The Turtle Hurl.... Er, I mean, Turtle Twirl...

Today we took the kids to Story Book Land, a delightful amusement park with rides geared toward younger children - nothing too big or scary, for the most part. The kids loved it, gleefully riding the small roller coaster, the elephant airplane ride, the little train around the park, and what quickly became their favorite, the Turtle Twirl. The Turtle Twirl is a Tilt-A-Whirl, long one of my (and my mom's!) favorite rides at an amusement park. I shriek without meaning to and laugh out loud when on the ride, which my kids love. So I went on the ride twice with Eleanor. Afterwards, I realized I'm getting old. Because my stomach can't handle the spinning rides the way it used to. I used to be able to do the Tilt-A-Whirl or Silly Silo as much as I wanted to. Not anymore. So I told the kids, "Mommy's not going to do any more spinny rides today." And we went off for lunch.

After lunch, I felt better! So when Jefferson asked me if I would go on the Turtle Twirl with him for his final ride, I said, "Sure!," since I hadn't yet been on it with him. We had a blast, spinning as fast as we could. I thought I felt fine - until we got in the car to go home. I jokingly told Brett if I were going to toss my cookies, I'd aim the other way. About 5 minutes later, I thought to myself, "I'm really not feeling well. Maybe I ought to look for a bag or something in case I really do throw up." Good thinking on my part, because right after picking up an old Ziploc, I hurled. Four times. Into the bag. It went something like this:

Anne: *hurl*
Ellie: "Mom, what are you doing?"
Anne: *hurl*
Ellie: "Mom, what doing?"
Anne: *hurl*
Ellie, louder: "Mom, what are you doing?"
Anne, quietly: "Shut up!"
Brett: "Mommy isn't feeling well."
Anne: *hurl*

I'm proud to report I got nearly everything into the bag. Except what went down my face and onto my shirt. I think it will be a while before I will go on a Tilt-A-Whirl again. Or before Brett will want to let me in the van. But at least I used a bag.