Earlier this week, Tim and I took the kids to Michigan’s Adventure, a regional amusement park that we’ve visited every summer since 2004. We love it – the price is right, the park is small and easy to navigate, lines are short, etc. Even though Cedar Point is about the same distance, we’ve never seriously considered taking the kids there because the tradeoffs (trading the things listed above for bigger/better rides) just wouldn’t be worth it.
This year was great for Allie. She has just hit 48″, so she is tall enough to ride all but one ride. She told us on the way home that “This was my best Michigan Adventure day ever because I got to ride all the big roller coasters!” She’s turned into quite the a coaster fan, and I’m thrilled. I’ve always loved roller coasters, except for the especially rattly ones. (Tip: Don’t ride something called “Shivering Timbers” if you don’t like the rattly coasters.)
Our mistake this year? Taking Jenny.
We usually wait until a kid is four to take them to the amusement park. We intended to wait until next year with Jenny, but this trip was planned somewhat at the last minute and we didn’t have anyone to leave her with. Adam and Allie wanted to take her with us, and she wanted to go … so Tim and I said yes, against our better judgement. (We even turned down a night-before offer from my sister to watch Jenny – we’d been telling her for days that she was going with us, so it seemed a little cruel to change our plans at the last minute.)
Turns out we should have waited after all, and left her with Aunt Betsy. We were so excited about taking her, but it just didn’t go the way we hoped it would. Jenny had fun, but wasn’t interested in riding anything except the really little kiddie rides. So, in the interest of letting the big kids ride big kid rides, we split up almost immediately, and Tim and I pretty much spent the whole day trading off Jenny and the big kids. It worked out all right, I guess, except for the last hour, when I somehow ended up with both Adam and Jenny.
Yes, that’s my three-year-old throwing a tantrum in the middle of the sidewalk at the amusement park. For those of you who think it’s so sweet that Adam was “watching over her” – this picture was taken as he briefly looked up from holding his head in his hands, saying “Come ON, Jenny! MOM, can’t you DO something?!”
Ironically, this was the second time she threw a fit that day – in pretty much the exact same spot. I don’t recall her problem the first time, but this time she was mad because she wanted to go back to the helicopters (kiddie ride) and I had the gall to insist that we let Adam ride some big kid rides for the last 45 minutes before the park closed. (She and I had just spent about two hours in the kiddie area, and I even bought her an ice cream cone.)
So, we’ll definitely return next year, but Jenny may be visiting Aunt Betsy that day.
(She DID have some fun, as you can see in the pictures below. Adam even humored her by riding on the Winky the Whale ride once.)
Book Mama 
Ha! I totally get this post. My girls are 10, almost 3, and 4 months old and if we go anywhere with the littles, my husband and I split up and he takes the oldest on the bigger rides while I stay in kiddie land. This will happen in a couple weeks when we go to my company picnic at a local amusement park (similar to Michigan Adventure, I would think). My oldest just spent two weeks in Michigan with my mom and my sister took her to Cedar Point for the day and they rode all the big rides. I was glad she got to go and have fun without me having to go with the younger kids!
Hi Katy – Nice to “see” you here. 🙂
Glad to hear that I’m not the only one who ends up having to split up when the littles are along.
That was nice that your mom and sister took your daughter to Cedar Point! Did she mind the ride lines? I’m afraid my kids would find it too frustrating after years of short (if any) lines at Michigan Adventure. In fact, I seem to recall that when we went to Disneyworld a while back, Adam was upset that we had to wait 45 minutes for a ride – aren’t the lines for the big Cedar Point rides longer? (They were back in the day, when we used to go every few years.)
What great photos! (Even the tantrum.) My favorite, though, is Winky the Whale. Adam looks like, “Can you believe what I’m doing?” And Allie seems to be working the camera and Jenny is just so distracted and in awe of it all.
Well, my mom bought the tickets and my sister and her friends upgraded them to “Fast Passes” which gave them quicker access to a lot of the bigger rides. They said that helped a lot! (But it was pricey). I am sure H would not have been happy with super long lines. They skipped the rides with the longest lines, too (mainly water rides, it was 90!)
C’mon over! I just bestowed a beautiful award on your blog!
Thanks Gal, I’ll come pick it up soon! 🙂