I had so much fun! But not at the bottom of the log ride. I do not like being lightly splashed while sitting beside a pool. Being on the receiving end of a water fall is not my idea of a good time.
Going on a progression of bigger and scarier rides was a terrific solution to the girls' fears. And we never had the problem of our kids not wanting to be seen with us so that is not a given. I think it had a lot to do with the fact we were always at their sports events since the age of 4 so they, and their friends, got used to us being always around. The girls always thought MrP was cute and funny and the fellas appreciated his enthusiasm and positive attitude. Me? Well, I made delicious brownies. Anyway, sounds like a great day by all and nice to know you had a young man come to the rescue.
Betsy has the cutest smile in every photo you've ever posted. She looks like she's a very happy kiddo.
The Brownie-maker is the most important member on any group. No wonder your kids wanted you around. Not having children who avoid you makes life so much easier.
Pics are so cute. Glad fun was had by all and some roller coasters were conquered! My daughter is heading to King's Island with friends in a couple weeks. They are all 19 and 20 so no parents needed. Strange feeling. Glad I chaperoned her trips like this growing up. Seriously the best memories! She still happily does parks with us old folk, but as I mentioned before, we can't ride all the big stuff she wants to ride, so boooo. Good news is that she never had a phase when she didn't want to be seen with us, so there's hope! ;-)
I was very impressed by Kings Island. Easily the best one I've been to. But I'm guessing your daughter has been there many times before. This is likely old news to your family.
It is a lovely park for sure. We have enjoyed it many times over the years. Looking forward to seeing and hearing about the next 3 times you chaperone!
Fantastic story! I love to know everybody spent the day well and sooner or later enjoyed the rides. A big hats off to Mr. 2010 - I have only respect for him and applaude his effort, cherishing and hoping for more guys of his kind.
The only time I saw a parent chaperoning was when back in primary school I was participating in a "tourist club", which was nothing more than on Saturday once in a month hiking trip in the mountains. The group was suprevised by few teachers, supported by a mother of twins from another class in my year. She was walking at the end to make sure nobody was left behind on the trail, helping put our shoes and backpacks properly, provided pain relief ointment or plasters if necessary and during stops held great conversations with whoever wanted to talk. Sadly, some people thought it was cringe of her to do so, making her suddenly stop accompanying us.
"I also had an app that tracked their locations, but I turned it off because it ran through my battery like it was mining Bitcoin" - this might expose how young and what sort of gamer I am, because I would probably use the Simile "ran through my battery like I was playing Pokemon Go". Seriously, the battery was disappearing from the Iphone I had when I played this game for a year in span of few percent per minute.
Concerts and football matches (plus back in the day F1 races) had for many years been the only occasions for members of my family to wear matching shirts. This way my elder relatives over the years received lots of admiration for raising sibling, cousins and me "properly" in love for certain kinds and providers of entertainment. But as you put it well, sometimes these things can make one swim in their own sweat, so I try to decrease my chances of it happening by having a light-coloured merch or ensuring there's at least a possibility to retreat indoors from time to time during an event.
I played Pokémon Go briefly at the height of its initial popularity, and you're right: That thing devoured batteries. Is there more stuff to do in the game now? It was fun but kind of shallow years ago when I gave it a try.
It seems we played it in a similar time. I haven't checked it in years, but after doing a brief research and seeing some of my friends still play it I'd say the essence of the game is still as it was in the early days, but they've added GO Battle League, where players can face each other globally in online matches, Raids that are group in-person gatherings to fight an over-leveled Pokemon located in a Gym, with difficulty levels and tougher forms such as "Elite Raids" or "Shadow Raids", as well as few more. And of course a ton of new Pokemons, some of regional speciality.
I'm sure it's changed, but I'm sure the thing that would surprise you is how much of it has stayed the same. Some of those wooden roller coasters were very old.
We used to have a historic wooden rollercoaster at a now defunct theme park in Memphis. The Zippen Pippen was a favorite of Elvis. He would rent out the park and ride for hours. It’s now at a park in Wisconsin. I wouldn’t ride it more than once. It seemed real rickety.
I recently had the good fortune to be at Universal Studios with minimal crowds. We ended up hitting all the Harry Potter rides and the fun coasters (look up the Hulk coaster, where you pass over the water, upside down). A total of 7 rides in 2 hours, which is a lot at Universal in Otlando during Spring/Summer. The only reason I finally stopped that day was a tummy hit by motion sickness. Thought that was the best action to keep others from any unfortunate incidents. 😕
I've run into that problem before. If the lines are too short, I get on too many too close together and start to feel nauseous. What fortuitous circumstances aligned to keep the crowds down that day?
