Surprising Day at the Waterpark

Kai has been asking to go to the nearby Six Flags waterpark for several weeks now.

I have been resisting.

Between the massive crowds at these places, and Kai’s anxiety about going on waterslides, I’ve come to wonder if it is worth the bother. The last time we went to a big American waterpark, more than a year ago, Kai got so anxious about one particular slide that he threw up just as we were about to go down.

And so we have been putting off the trip to Six Flags, hoping that Kai would forget the idea. But he kept saying that he really wanted to go. And as yesterday would be the last day that would work out for us to go this summer, so we decided to go for it.

Kai wanted to start out with a waterslide that he was very familiar with, one of the few he wanted to do the last time we were there. In the past, whenever my wife or I would suggest some different slides, and Kai would strongly resist, being too scared or anxious to go on something unfamiliar.

But today he was different.

After we finished the first slide, he wanted to try a different one, one that he had never tried before. And after we did that one, he wanted to try another new one.

We were also pleasantly surprised to find that in place of the usual huge crowds was a near-empty park. With many colleges and high schools having started their fall sessions already, teens were mostly absent from the park. And that meant that we could go on the slides with very little waiting.

So we went on one slide after another, trying virtually every different one in the park, and then going back and doing them all again.

My wife and I were getting exhausted climbing the three-to-five story structures to the top of the slides. But I didn’t want to quit as long as Kai wanted to keep going.

Late in the afternoon, there was one we still hadn’t done. It was called Tornado, and it looked particularly daunting. I wasn’t even going to bother asking Kai if he wanted to do that one.

But Kai brought it up himself.

“For the grand finale, let’s go on Tornado.”

And so we did.

Tornado wasn’t really as scary as we thought it would be. It was just fun, like all the other ones we did. It was a great way to cap off a very fun day.

As we made our way toward the exit, I wanted to stop at the photo shop to look at the pictures that the Six Flags’ photographer took of us. Usually I don’t care to pay for these pictures. But today I wanted a keepsake of the great day we had.

This picture was actually taken early in our day. But I think my wife and I had even bigger smiles as we left, thinking of how far Kai has come.