Journey to Magic Mountain

So Chrissy said she'd be impressed if I managed to write this blog post in an hour, and incredibly impressed if I could do it in half an hour. I have taken her up on her challenge. I have twenty-seven minutes left.

Today the Vance fam participated in two main activities. First we went to the park, then later on Momma, Jesse, and I journeyed to Magic Mountain, Atlantic Canada's largest water park, located in Moncton, New Brunswick.

25 minutes.

Here we have a lovely picture of Janna frolicking through the grass on the way to the park. It's hard to catch Janna mid-smile, so I chose this picture for display.

Jesse enjoyed the swing, as usual. I've promised him that this is the last year that I will allow him to use the kiddie swings, so he's milking it for all it's worth. He was particularly pleased in this photo because he was getting the chance to kick at my head as I tried to take a good swing pic. I pulled back in time, every time, much to his amusement! What a kid.

We took a nice lunch break at a great place called Jessy's Pizza. Here, Janna was attempting to nab my camera. Nice try, Janna!

This picture nearly brings tears to my eyes. Gluten-free donair! 

Twenty minutes left.


Next, we left our beloved daughter in the hands of Grammie and Grand-pere, and the three remaining Vance members headed off to Moncton, NB, for a Magic Mountain experience. Here we are, pleased to have arrived!

I need to provide some context here. The last time we were at Magic Mountain, two years ago, we were incredibly excited to have Jesse try all the little kiddie rides. Instead, he screamed uncontrollably every time we approached any body of water, which is a common occurrence in a water park. It was pretty frustrating.

This time, however, Jesse did great! He actually asked to go in the wave pool, and we did it twice! We had a great time bobbing up and down in the waves. Note the smile in this photo. Genuine.

Jesse, telling us the story of the wave pool and the "beaver," the large animal painted at the end of the wave pool where the waves come out. Jesse felt that the beaver was responsible for the making the waves, and since he had asked the beaver for the waves, he deserved credit for the entire wave pool experience.

My beach babes!

9 minutes left!!!



Another incredibly cool thing that happened was that we bumped into my friend Bobby and Elise who just happened to have travelled to Miramichi and had made this a pit stop on the way back. This is a tremendous coincidence!!! We had a great time hanging out with them for a while. Unfortunately, I have no suitable photos of us together, but we went on some sweet rides. (The new magic mountain slide is pretty sweet. We'll call it the "Canister Free Fall" ride. Check it out sometime!)

Storm clouds came. They rained on us for about 45 minutes. Jesse was really cold and his lips turned blue!

Chrissy and Jesse doing their crazy, genetic tongue thing. 

4 minutes!

A helicopter. Jesse passed up this loonie ride for the tugboat (see below).

Here it is!! (2 minutes!)

Ridiculous!

Apparently, Jesse was under the false impression that he would get to ride the helicopter afterwards, even though we clearly told him he'd get ONE ride. This produced anxiety and tears all the way back to Fredericton.

We stopped for a quick visit to visit some of Chrissy's family at Grand Lake. (1 minute!)

Chrissy's grandfather entertained us with great jokes! I'm glad our kids have had the chance to meet their great grandmother and grandfather. Truly great people!

That's it! 32 minutes. I fell just short of incredibly impressing Chrissy. I'll try again tomorrow.

Until next time!