Remember when you were a kid and the word "carnival" just made you jump up and down in anticipation? Yes- the rides, the games, the food- it was such a great experience for you, but maybe not for your parents who wasted all that money on tickets and cotton candy and attempting to win you a giant Scooby-doo. I actually still like going to the carnival or the fair- at least once a year. It's a tradition.......

Well, today Nils and Marta were excited when they heard that we were going to a carnival. Annika and Mommy went to New York for the weekend, so we had to do something exciting! Thankfully Daddy met us out there- somebody had to finance this great adventure! :)

The carousel is the ride that you have to go on. Who doesn't like sitting on a fake horse that goes up and down while listening to classic carnival music? The kids picked their horses and off we went! After exiting the carousel, Kendall calmly walked over to the tilt-a-whirl, suggesting that we all ride it next. I immediately started objecting- things that spin me around in little circles while I'm already spinning in a big circle are not on my favorite list. But he had already handed a wad of tickets to the ride guy, and I stupidly kept walking toward the ride of doom. I have not ridden one of those things since I was a kid and passed out at the fair after getting off of one. And I hadn't yet thought about how Marta was going to react.
Starting out wasn't bad......but then the horrible spinning started- and you never knew exactly when it was going to come- first one little spin, then four in a row. Every time we started spinning, I screamed. Marta was crying after the initial spin, and it was downhill from there. Nils would laugh for awhile, and then he started saying, "oh, dear......oh, dear......oh, man!" I'm wondering if I said it first or if he just came up with that on his own. If it had been recorded- which it really should have been- you would have seen or heard this:

Spin
Melody- "AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Nils, laughing- "oh, dear."
Marta, crying- "I want to get off!"
Kendall - just laughing- the whole time!

And why is it that the carousel is over in like 1 minute and the tilt-a-whirl lasts forever?

Then the ride guy asks me - while the ride is going- if Marta is o.k. Hello!!! She is crying with this horrible look on her face the entire time! Was he planning on stopping the ride if I could have said anything in response? I don't think I had time to answer before another spin came, which produced another round of screaming oh dear's and louder crying. I do remember saying at one point, "I hate this ride." That, of course, was answered by more crying from the little girl and laughter from both of the boys. A minute later Marta cried loudly, "I hate this!"

It finally ended. When it stopped, we all just sat there for a second. I actually couldn't move- I knew that I would just fall over if I tried to stand up. Kendall was trying to get Marta to stop crying....then Nils started crying because he realized we had to get off! It was definitely one of the most memorable carnival rides I've ever been on! Admittedly, between all my screaming, I was laughing, too. The kids were just so funny. But we have agreed to never, ever go on the tilt-a-whirl again.

Later, at McDonald's we were talking about the rides. Nils had gone on Pharoah's fury-the big ship that goes back and forth- and did great. He said, "That was not a spooky ride. That was my favorite one." And we all went down the fun slide twice. Marta liked that. But she gave a clear opinion on the tilt-a-whirl: "That was a stupid ride."