After we left Nathan and Ana's place, on July 18th, we drove east to Minneapolis where my cousin Megan lives. She wasn't home from work as a Nurse Practitioner yet so we made ourselves comfortable, reheated a meal for Montana that we never ate, and watched some TV. I did get to talk to Megan for a while later in the evening and that was nice since we've only seen each other in the last year for her dad's funeral and our grandpa's. It was nice to have a normal conversation.
The following two days at Valley Fair had been planned way back in February and Megan had even bought me the tickets for a discounted price. However, that morning it poured rain as we drove east to Valley Fair! It felt like I was reliving our first day at Red Lodge back in May when we had constant rain. 😑 We were not to be discouraged though. We made a pit stop at a local Walmart and bought ponchos for ourselves. This day was going to happen.
Walking up to the ticket booth.
Tickets in hand!
"Ezra let me fix your poncho/dress." Eyeroll.
It started pouring again not long after we walked in. We didn't care. We went for the first ride we came to, Monster.
You can see the intense rain here. We were the only ones on the ride and I think we made the operators laugh. It was fun! Though we did get pretty wet despite the ponchos.
After that Terry and Noah went on the Corkscrew rollercoaster while Evie, the littles, and I waited under a shelter. Then Noah and I went. I had to scoop a puddle of water out of my seat before I sat down, and I got pelted in the face with rain, but we didn't have to wait in line at all!
That's us circled. It was fantastic!
Next we took shelter in a little kid ball machine area for quite a long time. Evie and the littles were not keen to go outside so Terry and Noah went to the nearby roller coaster, The High Roller. When they came back I went with Noah and again got hit in the face with what felt like hail, though it was only rain. So fun! It was an old fashioned wooden roller coaster and we all immediately went to work to try to convince Evie to go on it with us. She would. not. have. it. She was adamant that she was not ever going on a big scary roller coaster. I told her that it wasn't that bad, that really it was a lot like Grandpa's roller coaster back home. Nope. She wouldn't have it.
So from there we went to the little kid Snoopy area with the baby rides. It was still raining and we were still riding whatever was open. There was nobody in this section of the park and it was awesome. Here's Evie and a hiding Ezra on this laying down ride.
There's Samuel peeping out from under his hood.
I went on those swings the following day and they were fun.
Next in line were these innocent little hot air balloons. Terry asked me if I wanted to go and I really didn't so I told him he could go with them (Ezra usually needed an adult buddy to go with him). So Terry went. Notice the grimace on his face?
Those balloons packed quite a punch for poor daddy.
I had forgotten that Terry gets sick on rides that go in circles and he hadn't reminded me! I felt bad, but it was sort of funny. Look at his face! I mean, it's a little kid ride! 😆😂 He's just never ever been able to handle circling rides. Roller coasters are always fine as long as they go somewhere.
A kid swing.
Behind us was this little bus that dropped the kids in small increments.
A circling spaceship.
A little race car ride that slung them around the corners. They liked it.
From there the weather actually started to clear up and encouraged by brighter skies, we headed to the back of the park. We met a worker that told us the part was going to close in like ten minutes around only 1pm! WHAT?! So we went to the best roller coaster in the place, Renegade, and boarded pretty much immediately because no one was there. Samuel was feeling brave for some reason and he accompanied Terry, Noah, and I. Evie would not be moved and Ezra was too little to ride. That coaster was crazy. SO fun. I still can't believe Samuel did it. He wasn't even scared afterward but he didn't want to do it again. Noah and I went and did it again and then we left the park. We did stop by admissions and get a partial refund. That helped since we couldn't come back another day like they wanted us to.
From there we went to the Mall of America because they had a Lego Store there.
First we stopped in the Disney store. While in there we browsed what movies might be played and decided we'd go to Incredibles 2.
Entering the Lego Store.
Ezra spent all his time here collecting all his favorite little pieces.
Noah made a creation.
This reminded me of Legoland last year! She took a picture with a similar Friends girl.
Outside the Lego Store and looking up at the huge models.
We wandered over to the ride area and quickly found out they were way too expensive for people that were going back to Valley Fair the next day. So we went up a couple levels and just admired all of it.
Noah and I went back to get a closer look at the huge Lego sets we had seen above the Lego Store.
Looking down with Noah on the right.
From the other side.
From there we went up one more level and bought our tickets for the movie.
We were early so we had time to eat some popcorn. We never ever buy popcorn but since we could refill it as much as we wanted I think we got our moneys worth.
After the movie we decided to eat somewhere in the mall. We looked at the Rainforest Cafe but the wait was too long. The kids wanted to watch that animatronic alligator all night.
We ended up in some sit down cowboy inspired restaurant and even let the littles cheat and eat gluten. They did okay!
We went back to Megan's and got some good sleep before getting up and doing it all over again the following day. Thankfully it only rained once! It was rather cool in the morning when we arrived for the 10am opening so we wore our coats into the park. So much better than ponchos!
We went left instead of right when entering and there weren't many people yet. Evie, Samuel, and Ezra did this Flying Eagle ride.
Littles fighting over who controls the sail/nose.
Meanwhile Noah went on the huge swings that I didn't feel up to. The other moved onto the Tilter.
And then this was Scrambler or something. I did it later in the day and it was fun. Of course Terry couldn't handle any of these rides because of the spinning.
Then it was me and Terry's turn. We had all the kids wait next to the railing of Steel Venom, which we were dying to try next. Your feet dangle from the seat so I had to take my flip flops off and then it shoots you up to like 50 mph (?) and up a tall coaster, then it shoots you backwards and up the other way. I have a video later. It. was. amazing. I was all shaky afterward because it was so intense. I loved it. Terry went with Noah afterward but I didn't feel up to it yet.