I was lucky enough to be at a vendor conference and that was the entertainment one night. After the rabble, I mean general population, was kicked out, we had free run of the park. It was glorious.
I love this one, one of your best yet! I love love love the matching shirts and it's so cool it was at Betsy's suggestion. I get motion sick and it got worse as I got older so I do not ride, which made it difficult to encourage our kids to ride with my hubby who was always helpful with the reminders of oh did you hear a kid flew off this one last week? type comments. Eventually I settled on, ride it once and if you do not like it, I will never suggest you ride it again. Both kids grew up loving rides after that.
My then boyfriend now husband took me to KI in 1997, not realizing I hated roller coasters. (Don't remember it costing that much back then) I rode all of the roller coasters with him and it took him about 3 to figure out the green complexion was due to the rides. He later figured out how much I really must have cared for him to do the rides. Never again LOL
Hmmm, I was sure you were wearing a misinterpreted Star Wars shirt {or were intercepted by Star Trek fans drunk with dress code power) to end up in theme park jail, the glasses rescue was much more dramatic than what I imagined.
Love King's Island - glad to hear you are converting Betsy to roller coasters, a worthy cause.
It's a fake old shirt that clearly never existed in the 1970s, but it's fun and campy. Also, it was the only one Walmart had that day, so I went with it.
I have to write out my thoughts when reading you and seeing the picture of you & your daughter : "oooooh minou", french for which have translated into "awwwww kitten", you and your girl are so cute ! I wish I had pictures like that of my now passed away dad & I, but I only have pictures of him. Or I. Be proud of you as a father, you're the best ! We're the same age but I wish I had a dad like you...
You are a really good dad, dude. You can tell just by Betsy’s expression. Cheers.
You big fibber, James! You can tell by the look in your eyes you were having just as much fun as Betsy was xD
I had so much fun! But not at the bottom of the log ride. I do not like being lightly splashed while sitting beside a pool. Being on the receiving end of a water fall is not my idea of a good time.
Aww, both of you are too cute!
Side note - is "yolk" a typo? Seems "yoke" might work better in that sentence. Anyway, can't wait to read it!
You caught me! Fixed.
Perhaps the oppressors are giant, sinister eggs?
Going on a progression of bigger and scarier rides was a terrific solution to the girls' fears. And we never had the problem of our kids not wanting to be seen with us so that is not a given. I think it had a lot to do with the fact we were always at their sports events since the age of 4 so they, and their friends, got used to us being always around. The girls always thought MrP was cute and funny and the fellas appreciated his enthusiasm and positive attitude. Me? Well, I made delicious brownies. Anyway, sounds like a great day by all and nice to know you had a young man come to the rescue.
Betsy has the cutest smile in every photo you've ever posted. She looks like she's a very happy kiddo.
The Brownie-maker is the most important member on any group. No wonder your kids wanted you around. Not having children who avoid you makes life so much easier.
Pics are so cute. Glad fun was had by all and some roller coasters were conquered! My daughter is heading to King's Island with friends in a couple weeks. They are all 19 and 20 so no parents needed. Strange feeling. Glad I chaperoned her trips like this growing up. Seriously the best memories! She still happily does parks with us old folk, but as I mentioned before, we can't ride all the big stuff she wants to ride, so boooo. Good news is that she never had a phase when she didn't want to be seen with us, so there's hope! ;-)
I was very impressed by Kings Island. Easily the best one I've been to. But I'm guessing your daughter has been there many times before. This is likely old news to your family.
It is a lovely park for sure. We have enjoyed it many times over the years. Looking forward to seeing and hearing about the next 3 times you chaperone!
The medium sized wood coasters are better anyway! They have soul!
Definitely more character. And more shaking. Second only in vibrations to the bus.
Fantastic story! I love to know everybody spent the day well and sooner or later enjoyed the rides. A big hats off to Mr. 2010 - I have only respect for him and applaude his effort, cherishing and hoping for more guys of his kind.
The only time I saw a parent chaperoning was when back in primary school I was participating in a "tourist club", which was nothing more than on Saturday once in a month hiking trip in the mountains. The group was suprevised by few teachers, supported by a mother of twins from another class in my year. She was walking at the end to make sure nobody was left behind on the trail, helping put our shoes and backpacks properly, provided pain relief ointment or plasters if necessary and during stops held great conversations with whoever wanted to talk. Sadly, some people thought it was cringe of her to do so, making her suddenly stop accompanying us.
