We took a short drive down the NYS Thruway on Friday and took the boys to Darien Lake for the day. It was overcast and cool when we got there. A perfect day for an amusement park visit!
Ian had a wonderful time at Darien Lake. He did a great job taking turns, standing in line, holding hands, etc. Our biggest issue was that we pretty much had to drag him away from a few rides kicking and screaming. If it were up to him, he would have ridden only 1 ride that day. (That would have been unfortunate since the first ride of the day was the carousel!)
Ian’s first big boy ride was something called “Raging Seas” (I believe). We had so much fun and were both laughing our heads off. I think we rode this 3 times in a row!
Overall, Ian didn’t really understand that there were a ton of different rides to go on and that it would be fun to try them all out. 🙂 We had to pretty much drag him away and show him the next ride…at which point, he’d love it and not want to leave. Aaaah!!!
We finally had to explain that he had a 2 ride limit on each ride we tried. After 2 rides, we had to go try something else. It helped a lot but we still periodically had issues. No amusement park visit would be complete without a tantrum-ing toddler, right? 😉
After the “Raging Seas” ride, we went over to the old fashioned cars ride. This was a great ride for Ian as he was able to steer and drive the car like a big boy.
We even went back at the end of the day so that Ian could ride a few more times with Daddy!
I think Ian’s favorite ride was what he called “bumpy roller coaster”. He probably rode this ride 15-20 times. Because he loved this ride so much, we bent our 2 ride maximum rule and let him ride over and over again. As a result, I think about half of his turns on this ride was straight in a row without getting off! It probably comes as no surprise when I say that we had the hardest time getting him away from the roller coaster!
I can’t really blame him for his obsession with the roller coaster. He comes from a long line of roller coaster enthusiasts (well, except for his daddy)!
What’s a kid to do but throw caution to the wind and put those hands in the air!?!
We had a nice break in the day when we stopped to watch the Bob the Builder show. Ian LOVED the show! One of the park employees even commented to me on how much fun Ian had!
He was beyond excited to go up on stage for a picture with Bob!
Ian checked out a few more of the kiddie rides after the Bob the Builder show.
Ian and I rode this awful, terrible, no good, torture device…it was the first time in my life that I nearly got sick on a ride!
Here we are before it started moving when I thought all was okay with the world.
And here you can watch me turn green as the ride starts moving!
Ian and Daddy rode some teacups!
While Ian was on the swing ride, he saw a water ride that he was interested in. Unfortunately, Ian was too short to go on it so Mike and Ian made the best of the situation. They walked over and stood on the bridge that crosses over the boats. They got a HUGE splash!
(Advance the video to the 1 minute mark to skip a whole lot of boring nothingness!)
Big smiles for everyone!
Ian was super excited to try out the bumper cars!
Unfortunately, he just couldn’t seem to get the car to move. He was so confused!
Matthew was a very good boy at the park. For the most part, he sat in his stroller and people watched.
We got him out periodically to stretch his legs.
He even went on a ride!
And of course, there was much napping!
All in all, it was a great day! Ian was having such a good time that we hated to leave but based on how quickly the boys fell asleep, I think we left at the perfect time!
Because no one in their right mind wants to read a blog post with all 72 pictures, here is a LINK to all of the pictures! Enjoy!