We've Fallen In Love with Ohio...

I feel as though this entire summer has been a series of road trips! We've covered Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. And now, my family can add Ohio to our list of places we've visited this year.

Patrick and I are huge roller coaster fans. So it's a BIG BIG deal to us that all 3 of our kids are also adrenaline junkies. We love Six Flags in Gurnee, Illinois, and go there every summer, but it was the only Amusement park (outside of Disney) that my children had ever attended. It was time to expand our horizons...

Thankfully, they can now add Cedar Point to their list!

Even better, they got to experience Cedar Point during their Halloweekends, where the park is all decorated for Fall. There are several haunted houses that open at nighttime and everywhere you turn you'll find a skeleton in a sad predicament, a troll with a weird tale to tell or a creepy band cranking out some Monster Mash. Don't worry about your little ones, though. The overall effect is still suitable for young children. No bloody gore was present in the park. (Though I can't speak for the Haunted Houses!) See? Spooky Snoopy. Cute!

Because she's always so generous to us and because she also LOVES roller coasters, we brought along my mother-in-law. This was helpful not only because she provided an extra person to help with the odd number in our family, but also because we would have probably eaten at McDonald's the entire trip, if not for her. Love you! Thank you!
My dear Mother-in-law being gently accosted by a ... werewolf? Not sure. But they were really well trained. No screaming kids in sight. My own kids think that the costumed people are funny, but I know a lot of children are freaked out by them.
Evan and Corinne had to make sure, one last time, which rides everyone could go on. There ARE a lot of rides for little kids, but I was SO HAPPY that all of my kids were over 48" tall. That seems to be the cut off for the majority of the coasters. Corinne was able to ride about 85% of the rides, Evan about 95% and Justin could ride all of them. We were PUMPED.


Waiting in line for the Iron Dragon, a slower coaster that is suitable for smaller children, but still has some speed and crazy twists to it. We rode it a LOT. Especially at night time, when the fog machine was pumping a mist over the lake. Corinne thought it was deliciously spooky.
Look at their faces! Aren't they adorable? The Wildcat looks like a tiny little coaster, but Oh My Gosh! It has some serious speed for a mini-ride! Hold on tight at the end, though. Those brakes'll shock you...
It's difficult to get a serious picture of Justin, so I took this one before he knew what hit him. See that in the background? That's the Top Thrill Dragster. It's one of the fastest coasters in the world and only lasts 16.8 seconds. (It's the ride you go on instead of having coffee.) We had early entry to the park because we were staying on the property, so we sped directly to this ride and only had a 10 minute wait. I HIGHLY recommend heading straight to The Dragster, first thing in the morning. It gets some serious lines as the day progresses and you do NOT want to miss it. Don't worry about how freaky it looks or how fast it goes or that you shoot straight up and then straight down. Don't let your nerves talk you out of this ride! It is WORTH IT. The adrenaline rush we had after riding the Dragster lasted for a good hour and we walked around with dopey grins on our faces.

Yeah, she's not really scared. I don't think anything scares this child. Not even the Millennium Force! Just look at this ride: It's enormous and she's only FIVE and yet Corinne and Evan climbed right on board with me and Pat and HELD THEIR HANDS IN THE AIR. I don't know if their fearlessness is a good thing or something to worry about, but since I can't change it, I'm gonna embrace it!

If you are thinking about going this year, there are still some really good deals for tickets available online. You can save tons buy purchasing online and I highly recommend staying on-site so that you can get that early entrance to the park. It's also fabulous to be able to just walk back to your room, without having to deal with buckling sleepy children into the car.

Check out the Cedar Point site for more information. I know that my own family is raring to go back again!


*Disclaimer: I received our tickets for the park entry and 1 night's hotel accommodations from the Cedar Point public relations in exchange for my opinions. But the opinions remain my own, as they always do, and no money was received.