Eric had the week off so we decided to take the kids to Adventureland in Des Moines for a couple days. My cousin Emily got us some discounted tickets so we picked them up at her house on the way. The weather was cool and cloudy on Thursday so we went to Adventureland instead of the water park like we had orginally planned. The older girls loved every minute of it, Eve wasn't crazy about the rides, she laid her head down in our laps, but she just chilled in the stroller for most of the day. I always knew that Ivy was kind of a daredevil when it came to riding the big rides, but Ada totally surprised me. She rode the Tornado and upside-down, loopty loop Dragon rollercoasters. She was so excited to be big enough that I think she forgot to ask what they were all about, and I didn't really tell her. As we were headed up the first hill on the Tornado, I started to feel guilty, she had no idea what she was in for. At the bottom of that hill, I think she wanted to cry, but I just kept saying "isn't this fun?! this is awesome!" and she halfway agreed at the time. When we got off the ride, she had a skip in her step and said she loved it.
That night we stayed at the hotel next to the park and went swimming most of the night which was fun too. The next day we spent at Adventure Bay water park and it was a perfect day for it. The sun was shining but it wasn't too hot. Eve had fun splashing on the splash ground and the older kids loved the slides and other fun stuff there. I was a fan of the lazy river, imagine that. I took Eve along several laps around it. By about 2:00, Ada was ready to leave, but the rest of us weren't. I think she was just tired from the day before because she laid down on the lounge chair and fell asleep right there in the sun. I put some towels up so she didn't get too hot/sunburnt, and she slept for about 45 minutes until we got ready to leave.
The only negative thing about the trip was that the water park didn't have a separate entrance, so we had to walk through the entire amusement park to get to it. It wasn't so bad in the morning, but after a day in the sun, carrying wet towels and tired kids, that was a long haul. Oh well, it's all part of the experience I suppose..