PHANTASIA LAND

Over the weekend, Brian came up with the idea to drive a few hours to an amusement park. He wants to make sure the girls feel like they are getting a fun experience while we're here, and not think that it's going to be the same boring stuff like when we were living back in the states, etc.

So, he told me about his idea, but wanted to keep it a surprise for the girls. He wouldn't even give them a hint. They were totally surprised. It also helped that we had gone to see a few houses that morning so they were TOTALLY ready for something fun to do, especially since it was a 3 hour drive.

This place was a little like Disneyland (with their themed areas) but better roller coasters like Magic Mountain. It was also much cleaner and well-kept though than those two places. They had an Asian Land, a Mexico Land, a Fantasy Land, African Land, Berlin Town, and one or two more others that I can't remember exactly.

This was one of the better roller coasters there. It was long and very fast. There were a few that looked even better, but the girls were too short to go on them.

The rides here in Germany definitely differ from the ones in the states. In America, they're so freaked out that people are going to sue them (probably cuz they have been...seeing as American are so sue-happy), that they have so many harnesses and shoulder belts and double lap restraints that you're so tucked in. This ride in America would have FOR SURE had shoulder harnesses. I was so surprised, but rather pleased, that it didn't. It made it that much more fun.

Spencer was just enthralled watching the roller coaster pass by. He sat there for a LONG time.

They also have "Baby Swap." I was just told by Stacy that Disneyland and MM have had it for awhile, but I guess I didn't get that memo! If Brian and I both wanted to go on a ride, but we had Spencer with us, we'd normally have to wait twice. But with "Baby Swap", we only wait once in line, and then one of us holds the baby while the first parent goes on. Then we swap holding the baby and the second parent goes on right away. Cool, huh?

These places definitely are busy, but not as crowded as the amusement parks I'm used to in California. I definitely didn't leave there grouchy like I sometimes do when I'm at Disneyland or Magic Mountain.

This amusement park had lots of characters outside all the time. We're so used to characters barely being seen at Disneyland, unless you're there on a super busy day. The girls were elated when these African dancers started speaking English to them. And Xanthe was also so happy that when they at first asked her in German "Wie Gehts?" (Vee-GATES?), which means "How are you?", Xanthe understood her and answered back in German "Guts Danke!" (GOOTS Dawnkuh!), which means "Good, thank you!" She was so proud of herself that she could understand a little and speak it back.

Spencer was a little shy of all the characters. But this dancer was so gracious and got him to be happy to see her and not scared (even though he looks it in the pictures)

Here is my whitey white boy who shines in the sun...like mother like son. We were watching this CRAAAAAZY ride in African Land. Spencer didn't like the African witch man voice booming out from it cuz he got this big frown on his face and started crying really hard. haha. For those of you who don't know, he also does that when someone "moos" like a cow. So weird. Don't try it now that you know that about him though. :)

Sorry this next picture is blurry. It's just so cute of the two of them.

These characters must be known for some TV show, or represent something, cuz most people seemed to know who they were. Kind of like how Knott's Berry Farm uses Snoopy characters. The girls wanted to take pictures with every single one they saw.

Do you love the word underneath this character? "Schmuck" actually means jewelry.

This picture below is of an inside roller coaster that spun around while it was going along the track. Very fun. And then it had a parachute ride in the middle.
So the girls wanted to go on the spinning roller coaster. So Brian took Spencer on a kiddie ride while we got in line for this one...or so we thought...

Here we are making faces at the camera waiting in line.

...until we realized that this ride was the roller coaster the girls DID NOT want to go on. These faces in the next picture are for-real scared faces. It's an indoor roller coaster, kind of like Space Mountain but no stars flying around to give it some light. It is PITCH BLACK. Brian had scared them already when we first got to the park by saying that was the ride he didn't want to go on cuz it made him sick when he came here before. hahaha. I was totally laughing and got SUPER excited. Space Mountain was one of my favorite rides when I was a kid.

Xanthe bucked it up and said she would ride by herself, but Xoe was in tears and made me ride with her. I told her she would LOVE it, but most of the way through the ride she was hovering down and kept saying she hated it. Uh huh...guess what she said when we were finished? "I wanna go on that one AGAIN with Brian this time!" What a little boogar. But it still makes me laugh. I totally knew she would!

Last ride we went on was this bungee trampoline jumping thing. How cool was that! The girls had a great time and caught some good air!

The guys helping us didn't speak a lick of English so we had to get passersby to help translate. haha.

Here's Xanthe trying to do some tricks.

Xoe's pictures are below. Xoe was trying to bend in half at one point.

Oh yaaaaa, baby! You KNOW I got up there. Me and my scared-of-heights-butt. I got pretty high but when I started getting higher than the bars and the slack of the rubberbands started flinging me, that's when I said "H*#$ No" and slowed down.

You proud?
We had such a great time! Brian was so patient with all of us, even when we were running late at the end (we had another house to go see) and we were all very hungry. He just patiently let us go all the way to the other side of the park to get some dang Asian noodles (we are all pretty sick of hamburgers and chicken nuggets at this point of being on a partial fast food diet for the last few months.)

We'll definitely have to visit this place when people come to visit. It won't be such a long drive from where we'll be living in a few months.