A Day At Valleyfair

One of the things my kids look forward to every summer is Valleyfair! This summer is no different The one thing...ONE thing they asked to do was head down there at some point this summer. Our days are literally so full, I wasn't sure if we'd be able to make it there. This month, we had one day, a Sunday to get down there. When Valleyfair agreed to work with me, I knew we had to make it work!

Saturday night as I was going to bed, it was raining! I looked up the weather, and all I saw online was to expect thunderstorms on Sunday. Ugh! I even woke up thinking I heard it was raining. As we headed to church, I saw that there wasn't a cloud in the sky! I was thrilled...until we came out of church and it was completely overcast. lol We went back to the house to have lunch and decide if we still wanted to go or stay home. I convinced the boys to chance it!

The one thing I did before we headed down was print out prepaid parking, prepaid meal, and a prepaid cup that I purchased on the Valleyfair website. We saved a few bucks doing it that way! We headed down in the early afternoon! Took us about an hour to get there, and found pretty good parking.

I was shocked at how few people were at the park! I think most people thought the weather was going to bad, and decided not to go. Bummer for them, but score for us!! All Buddy wanted to do was get on the Wild Thing. That's his favorite ride. lol The youngest didn't seem to have a ride he absolutely had to do. He just wanted to ride. Me...I just wanted to go on the "mom" rides. hahaha Oh my gosh, I've SO become my mom.

I'm the mom who just wants to walk through the park watching my kids have a great time. That gives me so much joy. I love rides like the Monster, Scrambler, Tilter, and SuperCat. Now, I wanted to see if I could overcome my fear and ride the RipTide again. Well, I rode it. hahaha The youngest went with me, and he loved it. Not sure I'll be able to do it again on our next visit. lol If you watch my Instagram video of the ride, I'm on the back side all the way to the right. Everyone else's legs are flying around with the ride, mine are pinned to the ride, and I'm holding on for dear life. HA!

We spent the afternoon walking around the park going on ride after ride. It wasn't until a couple hours later that the boys ran into their first "line". I use the word "line" loosely since the line probably was 10-15 minutes. No complaining there! That was for the High Roller. My boys were in heaven with how easy the rides were to get onto. Literally it was get off the ride, get on the ride, get off the ride, get on the ride!

Dinner time came and we looked through our park map to find the Single Meal locations. We went to Planet Snoopy Grill since that's where we were. Buddy and I had cheeseburgers with fries, and the youngest had chicken strips with fries. The meals come with a drink. We had also filled up our 2016 Souvenir Bottle. If we had gotten there earlier in the day or had it been hotter, we probably would've used it constantly. Sunday was a perfect day and filled it up with one pop and one water.

Now, I have a habit that absolutely annoys the life out of my boys, but causes me a great deal of glee. I'm a screamer on rides, even when it's not necessary. mmmmm ESPECIALLY when it's not necessary. hahahaha Hearing my boys, "Mom! Stop yelling! Oh my gosh, mom, please stop! This ride isn't even scary!" Oh my word, I'm laughing so hard right now thinking about it. When my oldest daughter got there and we rode the Northern Lights, I maaaay have done a lot of screaming. She laughed hysterically, both boys kept yelling at me to stop screaming, and I just kept screaming. It. Was. The. Best. Ok, so I may have gotten on my own nerves with that ride. ;)

Let's just say, they all fought over NOT sitting with me when it came to going on the Corkscrew. heh heh heh Listen, if they're going to get me on something like a roller coaster, they have to suffer listening to me scream. Now, for some reason, the Corkscrew isn't one that scares me. Climbing, climbing, climbing, and then falling at an insane rate of speed scares the nonsense out of me.

I was so excited when my oldest was able to join us. She came after work and a meeting. We had a great time squishing the youngest in the Monster and spinning until we wanted to puke in the Tilter. Sometimes we were able to get those two to spin like crazy, but then the next time...no spinning. We couldn't figure it out. lol

We got a lot of walking in with this park, but never got to the Soak City Waterpark. I had the boys bathing suits in my bag just in case they wanted to go get wet! It was fun watching people going down the slides! Next time I plan on going early in the morning as soon as the park opens and staying until it closes. The 4 of us definitely closed the place down. Our mosquito bites are evidence of that!

I have a list of what you should absolutely bring to Valleyfair or any amusement park you might be visiting this summer. I remembered most things as I went through our day.

1. bandages

• Someone will end up needing one either because of all the walking you do and getting blisters, or from a boo boo

2. variety size of baggies

• These come in handy for the things you don't want to get wet. Stick your phone in one, your car keys, credit card(s), tickets you've printed ahead of time, and anything else you need to stay dry

3. rain poncho

• Check out the weather, and bring a poncho if any rain is in the forecast. They're also nice to have if you're going to do rides that get people wet, but you want to stay mostly dry

4. ibuprofen

• It's entirely possible someone will end up needing a pain reliever of some sort

5. dry socks & shoes and extra underwear

• You will thank me for this one. Even if it's just a pair of flip flops at the end of the day, you'll like having dry feet. I can't say enough about having dry underwear once the rest of your clothing dries

Be sure to follow Valleyfair on Facebook & Twitter to keep up with all the fun at their park!

Which amusement park did you visit last?