Michigan's Adventure

This past Christmas, in an effort to give our kids less stuff that they don't really need anyway, we decided to give (most) gifts in the forms of experiences, such as a class of their choice.  This seemed to go over well so with J's birthday, his main gift from us was a promise to go to Michigan's Adventure Park in the near future.  Which, let's face it, is a gift to us too.  ;)  Nevertheless, we think a great memory will last much longer than a great toy.

Our scheduled visit to Michigan's Adventure fell on a day with temperatures above 100 and had to be rescheduled to today, which was only in the high 80s (trust me, that feels quite tolerable now!) and we were grateful to Matt's parents who were able to take our two year old for the day.

I'd downloaded the Michigan Adventure app to be able to pull up rides, maps and other info as needed-this was a helpful tool.  I'd recommend going with children that are at least 42 inches, as there are many rides that have height requirements.  (Lucky L is over 48 inches and could go on all the rides but one!)

The park opens at 11, with the water park not opening til 12, so we started out on the dry side.   

One of the highlights of the day was J's first roller coaster ride on Zach's Zoomer.

I just love the look on his face as we approached the start of the line and he could see what we were about to do:

Isn't that priceless?

 The girls went first to show it was safe:

And then the boys were on their way:

It was a success!  He was so brave that we soon headed to the next roller coaster, MadMouse, which the whole family could enjoy together in a 4-person car.

 
J was a good sport about splitting up and letting L do some of the bigger rides while he went with the other parent on some of his favorites.  (like the logride!)

This girl was SO brave, requesting to sit in the first car of roller coasters like Corkscrew and in the back seat of the Sea Dragon "because then you go the highest."
She definitely pulled me out of my comfort zone more than once!

The waterpark was lots of fun as well, though harder to take pictures at (obviously) and we needed to split up more so that one parent could stay with our bag.  

(We didn't want to pay $13 for a locker...I know, call us cheap.)

The kids loved the wave pool:

And after they got tired out there, a ride on the lazy river was just the ticket:

The Beach Party area (36" and up ) was also just right for letting the kids play and go down smaller slides on their own while giving us some time to relax. 

It was good to alternate the bigger amusements with slower, smaller ones,
which gave everyone some downtime as well:

 

And of course we had to do the obligatory pictures with cartoon characters:

By the time 7:00 rolled around, the kids were completely spent.  They were a bit disappointed that we hadn't had enough time (or energy!) to go on everything, but of course we needed to leave a few things to look forward to for the next time. We all had a blast and it truly was a gift to be able to spend a whole day just having fun together as a family!