For Grant’ birthday we surprise the boys by driving up to Elitch Gardens and telling them we had season passes.

Elitch is an amusement park on the outskirts of downtown Denver that was originally independently owned, then owned by Six Flags, and now independent again. The park is small with visual similarities to Six Flags. The teenagers that work here are cheerful and talkative to everyone.

We spend the day on rides until the boys get dizzy enough to stop for a while and have food. We sit eating pizza and corn dogs under a canopy next to a roller coaster that sling shots riders forward and then backwards high in the air. This is the first official “thrill” ride Grant has become hooked on. I can see him becoming a roller coaster connoisseur, trying different types of coasters. Good thing Elitch has a good selection.

When end the day in the water park. The huge wave pool is fun and the water feels wonderful after slow cooking on the asphalt sidewalks. The lazy river turns out to be worth the wait and gives us a chance to see the slides and other water rides we will come back to check out.

Happy Birthday, Justin!

Today Justin is 8 years old! He got to choose what he wanted for breakfast—waffles.
He opened one of his gifts, a game for his DS, World of Zoo, and started playing. Soon he came over to tell me about their misleading advertising, which was: feed goodies to gators, make playgrounds for penguins, play with pandas, make mayhem with monkeys, and create your own zoo. We sat together and started figuring it out. In a few minutes he was smiling and playing. A few minutes later he said, “This is the best game ever.”

Grant gave him a silver chain he’d won in a crane game.

Jim and Sandie gave him a talking Star Wars card and a Wimpy Kid book.

He got cards and telephone calls full of birthday wishes.

We went to Go Paint and made ceramics. Justin smiled some more.

Then we went to Taco Bell for lunch and cinnamon twists. Yep, more smiling.

Tonight Justin chose Chili’s for dinner. He had a corny dog and mandarin oranges. When they brought out the chocolate molten cake a group of wait staff sang to him and gave him a coupon to come back for a free meal. He smiled ear to ear.

When Tad kissed the boys goodnight Justin said, “I had a good birthday.”