It's Here

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2012 is finally here. After a year of fun and memories, another awaits us. Last year, I was so bad about my new years resolutions, I forgot what they were. This year, I'm going to write them down and remember to do them.

• Do my devotions everyday
• Take more photos
• Practice my guitar everyday
• Savor every moment

Jeremiah 29:11-"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "plans prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

What are your new years resolutions? To catch up on some posting, I'm going to post a photo from every month, and share a story to go along with it. Sound like fun?
January
This photo makes me laugh. I was trying to get everyone to jump, and nobody wanted to. I was trying to get their attention but I just couldn't. I accidentally took this photo and it ended up being one of the best candid shots this year!
FebruaryIn February I got way more interested in photography, I was trying out techniques, and having ten photo shoots a day! For this photo, my friend and I were out walking around ALL day photographing each other. We thought we should make an artificial puddle to splash in. We had so much fun going back and forth taking pictures. We got really wet and made lots of memories.

March
March was a month of people photos. I got so into taking pictures of kids and fun. This photo was so hard to get. But this little girl was not the deal. The stinking hula hoop would not stay still! No kidding right?

April
 This picture was so much fun to make. We used the self timer and the boys and I went outside to get these shots. The expressions were fantastic and water splashes are pretty cool in pictures.

I had to do two photos for April because this was when I first started using manual mode! Only a few days after. The flowers were in bloom and the next-door neighbors tree hung over our yard. I pointed the camera upward, waited for the beep and snapped away, also capturing some beautiful bokeh.

May
In our old house, a little bunny we gave our bread crusts to always came by. Finally I got out there with the telephoto lens and captured some great bunny photos. We claimed his name was Bun-Bun.

June
 We had so much happen in June, I also have to do two pictures. There's much to our month of June and I can't even share all of it. The cupcake one above is Toby's party. (It was a little late considering his birthday is in January)

My amazing cousins from Arizona came to visit us right after I came home from Summer Camp, where I got baptized. The second day they were here, we had a huge water balloon fight. Then for photos we squeezed water balloons over our heads. (You know, a lot of times to get the right photo, we get wet. If you haven't noticed)

July
 Fourth of July of course! And it was my first time photography sparklers! How did I do?

My cousin Selah came for a visit and oh...More water. We decided to go outside and play with the hose. We. Got. SOAKED.

August
The same friend I mentioned before in this post came over again and we stayed out all day taking photos. She had a new camera and so I was teaching her about all the settings. Oh it was so much fun!

September
We headed to California where my birthday, seeing redwoods, and camping took place. We also went to a few parts of the Pacific ocean. This particular day, I was standing back taking pictures. Maddy and Toby were standing by the shore and a huge wave came. Thank goodness Toby ran back, he would've been pulled in. No joke. It caught Maddy's legs and she fell to her knees. The power of the wave would've taken Toby in, we're thankful that it was Maddy. Because she was okay, just really wet.

OctoberWe headed off to go see the cousins in Arizona. They have a pool in their backyard. I swam 4 times a day, everyday. It was so hot, and the pool was so refreshing. Let me just say, I got 10x tanner.

November
 I am so surprised how well this photo turned out. I was lying on the ground with my shutter speed really slow and I finally got it. We were putting up our Christmas tree pretty early (not for us but maybe for you).

December
Christmas of course! And I got my very own, laptop!

We had an amazing year and we hope to have an even better one next year. Have a great new year everybody!

one chilly autumn morning

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one morning at 7:30 a.m. there was a crispness in the air. there was a breeze. the sky was grey and blanketed with clouds. it was finally autumn. we rushed to get our sweatshirts and stepped out into the cool air. we stepped across the dew-covered lawn and sat down. my brother and i just sat there in silence. listening to the many birds in the trees. feeling the chill overtake our bare toes. that morning, it officially was deemed autumn. it was beautiful.

Wet 'n' Wild Coming Back to Las Vegas

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The return of Wet'n'Wild to Las Vegas!  Many folks are quite pleased about the news, and even better the plan for the park is already well underway - to the point where the park is actually already being built.

Located in Summerlin, the water park will actually be a renamed and re-branded Splash Canyon water park, which was announced some time ago.  That park was slated to open this past Summer, but delays had it pegged for a 2013 opening.  Now re-branded as Wet'n'Wild Las Vegas, the park will be run by Village Roadshow, a large media brand out of Australia who owns and operates several theme and water parks.


The new park will cost $50 million to construct, and feature 25 different slides when it opens next Memorial Day.  Several of the slides are quite modern, including a Rattler and Constrictor, both from WhiteWater West.
Other attractions include a massive wave pool, lazy river, water play structure, and other towers including racing and high thrill plunge slides.  For a full preview, check out this flyover video that the park has released.
Village Roadshow also has water parks in Arizona and Hawaii.

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Holiday World's First Halloween Celebration

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Holiday World has successfully made it through their first run of Happy Halloween Weekends, the theme park's new family-friendly Halloween event.  The event marks the first time that the park, which contains several holiday themed areas, is celebrating the Halloween season.

