Last week was our vacation week. We left on Monday afternoon and went to Lancaster, PA. We checked in at our hotel and then spent the evening at Dutch Wonderland. They have a great "preview plan" where you can spend the 3 hours before closing there for free the night before you use a full day ticket you have purchased. It was lots of fun! Dutch Wonderland is geared towards kids. Kyle could ride EVERY ride there and I think there were only 2 that Max could not ride. The evening weather was great and the lines were nonexistent, so the boys often got to stay on rides they really liked multiple times.
The boys got to bed the first night at the hotel (Max's first hotel stay and Kyle's second) around 9:30pm. Max fell asleep pretty quickly and Kyle took a bit longer, and they both woke up the next morning at their usual time (7/7:30am). I was hoping they'd sleep in a little, but no such luck! Thankfully they were super excited and had such a great, fun-filled day that they really didn't get cranky at all. We ate the buffet breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Dutch Wonderland for a full day of fun!
We rode rides, watched the Thomas show (3 times - Max loved it!), played games, and ate yummy park food. Kyle's favorite ride was the Kingdom Coaster. Max's favorite rides were the Dragon's Lair (a boat ride), the train ride that rode around the park, and a big rocket ship called the Astroliner. Both boys loved the Wonder Whip and the Frog Hopper and had a blast on those together! There were plenty of kids only rides, as well as family rides so we all had a great time! Kyle also got his face painted like a leopard, which he was very excited about! And Max rode a horse! So many fun things to do - it truly was a wonderland for the boys!
We spent another night at the hotel - made it to bed by 9pm this night! I guess the fun-filled day finally wore the boys out. They both slept in the next morning and we even had to wake Max up at 9:15am since he was still asleep. We checked out of the hotel and headed to Hershey Park about 30 minutes away.
We spent the morning riding rides. Then we walked nearby to "Chocolate World" and enjoyed some air conditioned fun during the hot afternoon hours inside this delicious building! We rode the Chocolate Tour ride. Both boys enjoyed it and Max loved it so much that we ended up riding it 3 times. And as a bonus you get little chocolates when it's over. :) The boys packaged their own hershey kisses in boxes with their pictures on it. And we all made our own chocolate bars - that was a cool process. You get to select your kind of chocolate, what you want inside your bar, and if you want sprinkles on top. Then you actually watch the process of your bar being made. Finally you design your own wrapper and then you get to take it home with you. It was a lot of fun! That afternoon/evening we went back out into the park and rode some more rides. Max rode his first real roller coaster called the Trailblazer. He loved it so much we rode it twice! Kyle was super excited to ride two other roller coasters as well. The Comet was a pretty fun and a big roller coaster and The Super Duper Looper was his absolute favorite and had a loop that went upside down. He was thrilled! We finally headed out of the park at 9pm and drove straight home. We got home around 11pm and the boys were definitely worn out. We all slept in the next morning.
It was a great vacation! We all had a great time and took lots of pictures! Max asks every day when we're going to go back. And they both talk about the different things we did and tell everyone we see about it! It was a definite success!
