WILD Waves

Melissa and I decided to take the kids on an adventure to Wild Waves Park in Federal Way, WA. Tickets are pretty expensive, but I found that I could get discount tickets at a community center in N. Seattle. So, the plan was, Melissa was going to go up Wednesday and visit some friends and meet us at the park on Thursday morning. I was going to pick up the tickets, then spend the night at Sara's house Wednesday night. Sara was going to watch Ezra while I took the other kids to the park. Sounds good, right? Well, we made it to the community center and I purchased the tickets. It was a beautiful community center with a nice playground on a beautiful lake. We had already been in the car for more that 4 hours, so I thought, rather than sit in traffic for the next hour or more, lets play at the park until rush hour is over. Good idea, right?

Well, we played for a while on the playground. I wandered over to the lake and found that there were paddle boat rentals-- a 4 person boat for $14.00 per hour. How fun!! I thought. I had packed a pic nic dinner for the drive, so I thought it would be nice to have a pic nic on the lake. We got in the boat and started paddling out to the middle of the lake. We were having fun, paddling around, when I looked over just in time to see my van keys slip out of my pocket and start sinking to the bottom of the lake. Did I mention that it was named Green Lake? The lake was so murky green that when I put my hand over the side of the boat I could not see my fingers. I started FREAKING OUT! What do I do? I had a split second thought to dive in after them, but I could not see the bottom, we were drifting, and I was wearing a life jacket. I grabbed my cell phone and called Lance and freaked out some more. He told me I had 2 options: 1. Hire a diver. 2. Call a locksmith. We called a locksmith. He quoted $125.00 to make me a new key. So much for saving money on the tickets.

The locksmith was only 15 minutes away. He came and opened the van so we could at least get inside, but could make a key because my key required a pin number from the dealership and the dealership was already closed for the day. He agreed to meet me at 8:00 in the morning. So, now what. Sara is about an hour away, Lance was in the Seattle area on business, but in a hotel too small for all of us. I decided to call Aunt Bobbie in Bellevue and see if she would let us crash at her house for the night so that we didn't have to go so far in the morning back to the van. Course, I didn't have Bobbie's number, so I called mom-- no answer, Sara--no answer, Lisa-- no answer, I knew Annie was in California, then I called Grandma. "Hey, how's it going? Oh, I'm fine. . . I JUST DROPPED MY KEYS IN THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE!!! Can I please get your daughter's phone number?" Got a hold of Bobbie. She said we could stay. Finally got a hold of Sara, she agreed to pick up Ezra when Andrew went into work. My van was stuck for the night and I was in a 4 hour parking zone. All I needed was to have my van towed away in addition to losing my keys. Lance and I decided it would be better to have the van towed to the dealership where it would be out of the 4-hour parking zone, and at the dealership where they would be sure to be able make me a key.

Lance picked up the kids and took them to Bobbie's while I waited for the tow truck. He dropped them off and met me at the dealership. I made it to Bobbie's around 11:00. The plan was for Sara to come at 8:20. Lance at 8:30, to the dealership by 9:00, BEG them to hurry with the key, and to Wild Waves by 10:00ish. Lance had meetings starting at 10:00. Well, Andrew was not feeling well in the morning, Sara finally decided just to come by herself, she got stuck in traffic from an accident. She didn't get to Bobbie's until almost 9:30.

We made it to the dealership about 10:00. They told us it would be another 45 minutes. My friend missed the ferry to come across to the east side. Lance postponed his meeting.

Here we are waiting for the key to be made.

$209.00 later, I was PARANOID about my keys all day. They were zipped inside a pocket, inside another zippered pocket.

We had a great time at Wild Waves. It was cooler. The lines were short. We got to go on all the rides as many times as we wanted. Then the clouds parted and it warmed up enough for us to enjoy the water part of the park.

Here is Jarom flying an airplane:

This is my favorite roller coaster. It has a HUGE drop-off.

Frog Hopper. Kammeron is REALLY having a good time!!

This is a roller coaster that ends in a big splash!!

Here we are!

We're flying!!

We enjoyed some water rides for a while and then it started getting a little cold again. We changed into dry clothes and had a little snack and wanted to enjoy the last hour going on our favorite rides again. About 15 minutes later, the heavens opened and the rains came down. Lightening and thunder struck. Everything shut down immediately. We ran for our dear lives and were drenched.

The kids were a little bummed that they didn't get to do their "last ride" but were all screaming that it was better than Disney Land. We had had a great and memorable day. As we neared the exit, there were workers handing out free passes to come back to the park. I picked up enough for everyone-- thinking that I had gotten all of the original tickets and needed 8. Some of the kids took a ticket, Melissa grabbed some for her family. Anyway, we ended up with 13 free tickets.

We just took them and 3 friends back this past Wednesday!!

So, Melissa texted me 20 minutes after we left the park from the first time. She had gone a few miles down the road in stop and go traffic and stopped at Wendy's for dinner. Her kids asked where their shoes were. They had been left in the parking lot. They drove all the way back and found only one shoe of one kid. Of course, no one had turned anything in to lost and found. She never did recover any of the other shoes.

We decided Wild Waves was very expensive. We just had to laugh at all the craziness.

Stay tuned to future blog postings for more craziness for that weekend.