Carousel Hell

These pictures* tell the story of the longest 34 second hell in the lives of M and Noah. Carousel hell. Susie, Noah's mom, and I wanted to take the kids on the carousel at the little fair. The horses were beautiful and beckoned us to ride. So, our husbands chunked out the THREE DOLLARS (per kid) for the kids to ride. Did you catch that...THREE DOLLARS a ride!?! As a little aside, Susie is due with baby Madeline in three weeks. Susie and I carefully picked out a horse for each child. M's was a beautiful white horse, fully decorated with gold and pink. Noah had a gorgeous stallion. We should have seen trouble coming our way when Noah absolutely REFUSED to sit on his horse. M at least sat on her for the 45 seconds we waited for the ride to start. Susie was trying to untangle herself from Noah's grip, but he wasn't having anything to do with that. Did I mention that the guys paid three dollars a kid for this experience? Then the ride started. Noah was perched on Susie's stomach. M was sitting daintily on her horse. All was going well. Please look back at the first picture now. Do you see my hair? Totally parted on the wrong side. That wasn't a fashion statement for the day. Oh, no. THE. CAROUSEL. WAS. GOING. AT. WARP. SPEED. We were going faster than a speeding bullet. We were going faster than the speed of sound. We were going faster than the speed of light. M started to cry (picture 2). Noah was shrieking. M flung herself into my arms. Notice Susie and I are laughing while our kids cling to us (picture 3). We paid good money for this. Someone should be enjoying it! Noah held onto Susie with his mighty death grip for the remainder of the ride (picture 4). If Noah could have melded himself into Susie, I think he would have. I think we went around atleast 20 times. Susie and I were dizzy when those darn horses ceased their gallop. When the carousel hell was over, I plopped M back on her horse so we could TRY to have a nice photo taken. Her little knuckles were white from holding on so tight (picture 5). All this took place in a matter of 34 seconds.

So, parents out there...if you are thinking of putting your kids on a nice, gentle carousel, I suggest watching it a few times to make sure it isn't a twirl-a-whirl in disguise. M and Noah are scarred now. I doubt they will ever be able to ride a carousel without flashbacks to the worst 34 seconds of their lives.

I hope Susie will post her point of view on the whole experience. I'll let you know if she does.

* These pictures are very, very cropped. For some reason, they were coming up sideways, so I had to crop them so they would be in the right direction. There are others that are funnier, but couldn't get them to show up in the right direction. If anyone has any tips, please let me know!