Vacation--Day Four Dutch Wonderland

Today was spiky hair day--Carter and Alex wanted spiky hair, so we gave it to Aaron too :)

When we planned the vacation we wanted to go to an amusement park, but when I looked at Hershey park it didn't really seem like the right fit--Aaron and Alex were too little to go on most things, and our kids are less than adventuresome when it comes to those kinds of things. So when I found Dutch Wonderland I thought it sounded perfect for our family.

The kids could not pass one of these signs the.entire.vacation without getting a picture

It was so.much.fun. Seriously--this day is a serious contender for most fun day of the entire vacation (marred only by the fact that Alex went on one too many roller coasters and threw up all over the bench--After Matt had left with the two older kids. Leaving me with a baby that can sit up but isn't exactly trustworthy to leave sitting on a bench and a 3 year old puking all over me and him and the bench...luckily a stranger came up and offered me a huge stack of wipes saying "I won't use all of these and it looks like you might need them"....but I digress)

What made it so fun?

• There were NO lines--anywhere. We pretty much walked on to any and every ride the entire day. There were only two times that we had to wait in an actual line. The longest line (3 times loading) was for this ride--easily the most boring ride at the park.This ride consisted of riding around very very slowly and having a lever to raise and lower the scoop. Did I mention this was INCREDIBLY SLOW????? Caroline's face is the perfect expression for this ride.

• Kid Only Rides. How much fun is it to have a ride that your parent's can't go on? The kids loved their rides. I think this was one of the most fun rides in the park. You would go along the oval and the sides were slow, but when you got to the end, it would flip you around really fast--the kids LOVED it.
  

I thought this one was cute--Carter went on it too, but I thought it was longer than it turned out to be so the camera wasn't ready for Carter.

Some of the rides required adult supervision for kids that were under a certain height

• Nostalgia. For me anyway. When I was younger, my family would go to Lagoon every year. My mom (for many years) would make my sisters and I matching shirts/shorts and we would spend the day there. There were so many rides at Dutch Wonderland that reminded me of Lagoon when I was little...

Jennifer and I at Lagoon circa 1980

The sky ride was one

Their roller coaster was the exact same layout as the one at Lagoon--the structure was even painted wood (though Lagoon's was white)

The Log Flume--my favorite ride growing up

Lagoon had a sky slide--I once reached out and my hand dragged on the slide as I went down--it burned my left hand and the scar was always how I could tell left from right.

The tilt-a-whirl

• It was fun. Carter didn't like even the tame roller coasters at Disney World, but he loved these ones, Alex got to ride a roller coaster (one too many times apparently),
  

There were plenty of rides that Aaron could ride on

His first carousel ride
Carter wanted a picture with the Statue of Liberty (no Carter, this isn't the real one)

There were some beautiful gardens that you could take a boat ride around to see. This picture was actually taken while waiting for the kids to finish riding the kid Ferris Wheel--there was no line so the kids could ride as long as they wanted--they had fun talking to the other kids riding.

Carter with Dad's sunglasses

It was great. We rode almost every ride at the park and on the way home we stopped at Hershey Chocolate World for a quick tour and dinner at the Kit Kat Cafe--what a fabulous day.