Mom's Surprise

I went to the gym pretty late Saturday night. While there, I thought to myself, "it'd be nice to surprise mom at breakfast tomorrow morning." So I did. I didn't leave Boise until 10:41 that night. I got into Salt Lake around 3 o'clock in the morning, slept for four hours and headed to the restaurant to meet my family. Only Dad and my sister knew I was coming. I surprised my aunt, grandma, and cousin when they got there first. When my mom walked in I was sitting at a table with a newspaper held up over my face. Mom went to sit down with my nephew moving in beside her. I got up quickly, walked over to the table, pushed my nephew out of the way and said, "I want to sit by my mom." 

The look on her face was priceless. It was a nice surprise if I do say so myself. Happy Mother's Day mom. 

It was a quick trip...but well worth it. After breakfast my mom, sister, her kids, and myself headed to Lagoon. I haven't been to Lagoon about 3 or 4  years. Every time I go back I get nostalgic for the good ole days. When I was kid I went to Lagoon EVERY SINGLE day during the summer. My aunt would take my sister and I along with our cousins. We rode the rides occasionally but the vast majority of our time was spent at Lagoon-A-Beach. Hours and hours spent at the waterpark. It was awesome. We'd rent tubes each day and get a two dollar refund when we returned them. My cousin Levi and I would use that two dollars to play Sidewinder. It was a game they had along the midway. It was only around for a couple years. I found a couple pictures online.

You start with a large ball (about the size of a skee-ball) near the top of the curvy track. Using the steering wheel, you guide it down the track and make it fall into a hole at the bottom. Near the bottom, the guardrails disappear. Plus, the steering wheel turns in opposite directions. Turn it right, the track goes left. It was confusing. Levi and I, however, got very, very good at it. We'd throw two bucks towards practicing every day and within weeks...we were always winning. This was a game with big prizes too. I'm not sure why we needed huge stuffed animals but we kept winning and winning and winning. They had a rule against winning more than once each day so we'd come back at different times when there was a different game attendant. Lagoon tried to make it a little harder the second year. They put a plastic ring inside the hole to make the opening smaller. It challenged us a little more but...we still kicked ass. 

It was nice to go back and re-live some of those memories. Lagoon is a fun place. If you try to compare it to a Six Flags amusement park...Lagoon will lose every time. But take it for what it is...and it's fun. 

My only problem is that I noticed my age once again. When I was young I could ride any ride as many times as I wanted and feel great. This time around I felt a little queasy getting off some of them. So sad.