Coasting our way to the end of the road trip

We spent most of Tuesday traveling from San Francisco to Santa Clarita, CA. Our hotel, upon request from the girls, was equipped with a pool. We have stayed in many cabins and other places that didn't have a pool, and they were jonesing to swim. When we got there, we realized we left two of the girls' swimsuits in the San Francisco hotel. (You might not believe this, but we actually *do* check our hotel rooms to make sure we didn't leave anything. Really. Really!) Anyway, I called the hotel, and they said they'd ship them to our house. This warranted a quick trip to Target once we hit Santa Clarita to get swimsuits. After that, we grabbed some dinner and then headed back to the hotel to swim. Our hotel was one mile from Six Flags, and the girls could see most of the rollers coasters. They were getting pretty pumped for the next day.

Wednesday we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to Six Flags. It was a very warm day (92 degrees) and the line to get into the park was pretty long.We decided to get the Flash Passes to eliminate waiting in line. Flash Passes are a way for the amusement parks to eke even more money out of the park visitors. But, admittedly, it's a much better alternative than waiting in line for two hours for each ride.  The Flash Pass we chose not only put us at the front of each line, but it also allowed us to ride the ride immediately for a second time...which made a super fun day for all of us!

The girls getting ready to go into Six Flags. Can you find the hidden upsell attempt by Six Flags??

Ashley and Emily started out with a mellow ride

But it wasn't long before I was asking one of the guys in the park, who looked remarkably like John Candy, "Where are the big rides? The big ones?" and he pointed us to some more exciting rides

We are lucky, because not only are all of the girls tall enough to ride all of the rides now, they also really like *all* of the big roller coasters, and these are some really serious coasters!! We were certainly flying around this place!

Wanting to really fly, the girls did the Dive Devil. On this "ride", the girls got strapped together, hoisted up about 200 feet, and then dropped through the air to "fly."  It was pretty awesome.

 

And finally, it wouldn't be a Family Vacation without a ride on the Colossus (aka "Screemy Meemy" from the movie)

Not the best shot of the ride, but I wanted to get one before the sun went down.

Quite the way to finish up our almost four weeks on the road...open to close Six Flags...10am - 9pm!! As we were leaving, the girls asked if we were going back for a second day at Six Flags..'.uh...NO!! Mommy and Daddy are bushed", we thought!  Not sure how they did it but the girls were up for a little swimming after the full day at the park.

We all slept extremely well Wednesday night, and got up at around the crack of ten to head back to Arizona. We crossed our ninth state line on Thursday afternoon

How, exactly, were we feeling when we got out of the car into the 106 degree heat to take this picture after an amazing month on the road?  Let's zoom in on the pic, shall we?

Haley, sad, Ashley, sad, Wes, sad, Emily, sad, Sherri, sad...sorry AZ but we had one heck of a great trip!!

This coming Wednesday, we head to Kauai to finish off our sabbatical. It has been an amazing journey so far!