Mind Flush: Forty-eight inches

In case you've forgotten, my daughter is now 48" tall, which means she's tall enough to go on many of the roller coasters and spinning rides at Cedar Point. This is a good thing, because if we'd had to hold her to the meager selection of rides available to the 46" tall kids for another year, someone's head would have exploded.

Liza has been in love with roller coasters pretty much since the first time she saw one, and generally she's not scared to climb right aboard and try anything she's tall enough to ride. Makes sense, right? She's always been the kid who wants to go higher, harder, faster, longer. So this year we got season passes to the park and have gone about once a week since school let out.

Once a week.

I'll let you absorb that for a moment while you think about how many nausea-inducing rides I've had to endure in the past four weeks ...

I don't actually mind riding these with her - just not half a dozen times in a row - especially since we've been going to the park in the evenings during the week to take advantage of the smaller crowds.

I mean, seriously? Fifteen minutes' wait to ride a coaster I've waited as much as 2.5 HOURS for in the past? Sign me up! Liza isn't tall enough to ride some of the most popular attractions, so we're doubly lucky and can frequently just walk right up and get onto our chosen ride. Sometimes we even get walk-on front seats.

Waiting in line isn't always a bad thing, though. Last time Liza and I were there by ourselves, we used the walking and wait times to concoct a story about her secret identity, The Pink Streak, fighter of crime and archenemy of the Iron Dragon.

Jason isn't that big of a Cedar Point fan, and he has to work during the week so that Liza and I have money for overpriced pizza and parking, so he's only come along once this year. I'm glad he did, though, since it gave him the chance to see how gleeful Liza is at the park, and it gave me the chance to ride some of the attractions Liza's not qualified for (yet). It's been killing me that I can look at maXair, and I can see there's no line, but I still can't ride it because there's no one with me to watch Liza.

Having him along as a photographer was pretty handy, too, especially once I told him how to prep the camera to get faster shots.

We're taking a girl-scout-camp-induced hiatus from the park for a week or two, but when we go back I'll have to bring the camera with me, even if it is a pain to lug around. I've had plenty of time to scope out some nice shots, and now I just have to work on getting the lighting and framing just right ...