Idlewild Park, Ligonier, PA (August 30, 2008)

Idlewild has a giant ball pit where the kids (and adults) can play. We got in line several times for this...the kids loved it. Daddy would bury himself underneath the balls and sneak up on the kids and drag them under. Ryder's heart would pound and he would scream with terror, but he kept asking for more. Sawyer loved to jump off the edge into the balls.


Idlewild has a huge kids area where only little kids shorter than 4 feet tall can ride the rides. Sawyer and Ryder were a perfect fit for this area. Here they are riding motorcycles.


In the Storybook forest, they have exhibits for every nursery rhyme that you can imagine. Some are interactive. Here are the kids riding Aladdin's magic carpet.


"Little pig, little pig let me in"..."Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin"..."Then, I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down". Sawyer is definately not afraid of the big bad wolf anymore.


I don't understand carousels...they are pretty boring, but our kids love carousels more than any other ride. They would be happy going around and around all day long. Here is Ryder playing cowboy and leaning back on his horse.


This ride made Cody sick...it's called the Spider.


Daddy was the ball monster.


The kids sitting at the school desks in Mother Goose's schoolhouse at the entrance of the Storybook Forest.


Ryder trying to pull out Excalibur.


At least there were 2 steering wheels...both wanted to drive.


Old cars.


Old cars.


Boats.


Mommy shouldn't have been on this ride...7 1/2 months pregnant.

We took the kids to Idlewild park kind of as a last hurrah before Eliza has the baby. They had a great time on all the rides.

Presque Isle, Erie, PA (August 29, 2008)

Daddy.


Sand angels...Sawyer's creation...a little messier than snow angels.


The kids were so busy playing, it was hard to get a close up picture of them.


Fresh water (Lake Erie), but the beaches were soft, clean sand.


Ryder.


Sawyer.


Ryder wanted to be buried in the sand.


Pregnancy shot...Eliza at 7 1/2 months...looking beautiful.

Presque Isle in Erie, PA is only about 2 hours away from our house. We had never heard of it before, even after living in Pittsburgh for over 5 years. We thought we'd try it out. To our surprise, it was fantastic. The beaches were clean and not crowded...no stench of salt water beaches. We will certainly return in the future.

Splash Lagoon, Erie, PA (August 28, 2008)

We took an overnight trip to Erie, PA. The hotel we stayed in had an indoor waterpark attached. It took a while for the kids to get up their courage, but by the end, they were running and sliding all over the place.