My Sweet Sixteen

My birthday is right at the beginning of December, which is perfect because it gears me up for the holiday season although sometimes I wish that it was near the summer when it is warmer. Nevertheless, birthdays have always been a day of fun, surprises, and celebration for me. 

This birthday was no different in terms of fun and surprises, however, a 16th birthday just has its own special feeling – the feeling of sweet 16. The feeling that puts one in a dreamy, starry night thinking about the excitement of the years ahead! 

My birthday was on Sunday, but it all started two days early. A Friday evening with a hibachi dinner with a few of my friends in Tulips – one of my favorite restaurants close to my home. We had a great experience seeing all of the food being cooked right in front of us. Then came the cake with a special flower-shaped candle that played music while opening up. I loved it! I also received many gifts which were like an icing on top of a cake – a lovely teal sweatshirt and a nice phone handbag! When I came home, my parents had made 2 posters with a collage of family pictures and lined them with pieces of tape that had several bright colors and patterns.

The next morning was a surprise by my parents but as we were driving I kept thinking about what it was. Seeing the long drive and the big suitcase, I was guessing Great Wolf Lodge, a place I wanted to visit for a long time because I had heard of the amazing waterpark filled with many slides, and of course, my parents knew that I wanted to go there. To my 50% surprise and 50% hope, we reached there! ‘YAY!’ I and my brother shouted. Upon entering, I saw that the place was filled with Christmas decorations which exceeded my imagination. Now, I was happy that my birthday is in December! We immediately changed and went into the waterpark. I was so excited to see all of the fun activities. First, we got ourselves warmed up in the wave pool. Having cool water being splashed on my face seemed so fun to me. I stood in surprise when the big bucket of water suddenly fell on me. Then we went to slides without tubes which I eagerly waited for. Once we got up, I laid on my back and stared at the water coming from above as I quickly slid down the slide. Then we went to the long slides with tubes which had always been my favorite because of the extreme thrill that they provided. I screamed all the way through the twist and turns! The closed slides were the best because once I entered, I had no way to find out where I would go next. To end the day, we took a couple of laps around the “lazy” river in which I let my brother take me through all of the areas in which water was flowing from above.

We spent the next morning at the waterpark again, but we explored some other activities for the rest of the day like cookie decorating, mini golf, and bingo. We also brought a huge jar of jelly beans with different flavors which I had never tried before. However, my favorite activity was MagiQuest which is a live action role playing game in which I needed to use clues to find several items in order to get a special ingredient to help the main character. In my case, I needed to deliver a secret potion to the princess so that she could get better. It was very fun to be like a detective and search all around the entire area. Some of the clues near the end were very challenging because the objects were placed in unexpected locations, so the game never got boring. Also, it was an unique experience to be actively involved in the story rather than just being an outsider who is hearing it. After finishing the game, we were finally given the title of “Master Magi” which was a great ending to the fun-filled weekend!