I am sure Noel would probably roll the eyes at the repeated around Christmas phrase, but we were happy she could join us for a few days around the Holidays. She came down on the 29th, and stayed with us through the new year. Granted we are only a few months within this connection to our family through Sam, but I think we all like her alot, and will be a little upset with Sam if he trades her in for another girl. Perhaps Noel, if reading this long in the future, will look back with fond memories of these first travels with the Junkins. However, should a replacement have been made, and another girl is reading this blog, I am sure we like you too.
Our first adventure began on Monday morning heading towards Six Flags to enjoy the lights and ride a few rides. This has become somewhat of an annual tradition, and it seems like we always have someone missing (This year Belle and Davis at winter camp), but it was a good time. The upcoming year of 2025 will be a Six Flags year, since we have to figure out what the future looks like with Davis' college and already loaded ourselves with too much debt from 2024. And Six Flags is great fun, but it is also great cheap fun.
Entering the park with a backpack fully of pullovers and jackets, ready for colder weather, we headed first to the Cyclone, as it was the only thing opened slightly before the 2PM open. But with Magan's heart and finger being fragile, and Ruby not wanting to puke this early in the day, I got in line with the lovebirds for the Cyclone ride. It is and may always be one of my favorite roller coasters, so smooth. And then, in typical Six Flags style, it broke down with us waiting on the coaster for an additional 10 minutes to get off the ride. We continued forward after that ride to the Mine Train, where Ruby was able to join us. In the line, I jokingly said that I would ride with Sam, and it was so sweet to see Ruby's smile grow wide as she looked up at a chance to ride with Noel. Of course Noel was also happy for the opportunity, and Ruby got to scream and laugh (there is a video somewhere) of that ride with her new friend.
We stayed together for one more ride, venturing on to the Monster Plantation. Mom was not too afraid to ride this one even with the "big" drop into the troll area. And then after hanging out with us for a bit, Sam and Noel broke off to ride some more coasters, while the rest of us went towards the kid ride area. While Sam and Noel waited in some unusually long lines for Batman and Mindbender, we went to ride the Joker and the Wonderwoman ride. At the Wonderwoman ride, we found that the old seats were cracked, and all the rain from the previous weekend was now soaked into me and Ruby's pants. Yuck. Ruby tried to sit on her hands, but the damage was done, and we had slightly damp pants for the rest of the day.
We made our way over to let Ruby drive the cars, and I grabbed us a pretzel with cheese, and planned to just wait at the exit for Ruby and mom to finish. Then guess what happened? One of the cars broke down, and it took a while to get it off the track, so I decided to join them in the line and then be chauffeured around the tracks by Ruby. We all agreed that this was one of the best soft pretzels anywhere. After the cars, we made our way back to one of the Christmas shows, and met up with Sam and Noel there. They did not get there in time to see the Looney Tunes characters, but I was happy that my sweet Ruby was still always eager for a picture with the characters (still a little magic left in the bottom of the tank). The Christmas show was loud and had some good singing, but the dancing almost put me to sleep. Perhaps could be skipped next time, but we found that everyone else in Atlanta had come to six flags also on this day, so shows were the only thing without an hour line.
After this show, Sam and Noel went to ride the Superman, Noel's favorite, while the rest of us looked at some long lines, and opted for a funnel cake with another show. I was excited to get the funnel cake for magan as I got the supreme one with strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle, which I knew was her favorite here. Yet when bringing it to the table, she did not say a word, they just started munching down on it while we waited for the "Big Bad Bob Humbug" cowboy show. Oh well, you try sometimes to please, and sometimes it just isn't appreciated. "Bob Humbug" is easily the best show here at Six Flags, and while super cheesy, makes me smile, and gets a lot of laughs from the little ones. Probably more for me than Ruby, I like to get a picture with the stars of the show afterwards. This year, even magan joined us for the picture, but the lady taking the picture obviously did not understand the principle of taking photos to include the ones that asked for the photo to be taken. So the one below is just me and Ruby, but Magan was there.
We then started walking back to front of the park to meet up with Sam and Noel (still in line for Superman) for the train ride. But Ruby really wanted to try the cookie decorating she learned about this morning. She heard that it was only $3, and they had lots of cool decorations for the cookies. So we made our way there, just in front of the cyclone, where we bought a $7 cookie, and then had a super overly dramatic school teacher elf excited show Ruby that they did not have a lot of decorations left, but instead had some giant tubes of icing with gloves, and she could finger paint a decoration on the cookie. Ruby is a good sport, and smiled at that super happy elf lady, finishing a cute snowflake design. As we left this area to go get on the train (Sam and Noel catching up to us after a 2 hour wait for superman), Ruby cracked me and Magan up looking up at me smiling and saying "Sorry Dad, I thought it was going to be fun". Hahaha, you win some and you lose some, but that line was worth the $7.
We rode the train, with little Ruby super excited to get her ticket punched like in the Polar Express. We then wandered back to the front of the park, getting lots of pictures in the light tunnel, and just before getting to the main exit, Magan pointed over at the funnel cake place here, and said "This is where they have the best funnel cakes with ice cream". Ahhhh, I only thought I got her the one she likes. We walked through the store that used to have a really cool Looney Tunes theme, but now just a plain jane theme park store. Took one last pic with the lights on main street and made our exit.
Our time with Noel was not just at Six Flags, but also included some bracelet making with Ruby, some finding Waldo, some learning the game of Rook, and watching Ruby gag on a strand of chicken in the thai chicken soup. We laughed for a while at Ruby's gagging noise at the dinner table, then her slow pull of the long strand of chicken out of her mouth. We also laughed at Sam not knowing what to do, but just telling Noel to pat Ruby on the back. We all stayed up till midnight to greet the New Year.
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