ho ho ho holiday world!

my sweet little cousins (not so little anymore, 18 & 21- yikes!), the "gurls" as ben calls them,  offered to take the kiddos to holiday world on friday & let me have some r&r.  but, of course i wanted to tag along & enjoy in the fun.  this was a sad week for holiday world, as the president of holiday world passed away.   our prayers go out to his family & friends.  he did a great deal for the community & making the park what it is today -great family fun. 

edit here to add- on the way to the park we were talking about what fun it would be & how eggsited we were.  her comment was "it's gonna be a poopy on the potty kinda day!!!" (can you tell how excited we get about that or what when she goes!?


first stop was of course at the santa statue for a picture. 

the kiddos were in charge for the day, so we hit splashin safari first.  my kids are smart, best place to be on a hot hot day.

wow, the water park has grown since the last time i was there.  it is just huge & awesome, as the kids said. 

our first water ride was the lazy river.  i about drowned poor ben trying to get him into an inner tube.  sorry, buddie!  thank goodness he's a tough guy. 

gracie loved trying to drink the nasty pool water from every sprayer she could find.  yeck!

there were lots of fun little kid areas to play in.   so cool!

unfortunately, ben & grace were only big enough for the little yellow slide.  but they didn't seem to mind.

ben loved running through the rainbow sprinklers the best he said. 

check out that pose he's got there.  i'm sure it's a kung fu move or sumthing.

they had a blast splishing & a splashing!

we had pizza for lunch, which was quite yummy.  & of course the drinks are free, can't beat that!  my big boy enjoying lunch time.

a photo op in the water park.  it was too hot for the kiddos to stand, so the girls had to hold them.   my only complaint from the day - that concrete gets hot!

after lunch, we went to holidog's funtown & the kiddos rode their first rollercoaster.  they were pretty fired up at first.

up, up they went. 

after it was over, ben said "i never wanna do that again!"  check out the fear in poor gracie's eyes. 

our next ride was the train, i think every parent & grandparent's favorite ride.  the only original ride left in the park when it was good ole santa claus land. 

we rode in the little bitty kid section of the train.  the kiddos were a bit tired by this point. 

looking out the train..

all the nursery rhymes told in a matter of minutes...

gracie's favorite was the pig, of course.  she had to point that one out to us.  

another photo op.   cracks me up that they didn't put down their drinks.

& for the perfect end to the day, some ice cream & knock knock jokes that didn't make any sense.  they get their joke telling from me i'm afraid.  but, they were a cracking us up. ahh, i love my kids.

on the way out, we saw santa!  he was telling a story to about 3 kids so we joined in.

you think ben was a bit tired by this point?  no stroller for my kiddos, made them tough it out all day long.

thumbs up from the gurls.

a big goodbye hug to the big guy.

making a wish to end the day. (no, he's not peeing)

all the crew was asleep by the time we got home.  when we got home, ben went & checked on his & gracie's room to see if they were clean, because santa had told them to keep their rooms clean.  ben said gracie had some work to do!

oh what a wonderful day we had.  thanks gals & holiday world for the fun time!