Thrill Seeker

Elise is fairly cautious child. She enters into a lot of things, particularly social situations, with hesitation, thought and care. It usually takes her a while to warm up to people she doesn't know well, or an environment that she's not familiar with. Socially, she's just not much of a risk taker. But where she is not cautious, apparently, is in the physical and the fun. She has always been a bit of a dare devil when it comes to things like climbing and jumping, probably because she is extremely coordinated therefore hasn't learned the hard lesson of needing to be cautious quite yet. But we recently discovered that she is a dare devil about lots of other things too.

This past weekend, Elise and I traveled Virginia to visit with my friend Heidi and her 5 year old daughter Riley. The car ride down was shockingly great (she has come so far!) and the girls immediately picked up where they left off last time we hung out with them (when they came to visit in February). On Friday evening, the girls had a blast playing in the sprinkler and then on the Slip N Slide. Once they got the hang of it, they were trying out all sorts of ways to get down the Slip n Slide - sliding down head first, backwards, upside down. Elise had no fear about the new experience - she just had fun.

Then the four of us went to Kings Dominion on Saturday; Elise's first ever amusement park experience. From the moment we arrived, it was like a dream come true for her. So many rides! And she could go on them as many times as she wanted! She has been on lots of rides in her life - like a ferris wheel and spinning tea cups - some of which were high and fast. Still, carnival rides are a little different - a little more tame than amusement parks - but Elise showed no sings of being intimidated.

From the minute we pulled up she was asking to go on the most terrifying looking roller coasters in the park (rides that you could not pay her father enough money in the world to ride!), but she sadly was too little for those. There were a few roller coasters and adult rides that she was tall enough to go on though, and the kid was eager to get on all of them. She loved her first real roller coaster (formerly called the Scooby Doo, now called something I can't remember) so much she kept trying to put her hands up in the air and was giggling with glee the whole time. On the Avalanche, a super fast roller coast type ride (minus the steep hills) she declared it the most fun ride of the day. She went on several super fast spinney-turny rides that were so fast and spinning they made me sick (and a few that I didn't even think I could ride - Heidi went on in my place!) As much as she enjoyed the fast and scary rides, she also still loved the slow and rather dull kiddie rides that chug along in excruciatingly slow circles. She just seems to love rides in general, no matter how fast or slow they're going. The whole day was so much fun.

Our little girl is a thrill seeker, that's for sure. I guess in a few more years (or 6 inches) she'll get to see if those huge roller coasters are all that she thinks they're going to be.