Knoebels Days

We had two trips to Knoebels Amusement Park last week! If you aren't familiar with it, Knoebels is a free admission (and free parking!) amusement park near us, which also features camping and lots of pavilions that can be reserved for events.  It is a great place to go with little people, because they have lots of kiddie rides and we pay tickets per ride, so there's no "we paid for this so we are gonna do every ride in this place!" mentality. We can simply go for a few hours, enjoy the park, and then drive the 15-20 minutes home.

On Thursday, our MOPS group had a picnic dinner at Knoebels.  It's the first time this year that we have been there, and Collette had a great time! Since it was a week night evening, there were no lines for kiddie rides and she even got some extra-long rides from the operators. :)

This is the ride the Collette was most excited about.  Called "Ribbit," it's a "big-kid" ride, and kids need to be at least 36 inches to ride it with an adult.  I was worried it would be too scary for her, but LL convinced me that she would be fine.  

Clearly, she meets the height requirement!

I volunteered to stay wit Trey while LL and Collette went on the Ribbit.

I'm not sure if you can see it (maybe you should click on this one to enlarge it) but that look is sheer joy on her face.  LL has started calling her our little Adrenaline Junkie.  He may be right!

Just to give you an idea of the scale of the ride, here it is from a distance.

Crazy kid.  

On Saturday, LL had his work picnic at Knoebels, so back we went. :)  Each year, the clinic picks a different theme for the party.  This year, it was a safari theme.  So much fun!

Miss Cutie Pie posing by the zebra :)

Decorations included these awesome masks:

And a parrot pinata!

And Collette got to hang out with her "big girl" friend, Darby.

We decided to bring the side-by-side double stroller this time...I got it for super cheap at a yard sale, and Trey is now big enough he can sit in it, so we don't need to lug the bigger sit-and-stand stroller along.  We didn't bring the stroller on our first trip, but Collette was dragging by the end of the night. Walking from the parking lot to all of the rides and back got long for her little legs! Collette was so excited when we broke out the new stroller, and immediately claimed "her" side in it.

(Oh yeah... we got safari hats, too!)  

A few of Collette's favorite rides-- the boats:

The planes (you should have seen her "sighting" her gun... so funny!)

And of course we had to go back to the Ribbit!

We also took Trey on his first ride! We all rode "Little Smokey," the coal-powered train. The kiddos were both getting tired by that point, but they still had a blast!

We had such a good time, and thanks to free tickets provided by LL's work, both trips were completely free! I think we may be back a couple more times this summer. :)