We embarked on a huge adventure this week - a mini summer vacation. Since we took our trip to DC this spring, we didn't have the time, finances, or stamina to take an extended summer trip. We needed something cheap and close. Thanks to comp tickets from Tony's job, we have been able to make it to Holiday World about twice each summer. So, we decided this summer to take those two days back to back and camp in between. Yes, camp. Like, in a tent. Overnight. With three kids. We may be crazy...
Actually, the idea wasn't as crazy as it sounded because Tony and the boys have been camping a couple times with the Cub Scouts. We own a tent and various camping paraphernalia. The campground at Lake Rudolph is very nice and reasonable. They have (most importantly) clean bath houses with flush toilets and showers. Included in your rental fee ($30 for a tent site) is a pool, putt putt golf, two playgrounds and lots of kids' activities. So, we packed up some food and gear and headed out.
I took so many pictures that it was easier to make them into a movie rather than uploading each separately. So I'll narrate first and then you can look at pictures at the end.
We left Thursday morning and were at Holiday World not too long after they opened. We rode rides for a couple hours and then left to check in at Lake Rudolph. We had a picnic lunch and set up camp before heading back to Holiday World. We went straight to the water park where we stayed for several hours before stopping for dinner and more rides. We left about a half hour before the park closed to go back to the campground. By then, it was almost dark. Tony tried to start a fire, but several hours and three bags of starter later, we determined that we had purchased damp wood. We had a heck of a time trying to get Sophie to sleep in the tent - she wanted to jump on the boys, climb, bite, and tickle. Finally, I held her outside in a chair until she was out. At that point, Tony and I had a couple of adult beverages next to the non-fire and then headed to bed ourselves.
We got up early on Friday to break camp and head back to Holiday World. We spent the day playing in both the regular park and the water park, stopping to eat lunch at our favorite place (in the Thanksgiving area). Sophie was really tired on Friday and had several meltdowns (see the pictures of her laying on the ground). She finally fell asleep around four in her stroller. We fed the kids ice cream for dinner and left the park around 6:30 to eat a 'real' dinner in the car on the way home. We also made a pit stop at Santa's Candy Castle, which was a first for all of us and really neat.
Some highlights of the trip include:
Sophie really loved seeing Holidog. Her favorite ride was the "Merry Go Down" followed by the rocket ships and sea horses. I think she rode each of these about five times each.
Someone in our family rode every ride in the regular park at least once (most of them more than once) except for the Liberty Launch, the log flume, Pilgrim's Plunge and the Legend.
Andrew rode the Raven roller coaster and loved it this year. He was very excited that he was too tall to ride most of the 'baby' rides. I love that he still wanted to help Sophie get in and out of the little rides even though he couldn't ride them.
Aidan still enjoys the smaller rides, but is getting braver about some of the bigger ones. He likes driving the old cars and the bumper boats.
We enjoyed the water park, too. All the kids loved the wave pool, and the boys and I enjoyed racing down a HUGE water slide (several stories up). Sophie liked the lazy river and any standing water she could play in. She hates having water splashed in her face or head, so that limited her playing just a little.
We really had a great time, but have decided that if we go again we need to camp one extra day and give the kids more breaks to rest.
On my computer, when I tried to make the movie full screen it compromise the quality of the pictures just a little - just a warning.
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