Then we all went on a these old fashioned cars where the kids could "drive."
The boys went together and then the girls after them.
Almost done. Once finished the kids went by themselves and Terry and I ran back across the way to Steel Venom for some more adrenaline. We just loved it.
From there we got a bit lost and did a lot of walking. We discovered a new portion of the park and went on this newly opened ride that reminded me of the fair since there was zero line.
From there we finally found the tallest green coaster, Wild Thing, that you can see from the parking lot but we couldn't figure out where it started. Just Terry and I went the first time I believe and it took pictures in a black tunnel. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to take a picture of their picture so whoops. It was fun. It hauls you up so high so you have plenty of time to regret going and are sure you're going to die. That happens to me every time. It was great though! Pretty sure Noah and Terry went again afterwards.
We finally found the tallest tower that drops you and while Terry waited in line, Noah did this giant swing by himself. I didn't feel up to it.
I didn't want to dropping like 500 feet from the sky either. Dude, I was still so scared from last year at the fair when we did a small version of this. Even Noah has sworn to never do one of those again, and Evie too of course. Terry loved it.
Around the corner were these little kid planes and they took forever.
Around the corner were the all the kid rides again, so though it was lunch time, well past lunch time and we were starving, we wanted to let the kids get in some fun before we went on to the water park in the afternoon. I did the hot air balloons with Ezra this time. Ha!
From there we waited in our longest line for Mad Mouse, an almost roller coaster for kids. It was Evie, Samuel, and Ezra's very favorite in the whole place and they could've ridden it all day long.
I like Ezra's face here. He's so expressive for a five year old I think. I also think he's going to be more than a handful when he's older.
Wahoo!
Right before lunch we were able to get Evie on the one grown up roller coaster she would agree to, the High Roller. I think because we compared it to Grampa's and said it was the slowest coaster in the park she agreed to it. She actually enjoyed it quite a bit but would not budge about doing another one.
Doing the laying down one again. This time Noah tried it. He really likes a similar one at the fair.
He's so cool. Those are the huge slides Noah couldn't get up the courage to do later in the afternoon.
Okay, this one was the last one before lunch. We kept running into more that we wanted to do and so it was almost 2pm and we were rather hungry.
Lunch in the van, finally! I keep trying to figure out which leg of Noah's that is but I just can't. Apparently he's still pretty flexible though. 😂
After lunch it was so much sunnier and happy! It was also 3pm.
We headed to the right once inside and did the Ferris Wheel. We waited forever it seemed like. I loved this miniature Ferris wheel water garden out front of it. Every time we went by it made me smile.
We walked around the back, through the kids stuff again and finally this ride was open. It was lame but we did it.
And this coaster was finally open. The pair of them can't operate with any precipitation whatsoever so with the clear sky they finally opened. The kids liked it. Just a step up from Grandpa's coaster. Terry said we should build one like that.
Coaster in action.
Walking back to the waterpark Noah and I couldn't resist the Viking Ship.
It was a lot like the ride Shari, Caryn, and I rode at the fair four years ago.
From there we had to put our phones away. We rode the last big coaster in the park, Excalibur, and then a water ride, Thunder Falls, because we were ready to get wet. Unfortunately, as soon as we got in the water park, it clouded over and got cold. Samuel and Ezra weren't big enough for any of the big slides so I went with Noah and Evie and waited a long time in the tallest tube ride that was totally not worth it. Then we did the lazy river to try to catch Daddy and the littles. We couldn't find them so we did the crazy river ride with tubes. Noah and Evie went over and over and over but I sat out and looked for daddy. Then Noah and Evie did some of the smaller slides and I was impressed that Evie did the ones that dropped you really quick. Then finally daddy came out and we went to the wave pool.
Daddy and Noah left us though and went to the tallest slides in the park. Noah walked all the way up like five or six or seven floors with Terry only to be totally freaked out and walk all the way back down while Terry slid down. Noah was so afraid because those slides go straight down and you actually stand to enter the slide and then they remove the floor so you just fall. Terry said he didn't blame him. But the second time Noah wanted to try it so he went all the way back up with Terry again only change his mind when it came down to it. Poor guy walked all the way back down while Terry flew down. Terry went one more time and had a great time. By this time it was almost raining and they closed the water park and all the rides. We hung out under an umbrella and ate a snack.
The rides were sort of slow to open after the rain so we took a train ride to the front of the park.
Pretty rainbow behind the Corkscrew coaster.
The train dropped us right nearby Steel Venom so we had to go a few times. There was no line at all! I took a quick photo of Noah getting settled before I dropped my phone in my bag and took off my shoes.
Pretty rainbow again while Terry went on Steel Venom.
Terry went by himself and I think he waited for the back. That was his favorite. He was so funny to ride with because of how excited he got. "OH YEAH!" he'd yell like a little boy. So fun!
That's what Steel Venom shoots you up.
Finally, here is the Steel Venom video.
It got dark soon after and Terry and I separated to get the kids more rides in. Terry took the kids to the Mad Mouse and kids section.
Noah and I rode the giant swing and Wild Thing one more time.
We stayed until they closed the park at 10pm! A 12 hour day! We were exhausted and famished. I was more tired than hungry and just wanted to go to bed. We passed that pretty little mini Ferris wheel on our way out.
We found a Culvers that was open til 11pm and stopped in. What a day it had been! That kids cannot wait to go again. Maybe in a few years when they will do all the big rides or another cousin gets married. Ha ha.
We walked pretty much 10 miles that day!
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