Conquering Fears

To celebrate Skittles turning 10, I took him to Busch Gardens. We all woke up at 6 am so that I could drop off Hershey with Nana. Twizzler also stayed despite me spending the past month trying to convince him to come with us. He is terrified of roller coasters right now.

The great thing about homeschooling is that we can go to the theme parks during the week when they are half price and there are no lines. Skittles and I rode every single roller coaster working our way up from the little Air Grover, to the terrifying ShieKra.

Before I had kids I was stupid fearless. I went on every roller coaster and any other crazy ride that I came across. Then I had kids and fears crept up in me. I became afraid of heights and big roller coasters and scary movies. When we started out today, we were both apprehensive about the big coasters. We walked past them, looked up at them and decided not to ride. Skittles talked me into following him through a tree top adventure. It freaked me out a bit. We were walking on ropes and looking through nets at the ground below. It is amazing that the fears I have had since Skittles was born are the same fears that I conquered today along side of him.

When he asked me to go on the first big coaster, it was one I rode 16 years ago so I did not blink. I was not afraid of it. Once he had braved the Kumba, he was ready to take on any coaster in the park... except the SheiKra, which we both decided was never going to happen. We walked the entire park 2 times and ran about halfway through it chasing the elusive train once. We walked from Egypt to the Congo and back again. I feel like I have actually traversed Africa by foot. Every time we would stop at the bottom of SheiKra and say, "Not going to happen! Why would ANYONE want to ride that thing?"

Thirty minutes before closing, Skittles had just conquered his fear of the suspended, looping, Montu. He looked up at me and said, "Mom, I am going to be a fighter pilot one day. I need to face my fear of the SheiKra. I want to ride it." So we walked ALL THE WAY BACK across the continent of Africa!!! I stood in line praying for the Lord to keep us safe. The SheiKra is only 3 rows long but it is 8 seats wide. We sat in the middle seats, middle row. It took us up and up and up. It felt like forever. When we got to the top, it took this slow turn around so that we got a beautiful view of all of Tampa and possibly all of central Florida. Then it inched us towards the edge and stopped. It just hung us there on the edge. I knew it would because we had watched it soooo many times today. We hung and hung and hanging there we could not see the track. It just looked like we were hanging in mid-air. I had a DEATH grip on Skittles hand. I was praying, "God PLEASE don't let these bars fly open!" Then WOOSH! We dropped out of the sky, face first into the ground and there, finally was the track. We went right back up and into a few loops. Right back up again and what do they do??? They decide that just in case the first direct drop was not enough, they are going to do it again. This time straight down into a tower. SERIOUSLY?!?! We survived. It was time to go home. I told Skittles that I had to get a picture of him in front of the coaster that he conquered... we conquered. It just so happens that there is a small pond that the coaster "dips" down into, actually it is a sensor thing that when the coaster goes by, it shoots up a spray at passersby... I had him stand there while the coaster passed once, twice, and, "Hold on. Just one more smile." Third pass and the coaster splashed him!!! IT  WAS AWESOME! That is what you get for dragging your mom through a theme park the size of a continent all day and then taking her on the scariest coaster of her adult life.

We had a great time though. I hope that when Twizzler turns 10, he will be ready to conquer his fears and drag me all over some giant theme park from coaster to coaster.

1. As we were walking through the park, Skittles pointed out examples of simple and compound leaves. 
2. When we walked through the animal habitats, Skittles told me everything he knew about each animal.
   
   He really knows a lot about African animals from reading, Lions at Lunch Time, in co-op. 
3. On the way home I called the other boys. Twizzler told me that he typed me a message on Facebook. Then he asked to talk to Skittles. I love how much they love each other. 
4. Hershey told me all about his day but all I could make out was, "Mama, Nana, boo boo" and a bunch of phrases that sounded like, "I love you" and "I don't know." It was precious. 
5. We had to drive past Disney to go home. As we approached the began their fireworks display and it just so happened that we had a great view of it from beginning to end as we drove past. It felt like God was saying, "Hey, How awesome was this day that I created for you."
6. All the way home Skittles talked my ear off about all the rides today, our family, and his fears. I told him he did a good job facing his fears. He said, "I did not just face my fears. I chased my fears." Oh boy, I have created a monster. LOL. 
7. On the way home from Nana's I asked the boys, "Who had a good day?" Skittles yelled, "ME!" Twizzler yelled, "ME ME ME!" and Hershey yelled, "ME ME ME."