Six Flags Therapy

- Waiting in line to ride Tony Hawk's Big Spin -
The very first time I went to Six Flags was in 2008, with the Dendy's. We left Grace with her Grandma and went for the day. I hadn't been to a theme park since 2002 and I fell in love with coasters all over again. Last summer, I went with Forest and my sister in law, Jan. Forest liked at least a few of the rides. He doesn't like big coasters (although he's never been on one!) but liked the smaller family rides. He told me then that he wanted to try a water park the next year.

So, a month or so ago, I asked Forest if he wanted to get season passes. We were planning a trip to San Antonio and since there is a Six Flags there, we'd get a little more use out of them. But, Six Flags Fiesta Texas (in SA) has a free water park, almost identical to Hurricane Harbor here that costs extra. After we found that out, it was a definite that we get the passes. I figured out that we spent about $35 extra than we would have if we had gone to Six Flags once and Hurricane Harbor once. But, being a pass holder comes with awesome benefits. We will more than make-up that $35 because we have free drinks for the day passes, bring a friend free on any day passes and skip the line passes. We have already been 4 times, we have been going in the evening for a few hours on the weekends and the park clears out shorter after we get there. It's great!

I have been in a terrible rut for a few months now. My health has been declining and so I haven't felt like doing much of anything but sit around and watch Hulu and Netflix. We haven't been out of the house much and we found ourselves not really communicating to each other much. I haven't been nearly as active as I had been before, because I have just been so sore and stiff.

It seems silly at first to think that an amusement park could help me feel better, or help our marriage, but it really has! It dawned on me last night how great it's been for us. We spend a lot of time waking around, in the fresh air. There are no computers or TVs around to distract us. We spend the whole evening together, taking and laughing and that's so therapeutic for me. We have so much fun, even if we only get a ride a few things in between walking around. Yesterday we decided to go and didn't realize a storm was coming in. They shut down most of the rides, but we still had a great time walking around because the weather was so cool. It's also great to people watch, we have seen some really funny things! It's also nice that we can just go for a few hours and not feel like we have to do everything in one day. I get dizzy pretty easily, so it's great to take it slow. It's a (relatively) short trip to Arlington and almost a "free" night out. It's better than a movie because we're outside, getting fresh air, getting some exercise and it's of course, a far more social activity. Forest is also getting braver, he told me yesterday that he wanted to go on Shockwave...too bad it was closed the whole time we were there! There is always next weekend!