"I also had an app that tracked their locations, but I turned it off because it ran through my battery like it was mining Bitcoin" - this might expose how young and what sort of gamer I am, because I would probably use the Simile "ran through my battery like I was playing Pokemon Go". Seriously, the battery was disappearing from the Iphone I had when I played this game for a year in span of few percent per minute.
Concerts and football matches (plus back in the day F1 races) had for many years been the only occasions for members of my family to wear matching shirts. This way my elder relatives over the years received lots of admiration for raising sibling, cousins and me "properly" in love for certain kinds and providers of entertainment. But as you put it well, sometimes these things can make one swim in their own sweat, so I try to decrease my chances of it happening by having a light-coloured merch or ensuring there's at least a possibility to retreat indoors from time to time during an event.
I played Pokémon Go briefly at the height of its initial popularity, and you're right: That thing devoured batteries. Is there more stuff to do in the game now? It was fun but kind of shallow years ago when I gave it a try.
It seems we played it in a similar time. I haven't checked it in years, but after doing a brief research and seeing some of my friends still play it I'd say the essence of the game is still as it was in the early days, but they've added GO Battle League, where players can face each other globally in online matches, Raids that are group in-person gatherings to fight an over-leveled Pokemon located in a Gym, with difficulty levels and tougher forms such as "Elite Raids" or "Shadow Raids", as well as few more. And of course a ton of new Pokemons, some of regional speciality.
Love this! Family goals!
I went to Kings Island when I was a teenager. I’ll bet it’s changed since then. Still had a good time.
I'm sure it's changed, but I'm sure the thing that would surprise you is how much of it has stayed the same. Some of those wooden roller coasters were very old.
We used to have a historic wooden rollercoaster at a now defunct theme park in Memphis. The Zippen Pippen was a favorite of Elvis. He would rent out the park and ride for hours. It’s now at a park in Wisconsin. I wouldn’t ride it more than once. It seemed real rickety.
Excellent strategy, as you made multiple converts, along with Betsy! Here's to continued success on your future roller coaster endeavors 🎢
Forget politics and religion. Roller coasters offer the best kind of conversion!
I recently had the good fortune to be at Universal Studios with minimal crowds. We ended up hitting all the Harry Potter rides and the fun coasters (look up the Hulk coaster, where you pass over the water, upside down). A total of 7 rides in 2 hours, which is a lot at Universal in Otlando during Spring/Summer. The only reason I finally stopped that day was a tummy hit by motion sickness. Thought that was the best action to keep others from any unfortunate incidents. 😕
I've run into that problem before. If the lines are too short, I get on too many too close together and start to feel nauseous. What fortuitous circumstances aligned to keep the crowds down that day?
I was lucky enough to be at a vendor conference and that was the entertainment one night. After the rabble, I mean general population, was kicked out, we had free run of the park. It was glorious.
I love this one, one of your best yet! I love love love the matching shirts and it's so cool it was at Betsy's suggestion. I get motion sick and it got worse as I got older so I do not ride, which made it difficult to encourage our kids to ride with my hubby who was always helpful with the reminders of oh did you hear a kid flew off this one last week? type comments. Eventually I settled on, ride it once and if you do not like it, I will never suggest you ride it again. Both kids grew up loving rides after that.
My then boyfriend now husband took me to KI in 1997, not realizing I hated roller coasters. (Don't remember it costing that much back then) I rode all of the roller coasters with him and it took him about 3 to figure out the green complexion was due to the rides. He later figured out how much I really must have cared for him to do the rides. Never again LOL
.....bus wheel well seat...😝
Great picture of you and your beautiful daughter ❤️
Surely you could have forced one of your many siblings into that spot and claimed a better seat.
Hmmm, I was sure you were wearing a misinterpreted Star Wars shirt {or were intercepted by Star Trek fans drunk with dress code power) to end up in theme park jail, the glasses rescue was much more dramatic than what I imagined.
Love King's Island - glad to hear you are converting Betsy to roller coasters, a worthy cause.
It's a fake old shirt that clearly never existed in the 1970s, but it's fun and campy. Also, it was the only one Walmart had that day, so I went with it.
Major dad points 🥹
I have to write out my thoughts when reading you and seeing the picture of you & your daughter : "oooooh minou", french for which have translated into "awwwww kitten", you and your girl are so cute ! I wish I had pictures like that of my now passed away dad & I, but I only have pictures of him. Or I. Be proud of you as a father, you're the best ! We're the same age but I wish I had a dad like you...