Family Day at Dutch Wonderland

Jay and I decided on Friday that we needed to spend a family day since we have been so busy lately and have not spent much time all together. We decided to take a day trip to Dutch Wonderland. We really like Dutch Wonderland because it has something for everyone. It's a little heavier on the kiddie rides than a lot of places, so it's perfect for us. Any time Zach and Jay went on a bigger ride we just found a kiddie ride nearby so we wouldn't have to wait around for them or have a hard time finding each other later. Another reason it's good for us is it's only and hour and a half away, so we don't have to stay over night. Here are some highlights from the trip.
We started the day by riding one of the few rides we've never ridden before. It was kind of lame, but Ryan had fun "driving" the boat and saving us from the alligator. Then we let Ryan choose a ride. He chose the train which is a pretty good ride to do first because you get a look at a lot of the stuff there is to ride later. Then Zach chose the space shuttle, so I took Ryan over to the whip ride across the way and Lily and I checked out the ginger bread house right next to it. We went back over to watch Ryan for the last part of the ride. Then we all met up and headed over to the carousel for Lily. Lily loves the carousel. Maybe it's the lights and music or the smooth ride. I'm not sure, but she loves it. The rest of the day was similar in style with each kid choosing rides. Lily was content to run around the grassy areas and check out statues when the bigger kids rode rides we all couldn't go on together.


Ryan got to ride on his first real roller coaster. You can see his face in this picture. He loved it. That's mommy's boy!

After lunch we changed into our bathing suits and hit the water park area. Ryan and Zach enjoyed the fort area with all the big water slides. Lily LOVED the baby water slides in the other area, but I couldn't get a picture while I was helping her and when Jay was catching her I was busy with Ryan.

I did get some good pictures of Lily playing in the water. she really liked the springs that would come up and go down. I had to find one that didn't go as high because she kept getting sprayed in the face. When we found a little one she stayed there for a long time. She would laugh and poke at it every time it came up. Then it would stop and she'd poke at it some more. I finally picked her up and took her over to the slides again.

It happened to be Christian family weekend, so we got to meet Bob and Larry. That was fun.

We went back and rode more rides until the kicked us out at closing time. Okay, they didn't kick us out, but we did have to leave.

On the way out we got the see the princess, the knight and the dragon. They are the symbols of the park. They were really good with the kids stooping down to talk to each one and posing for pictures.

It was a great time. I'm so glad we went and made time for our family to spend together.