Kings Island

Yesterday we took a mini-trip to Kings Island with the Smiths. We went to Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon, right after Maria's 4-H meeting, and were able to enjoy a nice dinner at Macaroni Grill and some hanging out time at the hotel. All the kids also went for a short swim in the hotel pool before we went to dinner, but the chlorine was so strong that they opted to watch a movie later instead.

We had a great time Monday at the park. Maria was all about the roller coasters, riding Flight Deck, the Racer, and the Beast. The first coaster we rode was Flight Deck, which we thought would be a smoother ride, and so we tried to get Sam to go on it. But he didn't want to, and I am ashamed to say I tried to convince him to go. But he held strong, so Maria, Mason, Ben and I went while the others headed to the Carousel.

It ended up working out, because it was a pretty fast, very rough ride. Sam would have hated it. I can't say I really enjoyed it much, and didn't feel great afterward. Mason and Maria rode it a second time, but Ben and I just watched. Meanwhile, Sam endured the Carousel and then rode the Scrambler with Lisa, which ended up being one of his favorite rides. So it ended up working out.

Over the course of the morning and early afternoon, the kids and adults split up in various groups so that the kids could do rides that they wanted to do - each kid was in a different range as far as rides they liked. Maria wanted to go on mostly big stuff, Mason went on some big things but liked the younger coasters better, Sam liked mostly younger kid rides, and Lindsey was all about the little rides. Ben was thrilled that Maria rode the Beast with he and Andy - it's Ben's favorite roller coaster of all time. I think everyone got to do mostly what they wanted and there wasn't peer pressure from each other, which was nice.

By mid-afternoon we headed to Boomerang Bay, the water park area at Kings Island. For the most part, Ben took the three older kids, and Lindsey and Lisa S. were on their own. Andy and I watched the towels and stuff while we had cold drinks in the shade. Not a bad way to spend the hot afternoon. The bigger kids went on a few water slides and Ben said it was his favorite part of the park.

After Boomerang Bay the Smiths headed home since they had work on Tuesday. We decided to change into dry clothes on then ride some more rides. The lines were so short yesterday that we thought we could ride some of the favorites another time before leaving. But changing into dry clothes ended up taking forever, due to a few reasons - mainly a lost locker key, hot and tired kids (especially Sam), and my dead phone battery, which made communication difficult. So by the time we came back into the park, everyone was beat. We ended up getting some ice cream and then Ben and Maria rode the Beast one more time while Sam and I rode the Boo Blasters (kind of like a video game and a ride) again. We ended up leaving by 8:30, and as soon as we got in the car Sam said, "I'm going to be taking a nap." He was that tired.

We all had a great time and made more fun memories. We also got lucky with the weather - Sunday there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms for Monday, and we ended up with no rain at all. It was a little hot, but not compared to Disney World heat. But I (and I think maybe the rest of the adults) felt pretty old. I just didn't feel good after almost all of the rides, and Ben got beat up quite a bit the last time he rode the Beast. At one point, the kids wanted to ride something and we didn't know if we had an available adult (out of four of us) who felt well enough to be able to do it with them. It's pretty depressing to realize my roller coaster days are over - it's just not worth feeling sick for the rest of the day.

Picture note - Kings Island is all Snoopy now, instead of the Nickelodeon characters. So the kids ended up meeting Peanuts characters that they weren't necessarily very familiar with. Sam still loves to see characters - always has. The picture of him with Linus is too cute - if you knew Sam as a toddler, then you know he also never went anywhere without his blue blanket with the tag on it.