Here are the girls going around in a "boat".
Lydia really loved this ride that whipped the riders around a corner. She had the biggest smile on her face every time she rode it. Karina never did give it a try unfortunately.
Karina did end up going on this similar plane ride that whipped you around on the ends.
Derek got into the act on a few rides. Here he is with Karina on a kiddie carousel with Karina showing him how to ride.
Then I got to ride with him on a family carousel. He was so happy to be there with all of us, I don't think he even realized that we mistakenly wound up on a stationary horse instead of one that goes up and down.
And one more picture on the kiddie carousel.
They had a water park area that we enjoyed for a few hours the second day. As much as we tried to get the kids over to the larger swimming pool, they only wanted to play in the splash pad (and some climbing equipment off to the side). I was hopeful that the swimming lessons the girls have done would have helped them feel more comfortable in deeper water (if not able to actually swim), but no such luck. This teeter-totter was a hit for all the kids.
There was a storytime area where some theater actor types got volunteers (kids and adults) to come up, play dress-up, and act in a nonsensical fairy tale play. The girls were very excited to go play dress up and be princesses. They were asking for someone to come up and play the city's mayor and the kingdom's king and weren't getting any volunteers. Finally, I went up there to say I would be the mayor - they took a look at me and told me I would make a better king, so I got to be the king with my daughters being among my princesses. Here are the princesses carrying my cloak as I ham it up for the crowd.
Me and my princesses:
We took turns going around a track in bumper cars so one of us was always with Derek, who was too small to ride. Here's Tanja with Lydia.
When it was my turn with Karina, I asked her if she wanted me to drive crazy. She said yes, so I made sure to ram a few people and be as aggressive as I could going around the race track. She was laughing and smiling throughout our race, so I guess she had fun.
Our third day at the park, we had to check out of the hotel where we had been leaving Snoopy the previous two days. There were plenty of dogs at the amusement park, as they were allowed to come, but Snoopy doesn't do well with crowds, loud noises, or other such things that you would find at an amusement park. It didn't help that this was a Saturday, so the park was much more crowded than the previous two days. It was too hot to leave him in the car, so to keep Snoopy moving, after a couple minutes of trying to get him to walk, Snoopy took Derek's spot in the stroller. Had we planned ahead, we would have brought his doggie stroller which would have been more comfortable, but he was eventually content in his regal perch.
We obviously got a lot of comments from other people about Snoopy in the stroller. He attracted a lot of attention and affection from other park goers, for good reason.
I was surprised I was able to convince the girls to ride this kiddie roller coaster. I was watching the adults and noticed that they were getting whipped around more than the kids were. Each time the roller coaster made a circuit, it would pause and let any kids out who wanted to get off, and Lydia decided she had enough (you can see her hiding her head during the ride in the picture below). I was proud of Karina that she stayed on for the entire ride, though she did say that she didn't really like the ride very much.
They were also initially nervous about the Ferris Wheel, but I really wanted them to go on it with me. This one was much more exciting for them than the roller coaster.
Snoopy was such a good boy that he politely stayed sitting in Derek's stroller unattended while we all rode the Ferris wheel. He was great about staying in the stroller even if we weren't nearby. We could park him somewhere and leave for a few minutes for a ride and come back to him waiting patiently.
Lydia's favorite ride was this sky ride/converted ski lift. She rode it the second day with Tanja and Karina, then wanted to go on it again the last day, so I got to go with her. It was nice and relaxing. At the end when she had to get off, I told her she had to get off and run ahead so it wouldn't hit her and mow her down. Of course, she wound up accidentally running in a circular pattern back toward where you would get back on instead of straight ahead like I meant. Fortunately, she didn't get run over as I called to her to get to the exit before the slow moving chair lift made it back around to her.
Back at home, Derek hit the 18-month mark last week, and he had his 18-month appointment with the pediatrician yesterday. Here are his 18 month stats:
Height: 35.5 in (>99th %)
Weight: 29 lbs 4 oz (95th %)
Head circumference: 51 cm (>99th %)
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