May Day and 6 Flags!

 A Butterfly for Alyssa 

Yesterday was May Day but not many people celebrate it anymore, I don't think.  Back in the day, we used to make May baskets in grade school.  We would go out in the backwoods and pick some wildflowers, put them in our baskets and go around the neighborhood.  We would put them on the door step of someone we liked and would ring the door bell and run and hide.  I'm not sure why but that was the custom.

Checking out the wildflowers by the silo behind their house

Another custom was the Maypole.  That was even obsolete when I was a child but you see pictures of children with flowers in their hair dancing around the pole holding different colored ribbons attached to the pole.  They would wrap up the pole in a colorful design.  I guess this was done in town squares around the world!

Now days certain countries celebrate May day with military parades to show their might.  It seems like they are mostly Communist countries but I could be wrong on this.

Here's how we celebrated May Day this year.  We went to Fiesta, Texas (Six Flags plus a huge water park).  It was kind of chilly and cloudy as we left the house for opening day of the water park, but we were optimistic that it would warm up if the sun ever came out (which it usually does about noon).  We arrived at the park (about 15 minutes from their home) and lo and behold, right at the stroke of noon out came the sun!  And it immediately warmed up--a lot!  The whole family (except Grampa who does not do water fun) went around the "lazy river" and then we went on all kinds of water slides, green, pink, yellow, and blue.  Then we went to several children's pools one with a pirate boat in the middle.  Samara, Alyssa, Kim and I went down a big raft kind of slide and Micah, Samara, Alyssa and I went down a huge "bumpy" slide like a toboggan slide.  For tobbogans they have sort of foam ones with handles and you go down like a belly flop.  Water splashes up in your face as you hit the "moguls".  A fun ride for sure.  The girls swam in the big wave pool for awhile but then it was safety break time so we went over to the rides part of 6 flags.

Six Flags at Fiesta, Texas.  The big waterfalls

The biggest Roller Coaster.  Not the one we were on!

The big curve!

Samara and Alyssa wanted to go on the roller coaster.  (I figured it was a children's one since both of them were tall enough for it) so Kim and I went with them.  It was an old fashioned wooden one with no loops or corkscrews which make me deathly sick.  It was a true big peoples roller coaster and I had to hang on for dear life and keep my eyes closed the whole time while Alyssa and Samara had the time of their life!  I am still a little sore from being thrown around!  The picture at the end showed me with my head down but Alyssa was smiling and enjoying herself!  There were a lot more rides for the kids over in the children's part of the park and we spent quite a bit of time there too.  We got home after 6PM and we were all pooped.  We had hot dogs and the girls were ready to go to bed!  We all got a little too much sun and our backs are kind of rosy today but we had a ball.

Juice break at the Children's Fun Park

Another Shot!