I’ve been attempting to be a “fun mom” this summer. My basic plan is to incorporate some kind of fun, kid-pleasing outing into every week. So far, we’ve done the Science Center, we’ve gone bowling, we’ve hit the pool. But yesterday was to be the biggest adventure yet.

We didn’t tell the kids what we were doing. But we loaded everyone into the car around 8:30, told the kids they could watch a movie in the back, and hit the road. They were curious. Dad was off work and we were heading down the highway first thing in the morning — what could this mean?

A little after 10:00, we pulled up to the gates of a family-friendly amusement park.

Confession: L. (4) has never been to an amusement park. That’s right: never. I know. We’re slackers. But yesterday, we remedied that situation.

Here’s a helpful tip for you. If you want to have the rides at an amusement park all to yourself; if you don’t want to stand in line for food, rides, or anything else; if you want to feel like you can wander through the park with plenty of room; if you want to ride the roller coaster over and over again…then go to an amusement park on a 95-degree day.

Yes, yesterday was incredibly hot. It made for very short lines, though. We figure other people either (sensibly) visited air-conditioned locations or water parks. Oh, we weren’t the only ones riding the paratroopers or the scrambler, but we almost never had to wait in line for anything. We would say, “Hey, let’s ride the Balloons” and immediately get on.

Which turned out to be awesome.

We started in kiddie land. Since L. had never been to an amusement park, we figured we’d break him in gently, let him do some of the rides that go monotonously around in flat, unadventurous circles. He was cool with that. After all, he didn’t even know rides like this existed, so he was thrilled to sit on a fake motorcycle and go in circles for two minutes.

The rides that go up and down were fun too. C. (11) very kindly went on the airplanes with him (even though C. is, admittedly, way too old for them) because he’s a nice big brother and was willing to help L. get the hang of things. Besides, if I had attempted to climb into those airplanes with L., I’m pretty sure I would have gotten stuck or suffered from muscle cramps. Or maybe both. So I appreciated C.’s cooperation.

Although, I’m pretty sure that as the airplanes went round and round, I heard C. telling his little brother, “You know, you’re a very lucky boy. Most kids my age would never get on rides like this with their little brothers.” L. was grateful, I’m sure.

Because there were no lines, we polished off kiddie land in about an hour, paused for hot dogs & ice cream, and headed over to the “real” rides.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how many rides L. would go on. I figured he’d do the carousel, the train, maybe the paratroopers, and possibly another tame ride or two.

I figured wrong.

After the carousel, the first thing we did was the roller coaster. It was a medium-ish wooden roller coaster, full of jerks and curves. L. insisted he wanted to try it, though, so we gave it a shot. Up, down, around, down, up, around, bumpity-bumpity-bump. Much screaming. Many grins. And as soon as it came to a stop, both kids said, “Let’s do it again!!” And we did.

We spent the next four hours or so riding everything we could. Any ride that allowed kids 36″ and up to ride with a parent, L. wanted to do. We rode something called a Howler, we rode the Spider (that one really makes me dizzy; I could only handle it once, though L. wanted to ride again), we did the Ferris Wheel, the train, the paratroopers, the balloons. We stopped briefly for soft pretzels, and again for ice cream. We did several rides multiple times.

And we attempted to stay hydrated. But walking around in 95-degree heat makes it difficult. And apparently, when you combine the heat, the spinning around and around and around, and the fact that I’m old, it turns out that I start feeling a bit sick and exhausted toward the end of the day. The kids were worn out too. After his second ride on the Flying Aces, C. announced that he was ready to go home if we were. L. wanted a final ride on the carousel, and I wanted one last paratroopers ride, but after that…we were all pretty much done for.

L. wouldn’t even smile for a final picture. And C. was looking a bit dazed.

So we headed home. And we all slept very well last night.

L. loved his first visit to an amusement park, C. had a blast on each and every ride (well, except for the kiddie airplanes, maybe), and Chad and I thoroughly enjoyed having much fun with the kids.