just call us rule breakers!

i understand that this may get a bit confusing with me jumping back and forth from current events to past events and back to current events, but please try to keep up.

today, or i guess it would be yesterday, seeing as it is past midnight already, (man where does the day go?) we broke the rules four times! you see we went to wild rivers today with my brother and his family. yes, wild rivers is another water park. we really are into the water parks this vacation, it would seem. and today, as at sea world, we experienced the same phenomenon with our two girls. you know, the one where the older, taller one does not want to go on the rides with height restrictions, while the younger, shorter one does.

as we were walking in the gate to the park lala is pointing at nearly every ride saying, "i want to go on that one! that one looks fun!", while nani is saying, "where's the lazy river? i want to go on the lazy river!" and the whole time i'm thinking, "why did nani get all of the height?" and "lala i sure wish you would eat more food so you would be tall enough to ride all of these big rides. it breaks my heart to see the disappointment in your eyes when i tell you, yet again, that you're too short!"

most of the day the adults took turns staying with lala and nani at the kiddie area and in the lazy river while the others would go on the bigger rides. i felt so bad leaving lala behind knowing that she wanted so badly to go with us. finally, after lunch, we decided to try to sneak lala onto one of the inner tube rides that had a double inner tube. the ride was called "chaos" and just like every other non-kiddie ride, the height requirement was 44", and, well, lala isn't even close. she is 38" a whole 1/2 of a foot shorter. if anyone was really paying attention it would be obvious!

we got the tube and waited in line. as we got closer, we strategically placed the huge tube between lala and the line of sight of the "ride attendant". we made it to the front of the line and quickly put lala in the tube behind my brother, hoping that he wouldn't see. just at that moment the attendants were trading shifts and lala slipped by them unnoticed. SUCCESS!! let me tell you it was so worth it. she was extatic when she came out of the tube. i have never seen such a proud and happy look on a little girls face. she said, "mommie! i was big enough to go on the ride! i was big enough!"

i thought that maybe we just got lucky. so, we tried it again because, of course, lala said the moment she got off the ride, "o-gain! o-gain!" as she jumped up and down, up and down, with the hugest smile on her face! so we got back in line. i got a single tube because there were an odd number of us in our group. while i was waiting lala was standing next to me. i got my tube and then waited for the rest to get their double tubes. then the ride attendant walks up to lala and says, "hi!" and i'm thinking, "oh great we're busted!" then he trys to hand her a single tube. i'm thinking, "hello? can't you see that she is three times smaller than that tube and would just fall right through the hole?!" then it dawned on me, he is just a young teenager working a summer job and he probably could care less about the height requirement. sure enough, after that we took lala on two other rides that technically she was 6" too short to ride on and no one even raised an eyebrow.

i know we shouldn't be breaking rules, i mean what are we teaching our girls, right? but any reservations that i may have had about it disappeared when the first thing i heard from lala as i exited the rapids ride was, "mommie that was so fun! the bumps made me feel like i was so high up! that was so fun! mommie, i was big enough! it was so fun!" lala was such a "big" girl today and so brave!! i wish you could have experienced her excitement today!