tarin&nathan: Six Flags!!!!

Hey guess what! I'm blogging about something that happened less than a month ago! Shocking, right?

Last weekend we took a little trip with the Lunt siblings to California. We left on Thursday around 9:00 am and got to our dumpy motel mid afternoon.

To escape our moldy smelling lodging, we decided to head down to Venice/Santa Monica for evening. I don't have many beach pics from Venice, because I knew we were going to playing in the water, so we both left our phones in the car.

Marvin and Nathan were the only ones crazy enough to get all the way into the water. They had fun playing in the waves and body surfing, while Amy and Robert lounged on the beach, and Jeremy and I looked for shells.

As we were walking back to the boardwalk to get some dinner, Nathan found me a sand dollar! A full one! Right on the beach! I was so excited! I had found a broken one during my shell search, but for Nathan to get me a full one was awesome.

We ate dinner at my favorite Venice restaurant, the Sidewalk Cafe, and watched some of the local crazies "dancing." Nathan and I both got burgers, which were super delicious. Before we left, we got the waiter to take a pic for us:

After dinner, we stopped by one of the shops to buy Amy and me sweaters. We were freezing once the sun went down! Then drove over to Santa Monica pier. We were all really disappointed to find out that the amusement park was closed for a private engagement that night. We still did some walking around though, after all, we had already paid $6 to park!

Even though we didn't get actually get to ride the ferris wheel, it still made for a good photo op!

I took a picture of Jeremy so he wouldn't feel left out :p

As we were walking back to the car, the guys couldn't resist the photo op outside the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

After that we headed back to the hotel for the night- where it seems we all slept HORRIBLY!

Nathan and I shared a room with Jeremy, and Marvin, Amy, and Robert were next door.

We turned on our heater briefly, but it smelled strongly of urine, so we were too afraid to have heat or air on in our room.

I woke up a few times throughout the night, from weird noises, yelling people outside, and just from sleeping on an uncomfortable bed without air conditioning!

At around 6:00 a.m. I heard Nathan and Jeremy talking about how they couldn't sleep and I sat straight up in my bed and exclaimed "I can't sleep! I'm too excited!" which was sorta true.

We all got ready for the day and then headed next door to Denny's for some Moons over my Hammy!

We got to the park pretty much right as the gates were opening and we headed straight for Tatsu! It's one of the craziest coasters- they til your seat so you are facing the ground! If you think the initial incline is nerve racking on a regular coaster, imagine hanging, facing the ground as you head upward- being held in only by a chest harness!

Haha! It's really not that bad- it's pretty awesome, actually. It makes you feel like you are flying!

They take a picture of you during the ride, but we are too cheap to ever buy them. Luckily, Amy was able to snap a pic of the preview screen...but then she got scolded, so we didn't do that again.

Here's our pic:

You will have to forgive me, because I can't remember the order of the rides we went on, so I can't give you a play by play- but here are some high-lights!

Apocalypse

A super awesome wood coaster! This was in the spot where Cyclone used to be, but it doesn't jerk you around nearly as much. It was a much smoother ride than you would usually expect from a wooden coaster. Fun though! We went on it twice. There is one part of the ride where fire shoots out of an abandoned truck, but you don't really notice it unless it's on your side,so we had to switch seats around for our second ride. I have no idea how I missed it the first time around! When it was on my side it was extremely obvious!

Me walking to get in line:

We walked through everything and got right on this one. That's the main reason we went twice- because there was no wait.

There is a nice dark tunnel that we had to walk through though, so my husband and loving brother-in-law jumped out startled me a couple times.

Nathan and me pulling back into the station after our second ride:

Gold Rusher

This one was ok- but it was practically a walk on, so we went on it, just because we could. It totally jacked up my hips though- it jerks you around a lot!

Our group on the incline! Me and Nathan in front, Amy and Robert behind us, and you can see Marvin behind Amy's had- Jeremy didn't make it into this one.

After the ride was basically over, Nathan turned around to get a picture of the rest of our group. Don't they look like they had so much fun?

Riddler's Revenge

This has always been one of my favorite coasters at Six Flags. It's one where you are standing the whole time. I was excited to see that it was only a 20-30 minute wait when we got in line....I wish! They experienced some technical difficulties with this ride and so we got stuck waiting in line for like an extra 30-40 minutes longer than planned.

I got to ride in the front for the first time ever on this coaster, and I must say- even though the wait was long and annoying- it was worth it!

