Holiday World 2023

When Nichole asked if we would want to bring the twins to Holiday World with her family this summer, it was a definite yes from me. I have such fun memories from Holiday World and I couldn't wait to share the excitement with our kids.

After dropping Katie off at daycare, we met at Hardee's to eat some breakfast. Brady and Ashley wanted to sit by their favorite people, Aunt Nik Nik and Uncle Con Con. 

Our drive to Holiday World was pretty quiet as Brayden and Ashley fell asleep about an hour into the drive. I heard that Nikki and Connor weren't so lucky and that Grant and Emily were screaming and excited the entire drive.

We made it to the park, lathered up in sunscreen, and headed inside for some fun! After the typical tourist photo with Santa, we headed to 4th of July to let the littles ride on some rides their size. It took a little convincing, but Ashley agreed to ride a few rides. Brayden would get in the line to wait, but when it was time to get on the ride, he would back out and want to leave. So enjoy a few photos of Ashley on some rides.

Brayden was much more into looking at the park map at this point in the day.

Grant saw the mini Liberty Launch and wanted to ride it. I had hyped Ashley up enough about it that she agreed to ride it with me too. She was pretty excited initially, but I think her face quickly turned to terror while we were riding. At one point in the ride she turned to me and said she was all done and wanted off. I was proud of her for trying it out with me!

I think that ride was just what Grant needed to get him in the riding mood, because after that he wanted to go do the log ride. Eric and I knew that if the twins knew what happened on the ride they would never ride it, so we just told them it was a boat ride. We did our best to not let them see the big drop at the end of the ride. We got in the log and we were off! After going through the dark tunnel at the start of the ride Ashley mentioned she didn't want to do that again, and I knew that she probably wasn't going to like what happened at the end. I don't even know that either one of them screamed when we went down the drop at the end of the ride, but they were both a little upset they got a little wet and I'm pretty sure Ashley was crying. After seeing our picture at the booth, I knew that we had to buy it. Enjoy the sheer terror on the kids' faces! 

Eric and I both agreed that that ride pretty much ruined Holiday World for Ashley. After that she didn't want to ride anything and acted terrified about even the mildest of kid rides we tried to get her on. We thought that the ride would scare her, but then it would turn into an excitement about the ride and want her to do more things like it. Looking back now I feel bad about taking the kids on that ride without them knowing what to expect. But I do think that the ride really opened Brayden up to the idea about the thrill of rides, because he was much more open to trying rides out after that. Regardless, both kids agreed they did NOT want to do that ride again.

We hit up the Lewis and Clark trail so the kids could go on a ride that didn't have the scare factor. We probably should have done rides like that first and worked our way up to the scarier rides, but we will know that for next year! I did have to laugh though because we ate lunch right next to the Legend, and Brayden was talking about how he wanted to ride that ride (I'm guessing because it was Halloween themed). Maybe one day dude.

Then it was off to the waterpark! We made another mistake in our tactic here when we decided to do the Watubee as our first ride. We made it all the way to the top and were about to get in the raft when Ashley flat out refused to get in. We both tried talking to her to convince her to get in, but she wouldn't. We basically grabbed her and held her down and told the person to just push the raft down the ride. I think she cried the entire time. Again, probably not our best decision, but we hoped that she would think it was fun after it was over. She most definitely did not. 

I wish I had my phone in the waterpark, because Brayden was living his best life in Safari Sam's Splash Land and Tembo Falls. I would say he rode all the slides in each area, but I think a better description is that he rode a few slides a million times. He would get down the slide, then climb right back up the stairs to do it again. Ashley, on the other hand, never left my side. She stood in the water, or maybe sat and splashed in it a bit, but hardly did anything else. Emily finally convinced her to go down the tiniest baby slide a few times, but that was about the extent of her waterpark fun. 

Nichole and I watched Emily, Brayden and Ashley while Eric and Connor took Grant on the Wildebeest Water Coaster. Eric and I haven't been to Holiday World since they put the water coasters in, so we were both excited to try them out. Once they got back, we moved from Safari Sam's Splash Land to Tembo Falls, and then Nichole and I went with Grant to ride the Mammoth. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was so much fun! We definitely caught air a few times, and some of the drops were right after each other, which didn't give you much time to recover. Grant did not enjoy it as much as Nikki and I did and said he didn't want to do that one again. 

By that point, the waterpark was about to close. Nichole and Connor took Grant to do one more ride in the waterpark, and we took the twins and changed back into dry clothes. We headed towards Holidog Fun Town hoping the kids would ride a few of the little kid rides there before we headed home. We got them to ride the Holidog Express, I think mostly because we rode it with them.

