and stared at him, but he was too sick to care. I told him we were going to go on one more ride and check on him right after.

We decided to go on the Log Ride next which has been at the park for year and years. It was one of my all time favorite rides. I took all four of my boys with me while Melanie graciously watched Jennabee and Ada. The line was super long, but definitely worth it at the end when the boys were all cheering and shouted that it was the best ride ever--even better than the roller coasters. So fun...

After that we decided to split up again. My dad offered to stay at the park with Joseph and Grant and two of Melanie's grandkids old enough for the thrill rides, while Melanie, Joe, and I took the rest of the kids home.

We found Joe, let the little kids do one more Camp Snoopy ride and say "hi" to Snoopy and then we left. Joe was too sick to drive and Melanie offered to drive for me, but I didn't want to pass up my opportunity to drive in Southern California traffic. And boy, was there traffic!

Joe went straight to bed as soon as we arrived at my dad's. Here are a couple of pictures of Austin and Jennabee on the Camp Snoopy Rides:

Jennabee with Snoopy

Austin and Emilei, Melanie's grandaughter

It was so fun to hear the older kids' report about the rest of their time at Knott's later that night. They went on a bunch of thrill rides I didn't think they would have the guts to attempt. I was shocked! Here are a couple youtube videos of the rides they went on (videos taken by other people, not by us):

Perilous Plunge:

Supreme Scream:



Boomerang: