My kids just finished their sixth week of school and have already received interim report cards. But, given that everyone else is going back to school now, it seems like a good time for a How I Spent My Summer Vacation post. (Okay, and honestly, with four kids now in school, it's taken me this long to get organized enough to write a post.)
This summer we headed to Ohio to see family. Our vacation included time in both northern and southern parts of the state. While in Cincinnati, we spent a day at King's Island, a great amusement part with a fantastic kids' area. While we were there, Mike said, "Mom, you have to write about this!" So this post is for Mike.
Aside from a couple of relatively short days spent in the Magic Kingdom when we went to my cousin's wedding in Orlando five years ago, my kids have never been to an amusement park. And although that was Disney, they were so little that Ree is the only one who remembers it. So this was a whole new adventure.
Our kids work better with preparation, so before we went, we showed the kids the website (more than once, of course, at their request, as they tried to memorize all of the rides and map out the best course for the day). And we mentioned waiting in lines, especially to Nati, who has no patience. Then we crossed our fingers, coated ourselves in sunscreen, grabbed three grandparents to help, and off we went.
We went on a Thursday when the park was pretty empty and the temperatures stayed around 80 degrees. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. We arrived right as it opened. We were able to walk right in, and we soon took the obligatory pic in front of the Eiffel Tower.
We headed toward Planet Snoopy, the kids' area, which has won numerous awards. We had no real basis for comparison, but to us, it was fantastic. I figured we'd spend the morning there and then check out the rest of the park in the afternoon, but there ended up being so much to do that except for a lunch break, we ended up staying there until we left at 7pm.
I have relatively few pics of the rides, mostly because I am a big kid and I gleefully road all of them with the kids. We were also grateful to have grandparents along to help since many of the rides required an adult to sit with each child and it would've been really difficult if Jeff and I had to take one kid at a time on the ride while the other stayed with the other three kids.
Waiting in line, brothers gotta hug.
Natalia found and hugged every character she could find. This was a country Charlie Brown.
Mike and Gran riding in the front seat of the roller coaster followed closely by Grandpa Jim and Ree.
The rides were great, but I have to admit I was completely gleeful to discover there was a petting zoo. It was a fun and relaxing break to just hang out with the animals for a little while.
And Natalia did not like waiting in line. But she didn't torture us too much. I would call that a successful day!
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