In addition to almost all of the park's rides being open for guests, there's also plenty of unique Halloween themed attractions to experience.  Holidog's 3-D Halloween Adventures is a new walk through attraction in which guests help Holidog find his candy.  I know how important Halloween candy is to me, so I can certainly understand Holidog's plight.

A scene from Holidog's 3-D Halloween Adventures

The park has also created two corn mazes, one smaller one for little kids and an enormous one that's pretty impressive looking from the air.  There's new live entertainment, decorations throughout the park, plenty of family activities like face painting and trick-or-treating, and each Saturday night ends with a laser light show.  Sundays end with a gigantic dance party being held by Kitty Claws!

All the fun will be held at Holiday World on weekends through October 28th.

While unrelated to the park's Halloween events, this article does mention that the park will announce some new additions for 2013 in a couple weeks - though do not look for huge news.  Instead, the parks is already planning big things for 2014 and beyond, good news for us fans!

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New Mack Launched Coaster for Liseberg in 2013

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Sweden's Liseberg Amusement Park started hinting a few days ago that they had a big announcement coming up... but I had no idea just how big it was!

Carefully study this track layout... it is twisted!

Yes... turns out we're talking Mack double launch, 4,445 foot long coaster, currently named Projekt Helix.  Not clear yet on what the final name of the ride will be, but by my standards Project Helix is pretty cool on its own!

Taking full advantage of the hillside that Lisebergbanan did when it opened in 1987, Projekt Helix will start near the top of the hill and use gravity for just a bit before launching up into a huge overbanked turn, and then the journey down the hill begins.  The given height of the ride is 135 feet, though I have to wonder if that's the difference from the highest to the lowest part, as Projekt Helix is most definitely a terrain coaster.


As the train dives down the hillside it first encounters an enormous pretzel loop, seen above.  These are the first two inversions of the six found on the ride and coexist with four air-time hills and plenty of other twists, turns, and helices.  The maximum speed on Projekt Helix will be 62 miles per hour, making it the fastest ride at Liseberg.  The coasters travels up and down the hillside several times, extending over and past several of the park's other rides.


Projekt Helix will utilize the train design that Mack created for Blue Fire at Europa Park, which have had some excellent reviews ever since they debuted.  Above is some concept art for the coaster's trains, carrying on the green theme that matches the ride's track.

The park has also released this slick video of the ride, which shows off much of the $23 million ride's layout.  This is going to be one incredible ride when it opens, and I'm already looking forward to watching it built!

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We're Back, and We're Stuffed

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Well, after a Holiday Hiatus, we're back! First thing I want to do before getting to some editorials is to catch up on some of the bigger news.

So, the Transformers ride is opening. This is considered big news, so here's a recap. It's basically a new version of the Spiderman ride in my viewpoint, but I suppose this is a good backup plan for Universal if and when they ever lose their Marvel license to Disney. Slashfilm reported recently that the attraction vehicle is an actual transformer. Your car is a character. My good friends over at Topless Robot had this to say:

Transformers: The Movie: the Ride is just about ready to open in Universal Studios Singapore, and one of the local news stations did this report on what getting to the ride will be like. I feel like it's notable for two reasons:
1) That it could take up to 1.5 hours of waiting in line to actually get on Transformers: The Ride. The idea that anyone would wait up to 90 minutes for a ride based on Bayformers -- unless they were some sort of war criminal, and this was their court-mandated punishment -- depresses me to no end.
2) On the other hand, as the newslady is happy to point out, the walls surrounding the queue will be full of buttons to press and switches to flip, so that people can "entertain" themselves while waiting. By pressing buttons and hitting switches. Like developing infants do with toys.

As harsh as that sounds, I can't disagree. However, I'm sure I'll be amazed with the technology once it opens. You can make up your own mind by viewing this video.


In other news:

-I should point out that we have seen a new type of ticketing system put into use that could possibly eliminate turnstiles.

-Coney Island is celebrating its roots with some new construction work.

-Kennywood sold Pitfall, so could a new ride be on the way?

-TDS celebrates its 10 birthday just in time for the holidays.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! And if you didn't, it could be worse. The Pilgrims had to catch their own turkey. I'll leave you with a look at what that might have looked like, courtesy of Sally Dark Rides.

...we're back?

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Hello readers!

First of all, I definitely need to apologize for the lack of updates. I've been ridiculously busy with other things over the past several months, and I regret not updating this sooner. Sadly, I simply haven't had time. Thank you to those who have continued to visit and check on the site - I appreciate it greatly.

On that note, I'm hoping to get the site going again with news, Impressions, photos, and other possible new features. What better day to pick back up than on our one year anniversary! That's right, we've been up for one year today (even if we have been gone for several months), and that's an achievement I'm quite proud of. Thanks once again for your readership.

So, what have we been doing? Spring break this year included stops at Thorpe Park and Disneyland Paris, so expect to see reviews for those up sometime in the near future. On top of that, I still have one to finish off from last year; again, oops. Right now, I've just uploaded 100 photos from Thorpe to our Facebook page, including lots of pictures of The Swarm. Head on over and check it out, and maybe go ahead and like our page while you're at it ;)

I'll be sure to post as often as possible, but I can't guarantee daily updates right now. As always I'll do my best. For now, enjoy the Thorpe Park photos, and thanks for sticking with us!

-Wynn