Kings Island

This time last week we were loading up for our Kings Island trip. It wasn't a bad drive - we took a lot of dvds and Jason told the boys they'd have to take turns picking. We usually get about half way to Vincennes (45 mins) and there's a lot of complaining... but 2 hours into this trip we were still okay. The boys had very short naps (like 30 mins) on the way and then we hit "Boomerang Bay" - their water park. The water was freezing in most of the kiddie pools, but the boys didn't seem to notice. We really had to watch Owen because whereas Ben tries to stay in the safe spots, Owen gets himself into too deep water pretty quickly!

One of the favorite spots at the water park was in the kiddie pool that had fountains shooting up. Ben's obsessed with Ninja moves.. kicking and hitting, right now. He was punching and kicking the water that was shooting up. Then he'd stand on the fountain, effectively stopping it. Owen decided to try. He wasn't big enough to stop it with his foot, so he'd try to sit on it... usually missing the source of the water and falling right beside it. They had a great time.

Owen was up for the water slides... Ben wasn't sure at first, but ended up loving them. They also got a kick out of the wave pool... Ben was once again kicking and punching the waves. We left the pool at closing time on Sunday.

We stayed nearby at a Holiday Inn that was very nice and had a candy/cookie/ice cream shop just outside. We took the boys there for dessert and Owen was a terror the whole time we were in there. Hopefully it was just the lack of nap... we don't want a repeat of that scene again. Wow. Then we hit the hotel and bed... the boys slept from about 9:30 Sunday night to almost 9:30 Monday morning! They were definitely worn out. We arrived at Kings Island just before 11AM and stayed until they closed, of course. The favorite rides of the day were the Scooby Doo adventure (you're in a mystery machine shooting scooby ray guns at bad guy targets in a dark building), Diego jeeps, and for Ben... the "Beastie" rollercoaster (it's not named this way anymore - but that was the name when Jason and I were kids). Owen would ride the jeeps over and over saying "diego go go, diego go go!" He also waved to everyone as he rode around. Clearly he thought he was REALLY driving!

I went on the "Beastie" with Ben and fully expected that it would be his first and last ride on that coaster. As we went down the first big hill he was SHRIEKING and I thought that was it. Turns out that he loved it -- and went another time w/his dad. Jason said that as they were about to reach the top of the big hill he asked Ben "Is this where you put your hands up?" Ben replied "No, this is where you hold on REAL TIGHT!"

Owen did get a good nap in the stroller -- though he fought it pretty hard. We went on a pretty dull train ride and it did him in. The boys played games, ate a lot of junk food, spent more time in the water park, and ended the day eating hot dogs and watching fireworks. Oh and visiting the gift shop, of course. Jason had tried unsuccessfully (thankfully!) to win a giant (5-ft) Batman for the boys... so he spoiled them grandly with souvenirs to compensate for the Batman disappointment! Ha!

Tuesday before we left Cincinnati we stopped by the Bass Pro shops. Ben really loved the fish and live turtles in the aquarium. Owen loved the 4-wheelers. We could hardly pull him away. The boys also got a chance to shoot in the indoor shooting range... fun stuff!

I have a couple of pics of the boys headed into KI and then at the hotel and Bass Pro. We had a disposable in the park that is not yet developed, so I'll have to post those later...

Next stop in the amusement park tour... Holiday World in August!