Day 1,107 - It's "WORLDS OF FUN!"

With summer coming to an end and with it, Ellie's tenure as a full-time stay-at-home child, I've been trying to make the remainder of our time together count. Part of the way I've been doing that is to try and come up with special things for Ellie, Ethan, and me to do together each day. Thus far, we've done some cool things like going to Union Station to see the model trains or splash pad/park visits or even going to Cabela's to see some quality taxidermy. Our biggest event though was on Friday as Ellie and I headed to Worlds of Fun to spend some quality time together.

You may be wondering, "Isn't Ethan a little small for Worlds of Fun?". He is indeed. That's why I had my parents come down and spend the afternoon at the house with him so that Ellie and I could enjoy Worlds of Fun on our own. Once they arrived around 12:30, Ellie and I headed out the door almost immediately to head on our little date.

For nearly as long as I can remember, Ellie has been enthralled by the sight of the massive roller coasters out the car window whenever we've driven by Worlds of Fun. It was not uncommon to hear her muse about going there someday. Therefore, with a pair of free passes in my possession, I decided now was the perfect time to let her experience Worlds of Fun.

Upon our arrival, the first thing she wanted to do was get her picture taken in front of the massive air balloon statue at the front of the park. After that, we headed to our very first ride, the "Nordic Chaser." Situated near the front of the park, I thought the ride seemed tame enough. It looked as if we would just sit in a car shaped like a Viking ship and travel in a circle. I did not take into account how quickly said vessel would travel and was treated to the loud screams of panic from my seatmate riding next to me. After that, I decided that maybe our time was better spent in the "Planet Snoopy" section of the park.

After a short detour at "Le Taxitour" and the "Autobahn" bumper cars, we finally arrived at "Planet Snoopy". We first headed to "Snoopy's Cosmic Coaster" where I painfully squeezed myself into a car right next to Ellie. Ellie was slightly nervous as the ride began but her nerves quickly subsided. She even was willing to raise her arms momentarily into the sky in an expression of glee. After that, we spent some time wandering around "Planet Snoopy" riding anything that Ellie deemed to be not "too spinny or scary." 

Those taxicabs can be terrifying!

After a couple of hours, I decided that we had exhausted all that "Planet Snoopy" had to offer and tempted Ellie out of that section of the park with the promise of ice cream. After a nice treat of Dippin' Dots, Ellie and I set out in search of the Ferris Wheel. After riding one at the Beatrice County Fair with her grandma, Ellie was enthralled with riding yet another one. We finally found the Ferris Wheel and settled in for our first ride. When the wheel stopped at the top, Ellie took in all of the sights of the park and provided a running commentary on each. Once our ride ended, Ellie suspended her rule of only riding each ride once in favor of immediately riding the Ferris Wheel again.

Once we finished up our ride(s) on the Ferris Wheel, I knew our time at Worlds of Fun was growing short as it was already after 4:00. That being said though, I couldn't resist trying to convince Ellie that we needed to try my favorite ride, the "Viking Voyager". The ride consisting of an increasingly bumpier journey down a river before finally making one final climb up a large hill and splashing down below is one of my all-time favorites. Despite the initial line, we hopped in line and eventually took our place in a blue and orange Viking ship. While I was initially disgusted at the thought of riding in a Denver Broncos-colored ship, I decided to think of it as being Florida Gators-colored instead and that seemed to help. With that, we were off down the river with Ellie smiling gleefully all the way.

After our final splashdown, Ellie turned around and looked at me, declaring that the "Viking Voyager" was her new favorite ride! She also began lamenting how she wanted to ride again but it was time to go home. It didn't take much convincing for me to agree to one more ride on the "Viking Voyager" even if somewhat ironically, it was in the same Broncos/Gators-colored ship.  Despite her best efforts to obtain one more ride, I had to sadly say no as it was nearing 5:00 and we needed to get home.

 Overall, I'd say Ellie's first trip to Worlds of Fun was a success. Despite her fearfulness of certain rides, she was willing to step out of her comfort zone on others. While we likely won't make this a yearly occurrence at this time, I definitely see many more trips in our future!

#DaddyWrite

 P.S.: The Saturday Night Live skit from last year doesn't lie. I did actually see full grown adults riding the "Viking Voyager" with life-sized stuffed animals. If only it would have actually been the guy from "Soul".