Dutch Wonderland!!!

"Mom, is that where the princess lives?"  This is what Ashlyn asked one day this Spring as we drove past Dutch Wonderland.  Right then and there I knew it was high time to get our children to this fun amusement park that is just a few miles away from our home!

 

Mike is out of town all week and so I was trying to think of some fun things to do with the kids while he's away from home.  I texted Lena earlier in the week and asked if she would like to join us for the day with her boys.  We planned to surprise the kids and go on Thursday! 

 

It was a gorgeous day and the doors opened at 10 AM!  We were there at opening time and spent the entire day riding rides and going on roller coasters and screaming with glee and excitement!  And when I say the entire day … I mean it!  I decided that we would stay as long as Austin could go.  He ended up going strong the entire park hours!!!  We were some of the last ones to wrap it up and leave the amusement park!!!  10 straight hours of a lot of fun, a little bit of drama, belly kind of laughter and even a few sad tears it is sure to wear some of us out!!! 

 

We took our time at each ride.  If the lines weren't too long, the kids would often get off a ride and get right back in line to ride it again.  There is a boat ride that goes on some smaller roller coaster tracks and splashes you a little bit.  This was a favorite for everyone!  I think some of us rode that at least four times! 

 

I tried to keep my camera out to capture the moments but the water rides, no thank you.  Too risky for the camera!  But every picture that I took with my camera is way better than any of my phone photos!

 

Here is one of the first rides the kids took.

 

Sometimes Lena and I would ride along and sometimes we just watched!!!

Adrian had this thing about raising his arms!!!  :)

 This ride seemed to be a belly tickler.

Around noon, we went over to the water park side.  The kids got soaked but it was so packed with other children, we didn't stay here real long.  It was time for lunch anyway.  We went out to the Yukon to grab some sandwiches and fruit and changed into dry clothes.  We were then ready for another dose of fun rides!

 We watched one of the shows and here's proof that a princess does really live here, right?!  :)))

 I surprised Matthew and had asked Benson to go along for the day!  I knew he would have way more fun riding with a friend his age than hanging out in the little kid rides all day long!!!  They had a total blast!!!  Every now and then we would meet up and I'd give them some water and food money!  They loved the roller coasters and bumper cars!!!

And when I went to take a picture they turned their heads.  Boys …

 When we went back to the water park side, a lot of people had left.  They laughed and laughed and got soaked all over again!  Austin and I went down the water tunnels together and he loved, loved it!!!  We must have climbed them 50 plus steps up to this ride, at least four times!!!  We yelled, "lalalala" the whole way down the water slide!!!

 

 I get annoyed at the "live photo" pictures my phone takes because it downloads onto the computer as a video.  Therefore the arrows.

But the merry-go-round was fun.

 Hunter and Ashlyn have so much fun together. 

And look at these cute knights in shining armor!!!

They have a kids roller coaster that Adrian and Austin got to do too!!!  They loved it!!!  This was a ride we did numerous times.

 Around supper time, the kids ate ice cream cones!!!  It was so warm and so the cold treat tasted extra yummy!

 Ashlyn begged me to go on the roller coaster with her!  Lena went on it with her first for a couple of rides and then I went along.  I'm not the biggest coaster fan but it was fun!!!  We ended up going two rides in a row!!!

 Brother and sister!!!

We were still warm and sweaty at 7 PM and the kids had a royal blast splashing and going down the water tunnels.  Ashlyn got Hunter convinced to ride down in the black tunnel with her!!!  They screamed the whole way down because in the black tunnel it's dark and you can't see where you are going.  But they loved it!  It made them really wet and they giggled the whole way down the ride!!! 

We finished our day at the park in the gift shop.  Ashlyn picked out a necklace for keeps and Austin got candy.  Matthew and Benson both bought a guys necklace.

By 8:30, it was closing time and we were tired!  Austin went all day long without a nap!  We were not on the road long before he was sleeping!!!  We dropped Benson off at his home and when we finally pulled into the garage, I was beat tired!!!  The sun, the rides, all the walking, the screaming on the roller coasters and the few disciplined times had me so ready for a hot shower and my bed!!!  The kids did better after lunch.  It seemed the first part was more whining but after some attitude adjustments and food in their stomachs, it went better!!!  Much better!!!

We really had a blast!!!  Going with Lena and her two oldest added so much more fun to our day!!!

Thank you Dutch Wonderland for making this a fun, safe place for children to laugh and giggle and scream with glee!!!

Now, we just have to remember all the fun details so we can tell it to Mike when he comes back home!!!!

Summer time is so much fun!!!  Now I can cross this one off my summer bucket list!!!