Rollercoasters, Sunshine, and the Most Evil Shoes on the Planet!!!

Ty and I took our son and my little sister NE to Lagoon yesterday. We had a blast, and I think our son officially had the time of his life. He's never been on a rollercoaster before, and he LOVED every single one them, (the ones he was tall enough to ride, anyway).
We had everything planned out. I made sure our daughter was up early, and fed her an early lunch so I could get her down for her nap in time for us to leave just after noon. Mom came over to sit with the baby, bringing NE with her. We headed over to the park and the first thing we did was get some lunch. After that, we headed over to Pioneer Village for one of those old-timey photos. The boys got to dress up like bandits and NE and I dressed up as dance hall girls. It was awesome.
Now that the picture was out of the way, we headed into the park. In the spirit of tradition, I insisted that CT's first amusement park roller coaster experience be "Puff the Little Fire Dragon." It was one of my favorites as a kid, and my son WOULD NOT miss out on it.
From there, we made our way around the park. I could feel myself baking in the sun--despite the sunscreen I'd applied--and I was sweating like crazy for pretty much the entire day. In spite of all of this, I am happy to say that I had an absolute blast. It's been YEARS since I've been to Lagoon, and it brings back fond memories of childhood for me every time I go back.
HOWEVER...

Even with all of the sweating and sunburn, I only had ONE thing to complain about. And I knew I could only blame myself.

Rewind to earlier in the day:

As I was choosing what I wanted to wear to Lagoon, I knew I would need clothing that was loose, comfortable, and above all: COOL. I chose a pair of cotton shorts and a t-shirt. Then it came time to choose the right shoes. I didn't want to wear a pair of closed-toed shoes, because I didn't have any that would have gone with my chosen outfit, and I thought they would make my feet too warm. I also didn't want to wear my favorite pair of Merrel sandals, because they are basically fancy flip-flops and would surely fall to their doom on the rides. So, in order to keep my feet cool but secure, I decided to wear my Teva's.
I've had these shoes for 10 years. Yes, that's right. Ty's aunt actually bought them for me as a gift before our wedding so I could wear them during our honeymoon in Mexico. I have to admit that I've rarely worn them since. However, I thought I'd give them a chance to prove themselves and dusted them off for our day at Lagoon. It seemed to me to be the perfect plan: Cool feet, Secure shoes. HA! SOOOO not true!
By the time we'd been at the park for 2 hours, I was already starting to desperately regret my choice of footwear. The straps dug into my feet, pinching them horribly. The parts that didn't dig into my feet chaffed. I actually lost at least 2 layers of skin on my right big toe when a blister developed and popped before I could do anything to interfere. AND I could feel the soles of my feet getting blisters as I walked around.

In short, those shoes are officially dead to me now. They are on The List. I can now see why I didn't wear them after our time in Mexico. They suck. I thought those shoes were supposed to be MADE for hiking and walking around. What in the ever-loving CRAP happened to these ones to make them become so...so...EVIL? Maybe they have some depressing sob story about how they went from being perfectly nice little sandals to being the worst shoes in existence.

Well...I guess I'll never know, because they're in the trash, and will soon be taking up room in a landfill. I can't donate them, because I like most people, and I don't believe in torture.

[See? Don't they just LOOK evil?]



Either way, after we had enjoyed as much of Lagoon as we possibly could, we trudged our way back to the van and drove to Mom's house to pick up AJ and drop off my sister. We stayed for a while, talking, and got home around 11:00 pm. I got the baby to bed, and then I took a nice hot shower. It was pure heaven. Then, after I'd scrubbed all the sweat, dirt, and sunscreen off of myself, I put on a pair of clean sweats and a loose t-shirt. Then I patched up my blistered toe with a bandage, and Ty and I watched some TV while we wound down from our big day.

So anyway...today I'm a little sore from walking around so much, my legs are a bit bruised from being knocked around on some of the rides, and for some reason I am only sunburned on the left side of my face and neck. But my feet aren't as bad today as I thought they would be. I can see on the soles some red, angry spots where those blisters were starting to develop, and I have that one painful blister that was torn open while I was still at the park yesterday, and my left big toe has gone oddly numb--as though from some kind of nerve damage--but overall it wasn't too bad. (I'm still disposing of those sandals though. As I said before, they're dead to me now.)
In the end, I can only say that Lagoon was a lot of fun, and I'll be glad to go back again...in a year or two. :)