Wonderful Wednesday

This morning the five of us left our house at 9AM to head to Knoebels. Since Paul isn't able to join us on either of our vacations this year (one week in Chicago/Ohio in April and one week on Long Island in July), I am very glad he can at least take off a day here and there this summer to go with us to amusement parks and such. He had been planning to go into work at his usual time this morning (he usually leaves our house sometime between 2-3AM) and then meet us at the park at 10AM, but he was tired (who wouldn't be considering his work day plus commute often exceeds 15 hours a day) and decided to stay home this morning. My dad had bought us tickets to Knoebels one day in September last fall when they were having a special that if you bought a handstamp that day, you got a voucher for a free handstamp in May. We used those four vouchers today. In September it was my dad plus the three kids who got handstamps. Today it was Paul plus the three kids.

In September my dad and Nadia had handstamps (over 48 inches) that included roller coasters, Ian had an under 48 inch pass with rollercoasters, and Oliver had an under 48 inch one without roller coasters. Two things changed over the past eight months. First, Ian now is 48 inches tall with shoes on, and Oliver is now tall enough to ride the roller coasters (42 inches is the magic number for four of the five big roller coasters at Knoebels). Knoebels was generous and gave Ian the 48 inch tall handstamp today even though my Dad had paid for the under 48 inch one last fall (and there's a big price difference). The ticket lady said they know that kids grow and take that into account. As for Oliver, we just didn't let him ride any of the big rollercoasters even though he is technically tall enough. I should add that we didn't let Nadia or Ian ride those at the age of four either. I would have let him try them a couple of weeks ago if we hadn't been rained out of using the free handstamps from WVIA. At least he was riding rides today, Oliver had to sit out of all the rides on April 30.

I didn't ride any rides today. I was the photographer and person in charge of carrying the water bottles, lunches, etc. Parking is always free, so our only costs today were the gas to get there and  back plus two sodas for Paul and one large pizza that we all shared for dinner. We spent 8 hours at the park. We left a little before it closed so that we could get the kids to the Alliance church on time. Unfortunately Oliver screamed his little head off when I left him (and was clutching me with all his might), but someone there helped pry him off of me, and he settled down soon after I left. Have I mentioned I will be ever so grateful when we are out of this phase? I was a little late for choir this evening. It was an absolutely wonderful day. The weather was perfect. It wasn't hot, but we didn't need to wear jackets. It was warm enough to ride the flume, but not quite warm enough for anyone to want to be soaked on the Skloosh. Many times the lines were non-existent. You could just walk right on to a roller coaster or other ride.

Many times Oliver was the ONLY child on a ride when he was riding it. Many times the kids just stayed on a ride multiple times without getting off. Oliver rode the kiddie rollercoaster about thirty times in a row without getting off at one point just because no one was in line to ride it. The kids rode a few rides they often skip because of longer lines such as the motor boats, big bumper cars (Paul took each child separately), and the skyway ride. Paul rode the Phoenix and Twister with Nadia and Ian multiple times (two big rollercoasters), and Nadia rode the Impulse by herself. In some cases it was the first time a child had ridden a particular ride such as Oliver and Ian on the Cosmotron. I took over 200 pictures. Of course many are blurry and will be deleted because taking pictures of people on a ride is not an easy thing to do, but I will share a few here tonight and post more in the coming days when I have time to go through them more thoroughly. I used my 50mm and 135mm lenses, and those seemed like very good choices for today. Bottom line is that it was a great day. The five of us were together, the weather was perfect, and we enjoyed the rides at Knoebels. Thanks, Dad, for the tickets! Next up will be Idlewild in a couple of weeks, weather permitting. We've never been that that park before, but I got our tickets a few months ago on Black Friday.