We love amusement parks!

Ever since I was a very young child, I have loved amusement parks. I was riding big roller coasters at a very young age because the safety rules were a lot different in the 70's. It thrills my heart that my three kids all love riding rides. Ian is the most fearful of the three, but he does enjoy the flume, tea cups, kiddie roller coaster, Merry Mixer, and such in addition to the kiddie rides. The only ride he did today that he did not enjoy was the Frogger. Nadia loves that ride. I didn't realize Ian hadn't ridden it before, but it was quite obvious that it was his first time, and he wanted off ASAP. He was on the adult bumper cars (with Paul) for the very first time today, and he LOVED it. We went to Knoebels once in April and once in May (last Thursday) and on June 2nd already made our trip for this month. We wouldn't  have planned two trips so close together, but we wanted the kids to be able to enjoy the flume and Skloosh (involve getting wet), and it was WAY too cold last Thursday. The rates go up on June 11, so we wanted to go by June 10, and the weather forecast yesterday showed that today would probably be the nicest day. So the five of us spent 7 hours at Knoebels. We could have spent 8 hours, but Nadia had her last soccer practice at 6pm this evening.

Looking over our plans for the year, it seems that we will probably spend 11 days at amusement parks in 2014 - 4 days at Knoebels (the final trip will be in August, September, or October with Yvonne's kids), 1 day at Sesame Place (next week), 1 day at Magic Kingdom (July), 1 day at Hollywood Studios (which I think of as MGM), 1 day at Hershey Park in December, 1 day at Six Flags in MD (end of June), and 2 days at Del Grosso's (July 24 and September 1). Paul and I haven't been to Dorney Park in more than 15 years, and it's been even longer since we've been to Hershey Park in the summer. Some year we'll take the kids to those parks, but for now, aside from the two very expensive days at Disney, we're sticking to parks that cost less than $20/ day per person. In the past we've taken the kids to ride rides at the Carnivals the fire companies put on, but we've stopped doing that, but we have found one fair (Lycoming County) that is very nice and super affordable. If you count that day in July, the kids will be riding rides 12 days this year! Although it will be simpler once all three kids are at least 42 inches tall (first I am looking forward to when Oliver is 36 inches tall), I admit that I will probably shed a few tears once all three kids have outgrown the kiddie rides. We should have at least 3-4 more years before that happens!

As is the norm when I am at an amusement park with my kids, I took more than 100 pictures today. More will come later this week!