By the end of the day, Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn and I had four happy young men.
Now, as all moms of kids between the ages of 0 and 18 know, that is not always an easy thing to accomplish. So here’s what happened:
1: We encouraged them to fly down rapidly moving streams of water with nothing more than gravity and the laws of physics to keep them safe.
2: We (to be read as Qui-Gon Jinn) helped them get those really (quite large) raft/tube things up to the top of the water rides.
Exhibit A Who was the brainiac that decided to require people to get a huge rubber raft up a flight of stairs in order to go down the ride? I am forced to assume that he holds stock in a heart attack medical supplies company.
Exhibit B Yoda supervises while I pretend to be occupied taking photos.
3: We did not require anyone to ride any park rides that he did not wish to ride. Nor did we resort to peer pressure – maybe we would have, but it just doesn’t work on any of these hopelessly self-confident boys. One of the side effects of that blasted homeschool emphasis on thinking for yourself…
4: We let everyone take turns picking the next ride on the amusement park ride.


What a fantastic post! I’ve never seen four happier boys. Wasn’t that just the most fun?! We must do it again!!! Hilary
I just copied your WHOLE post to our memory book saves (and then did the sledding and park ones, too). So, your blogs are immortalized as “J’s Memories” in our books (or will be, when I print everything out and crop!) Hilary
So did you go down the slide? Adventure is good for the soul you know!