I didn't get a picture of everyone on this one, but here is Amy & Robert (they got on before us because they didn't care if they got the front seat or not)

Batman

This is another one of my personal favorite! I like it because your feet dangle the whole time!

I had to get a picture of Nathan with the giant bat sign, since he was wearing a batman shirt.

Amy and Robert went before us again, and so they were already off the ride when it was our turn to go- and Amy got this awesome picture of us actually on the ride- who needs on ride cameras when you have a super awesome sister-in-law?

Speaking of Batman....

We saw him. There is not an exclamation mark after that statement for a reason- I am ALWAYS disappointed with the characters at Six Flags. The super heroes always look way to skinny and sometimes pudgy. They could at least build some muscles into the costume if they can't find a buffer guy to put inside. Anyway- we all we were wearing super hero shirts, so we all got a picture taken with the caped crusader.

Ninja

I always thought this ride was kinda lame-but Nathan had a goal on this trip to make me ride in front on as many rides as possible and I've gotta say- sitting in the very front- this ride ROCKS!

Green Lantern

This was a new one for me- I had never seen it before, nor had I heard anything about it. It looked terrifying though, and I am not gonna lie- I was pretty nervous about going on it. Also, I had to pee a little as we got closer to the front of the line and watching the ride go, I got more and more worried that I might wet my pants!

It was as freaky as I expected....until we got stuck!! Yup, we were about half way through, and the ride just stopped. Here's a video Nathan took after we got off the ride, so you can see what it's like, and where we got stuck:

I was a wreck! I started crying. What made things even more nerve racking for me, was the fact that we were facing backward- so I knew we were about to fall backwards, and quite possibly flip upside down at any moment. I'm not big on feelings of anticipation- I'd much rather just have the adrenaline rush and get through the ride fast and come off thinking it was fun and thrilling, then sit and wait for something expected, yet terrifying! Here is a picture Jeremy took with his phone while we were stuck:

The suckiest part was that after being stuck, they wouldn't let us go again to get the full experience. At the moment, I didn't really care- I just wanted off the ride. But now, looking back I wish I had gotten to have the full green lantern experience.

Colossus

A classic! No loops, just a good old fashioned wooden coaster with big huge drops! Super fun, as always.

Nathan and I leaving:

Jeremy, Marvin, Amy & Robert coming back:

Goliath

This one has the biggest drop ever! And this was the first time I have ever sat on the "inside" and there is this one turn in the middle that I seriously thought I was going to fall right out of the cart!

We didn't get any pictures on the ride, but here's a picture of us in front of the L!

We didn't get any pictures from this ride at all- but it was having crazy issues while we were there. Everyone got on the ride together, except Nathan and I. We were stuck waiting while one of the cars on their train was experiencing technical difficulties.

The computer was telling them that one of the seats wasn't ready to go. The kid in the seat was probably about 9 years old- and if he wasn't scared to go the ride to begin with, he was by the time the ride took off. They had technicians over there with drills and everything- pushing down on the restraints, pulling on straps, and it still didn't seem to be all the way fixed, but they sent it off anyway. Then they sent the people that had been waiting to get off again. Then they worked on the broken seat and sent that one through empty. Then we FINALLY got to get on the ride!

It was crazy, and I think even scarier than I remember because it was dark outside! I was pretty disappointed though because the fire didn't go off, and there was nothing coming out of the headrest speakers.

Nathan was laughing his butt off the whole time because I was screaming so much.

Revolution

No pictures of this one either, but I couldn't blog without mention it. It was always something that I assumed happened at such a park, but had never witnessed it. Someone puked on the ride! Not while we were on it, thank goodness, but they were still dealing with it while we were in line and on the ride. They kept throwing water on it, and then sending that train through empty. Only problem, the puke wasn't just in the car- it was on the loading deck too! So people getting on the clean train still got to experience the pukey nastiness off to the side.

I don't do well with bodily fluids. I had to turn away the whole time we were in line. It smelled so bad and looked ten times worse than it smelled. I caught one glimpse of it and almost tossed my own cookies right there!

Anyway- it was a really fun trip. We made it on to every single thrill ride that was open at least once. The record was set by Jeremy who went on Viper....7 times? I think....

I would like to end this post with a few pictures from Nathan and my's first six flag trip back in 2008 before we were even engaged! Nathan said it was on that trip that he knew for sure that he was going to marry me! Ahhhhhhh! We look so different! (A nice reminder that I should get back down to my wedding weight!)