But they would not even get in line for any of the other rides. All Ashley had talked about before we left was riding in the teacups, but she acted like they were the scariest things ever and didn't want to get in. Brayden did play a little bit on the play gym in that area, but we decided at that point that it was probably best to get out of there and head home. 

I think we made it home between 9 and 930 that night. It was a long day and everyone was beat! We asked the kids if they liked Holiday World and they both said yes. When I asked if they wanted to go back, Brayden said yes, and Ashley said yes, but she didn't want to ride on the boats (ha!). I promised that next time we go we would ride some different rides, and stay clear of the boats. 

Fun in the July Sun

We had lots of fun in (and out of- this month was HOT) the July sun. Let's take a look back, shall we?

Our month started with a little Fourth of July fun. I had the crazy idea that I wanted to go to the Dieterich parade. I'd never been to it before, and I definitely underestimated how big it would be. And how miserably hot it would be. But I do think that the twins enjoyed it. Katie enjoyed the air conditioning from the car with her Aunt Nikki and cousin Austin. Brayden and Ashley waved at every float that went by, and ate more popsicles than they probably should have (kuddos to the floats passing those out!). So even though we were all sweaty messes by the time the parade was finished, I think it was all worth it. We'll see if I get the crazy notion to try it again next year.

We spent some time enjoying that hot July sun in my mom and dad's pool. 

Ashley is a little fish and has really grown more confident in the water this month. She is even floating around by herself (in her puddle jumper and in a baby float) and is using her legs to kick and move herself around. 

I haven't decided if Brayden really likes swimming or not. After finally realizing that part of his resistance to go swimming was that he didn't like his swim trunks and much preferred to just wear his regular shorts, he has done much better. He refuses to wear his puddle jumper so when he is in the water, he is attached to my hip. And when he is in the water, he pretty much only wants to use a pool noodle on the jet to spray water on everyone else in the pool. The last time we were there swimming he also became very brave (or possibly reckless) and wanted to keep jumping into the pool from the side. We are really going to have to watch this one when we are out by the water, and hopefully we can get him used to wearing that puddle jumper so I'll feel a little better about him around the water.

We've also spent time at Eric's mom and dad's house playing on all their fun toys. Their wiggle cars are a clear favorite, and we ride them every time we are there. 

They really love all the concrete and sidewalk that Dan and Theresa's house has to offer, and Eric and I are excited have a big concrete pad and sidewalk of our own soon. 

In fact, our back patio was finished at the beginning of July, and we've been testing out our balance bikes on it. We haven't gotten the hang of our bikes yet, but they don't seem to really mind.

Thanks to all the rain we've had recently, we've been able to play in the waterway in our yard. Brayden and Ashley absolutely love walking through the water, apparently sitting in it. Seeing the joy on their faces was so worth the mess they were after they were done playing.

In addition to playing in the July sun, because of the crazy heat and rain, we also spent plenty of time out of it. We celebrated Grant's birthday with a trip to the bowling alley. Brayden and Ashley both really enjoyed rolling the ball down the lane. Ashley would jump up and down after seeing the pins she knocked over, and Brayden wanted to help everyone roll their ball. Brady did eventually lose interest, but Ashley kept at it until our game was done.

We cuddled up a lot on the couch and recliner together.

And Brayden and Ashley even enjoyed laundry basket races through the living room and kitchen. 

And a little update on the twins. Ashley is becoming quite the big girl lately. She's basically potty training herself, and has gone pee on the potty quite a lot the past few weeks. She's been using the potty at Amanda's house, and has even been wearing underwear (under her diaper) most days. She will usually keep it dry until around lunch time. We think she gets so focused on eating that she isn't thinking about not going pee in her diaper. She still likes to do everything herself, and has recently started asking "why" about everything, to which she usually answers, "because, mommy?", like that's the answer she wants me to give her. I do always give her an actual answer, but sometimes she just wants to hear "because", so that's what I tell her. She has started calling Brady 'Brayden Michael', I'm assuming from us calling him that when he's getting in trouble. And she absolutely loves Katie and helping out in any way she can with her. 

Brayden is still the biggest momma's boy there ever was, but he does enjoy a good horsey ride on Eric's legs. His language skills continue to grow and he is saying 2-3 word sentences. Ashley still blows him out of the water in this area, but he's getting there. His absolute favorite thing lately is tractors, I can't wait till harvest gets here and he can ride in the tractor again with my dad. Brayden loves Katie more than anything. She is the first thing he talks about when he gets up in the morning, and loves showering her with his big slobbery kisses and hugs. Every morning at daycare he has to say hello and goodbye to the chickens and tractor at Amanda's. And in the evenings at home he loves to give me a kiss on the cheek and forehead before he goes to bed. 

July sure was a fun one, and now we are on to August and my last month at home with Katie. Bring on all the fun to come!