Thursday, July 12, 2007

Worlds of Fun


It's been a busy two days in Kansas City. We spent yesterday in Independence, Missouri at the visitors center and met a sweet missionary from Orem named Sister Johnson. She took us all around the center and was great with my hyperactive, ADD kids. I took a picture of the RLDS (or is it the church of christ now?) temple across from the visitors center, just because it looked kind of cool. It wasn't there last time I visited Independence. Of course that was over 20 years ago. A lot can change in that kind of time. I had a friend who was a missionary in Independence when they were building it so I've been hearing about it for years, but this was the first chance I'd had to actually see it. Different, but kind of cool.

Today we spent time at Worlds of Fun amusement park, which I totally remember from my childhood. It was strange being there as an adult, but just as fun, though I didn't get to ride as much as I'd like.

My favorite ride had to have been "The Spinning Dragon" roller coaster. You have four seats per car, two facing each other, and the car spins as it goes the normal coaster route. My eight year old was totally excited until that first drop. He was facing me and as soon as the bottom dropped, he screamed and didn't stop the whole ride, his face totally screwed up in terror. About half way through he started yelling "Mom, help me! Help me!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. What was I going to do? Stand up and yell "Stop the ride!" I was as stuck as he was. I hated to see his little face so terrified, but I personally loved the ride. I would have gone again if I could have. Poor Birdy almost cried as we finally slowed down and rather empahtically said "I am NEVER going to ride that thing again!" I believed him.

Everyone loved the water rides, of course, and I took the kids on several of the kiddie rides while Dad rode a few extra coasters. He then insisted that I ride one of the tallest coasters in the world called "The Mamba". It goes 75 miles an hour in parts and has a 205 foot drop! Scary but toally awesome! Wow, it was great. I laughed the whole ride. I'm sure the kids in front of me thought I'd completely lost it, but I didn't care. If the family hadn't been waiting for me when I climbed off, I would have run around and gone again.

So that was my day. Tomorrow we are going to see the boys birth brother whom they've never met. We're all very excited. It should be a lot of fun. After that we're heading to Oklahoma. Only one more night and I'll be home! I can hardly wait!

5 comments:

ali cross said...

What fun! Glad you guys are having such a good time!

And wow, that temple is sure unique looking. Thanks for sharing that.

Have a safe journey!

jenica said...

wow. i love to hate and hate to love rollercoasters. i scream, laugh, and cry through the whole thing... and then run around and do it again. ;-D

glad to hear that the trip is going so well. good luck today!

Unknown said...

Karen, sounds like you guys are having a wonderful time. I was in Independence a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I saw the Church of Christ temple too --- the upside ice cream cone thing on the top was kind of puzzling to me -- but there you go. To each his own.

Tell your son I feel his pain. I HATE those kind of rides . . . rollercoasters are from hell as far as I am concerned. Ugh! Solidarity, baby!

Have a blast and travel safely.

Tristi Pinkston said...

The thing about the cone, though -- when you go inside and look up, it's a nautilus shell. Very cool.

Karen E. Hoover said...

Thanks, you guys! It was a blast.

I'll tell Robert you feel his pain, Candace.

I'm with you, Jenica! We found a great motion sickness pill this time around so for the first time in ages I was able to do the rides I love without consequence. Ahhh, the wonders of science!

The temple is definitely different. My husband calls it the "snail temple". Irreverent, but I can understand. Very shell like.