We are back!

From our little mini vacation to Kings Island! We had so much fun! The kids had a blast! It was their first time. And I found out it was DH's 3rd time! I was like HUH?? I couldn't believe it. I have been there several times, more than I can count.

I didn't get near the pictures I wanted to. It was so hard! We often split up and each took a couple or one kid(s). Madison was too tall for most rides in Nick Universe. And Liv and Tyler could only ride mainly those.

Our original plans were to hit the rides on Wednesday, and go to the water park on Thursday. Wed was great, no rain and beautiful skies all day! We got up Thurs and the clouds looked awful. It was even chilly. So we decided to ride rides again. We were there about 3 hours when it let loose. It poured for over 2 hours! We went back to the hotel and ate. Came back around 4:30 and rode till 10pm.

All in all, we walked (almost consistently) for over 20 hours. My feet feel great, thanks to my Crocs!

****warning pic OVERLOAD!****

Here is a cheesy ride, Shake Rattle and Roll. It is more like a carnival ride, but still fun. The girls loved it. I was hoping the Vortex would be going in the background, but no. This was on Thursday, when every single coaster only had one train going... :(

Here is my injury from Flight of Fear. Mind you, I haven't been to KI for over 10 years, so I had no idea what this ride was. Somehow (I still don't know how) Denny convinced Madison to go on it. For those not in the know, this ride goes upside down 4 times, all in complete darkness. For people like Denny and I, it sounded like a totally AWESOME ride! Anyway, they rode it first. Then I parent swapped and rode with Madison. She told me the only way she would ride it again, was if I held her hand. Fair enough. Well she kept her arms down so far, that mine was forced into the seat separator thingee. With that and all the banging around, I got this:



Here is Madison's favorite ride. She was scared at first. I don't blame her, it was her first time riding a REAL coaster!

This was Tyler's favorite ride, Swiper's Sweeper. He LOOOOVED it! His face when it went around the turn, was absolutely priceless! Liv liked it too, but not as much as Tyler.

Here is Denny and Madison on the Zeypher. She is in the pink on the outside. Denny is kinda next to her, in a grey shirt. Really hard to see in this pic.
This turned out to be Olivia's favorite ride. It was always be the Beastie to me!

Here are the kiddos in front of the fountains.

I was mad because every vacation picture never has me in it. Denny grabbed the camera and snapped this before the train took off.

Some sights in Nick Universe. Where Sponge Bob is, is a walk through where you get totally drenced. Olivia did it twice.
Shockingly, this IS a kids ride. It's the Rugrats Runaway Reptar and yes, your feet dangle. I am underneath it, waiting to ride. My girls LOVED it, much to my surprise.
This is another 'omg I can't believe this is for kids' ride. It's Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was fun!
Here the kids got to meet Scooby Doo. They also met Sponge Bob, Dora the Explorer, Diego and several characters from the Fairly Odd Parents. Of course, I couldn't get my camera ready fast enough for anyone but Scooby.
This pic was taken Thursday, after the rain. It looked like more rain was coming, but it just passed over. We were SO glad!
Here is Madison, studying the map, figuring what ride she wanted to ride next!
We were walking through Nick Universe, and Olivia began shouting "I see a hummingbird!" Sure enough, there it was!
This is Denny and Madison on Flight Deck (to the old KI goers, it's Top Gun) You can only see the top of Mad's head, as I was trying to snap the pic as they went by. I was really suprised Maddy rode it. More surprised she rode it TWICE!


All in all, we had a great time. I love the fact that they have Parent Swap. Makes riding more of the bigger 'adult' rides easier. We never did get to ride Son of Beast, Invertigo, Drop Tower, Firehawk or Vortex. It's ok. Lines were way to long. I did get to ride Flight of Fear, The Beast (still great and still my fave) and the Racer. Which kinda sucks now, as it only goes forward. I did manage to get Maddy an Tyler on the Viking Fury. People were screaming their heads off, and Tyler began to cry.

It's a totally different experience taking kids to KI. I really want to go back later this summer with just Denny. There was so much more I wanted to ride! We decided rather than to make the kids wait, we would only ride rides were the lines weren't long. Even with Parent Swap, it was sometimes hard.