Summer Vacation 2012 - Cedar Point

The Bird family Summer Vacation started Sunday after church on July 22nd.  We packed our dinner and headed out of town so that we could be in Ohio rested up for our big day Monday morning.  We have heard about and watched specials about Cedar Point and the amazing roller coasters that they have there.  It did NOT disappoint.  Though the first ride had a 2 hour wait (but totally worth it), we figured out the rest of the park, and never waited longer than 20 minutes for any other ride.  I had done a lot of research and discovered the baby rider pass.  This was terrific!  Not quite like Disney's pass, but almost.    We had to visit guest services as a family and record all our information.  We were then handed a card with our name on it.  When Steve and the boys were getting off a ride, they'd hand it to the lead employee of the ride, he'd clip it to a board, I'd go in through the exit, claim the Bird pass, and ride immediately.  I had to go by myself, but I met lots of nice people.  After a few rides, Steve was already livin' high off of Dramamine and chose to bypass some of the jerkier rides, so we didn't use the pass on all large roller coasters.

 This girl had the hardest time.  She is our daredevil and could hardly go on any rides, except for the ones in the kiddie-lands.  Disney does a better job of allowing older toddlers on some of the more adventurous rides.  She got quite discouraged.  Fruit snacks stopped working around noon, but she stayed in high spirits and enjoyed having Mom and Dad as her riding buddies.

 Did I say Lizzie was a daredevil?  Evan and Emma accepted any challenge as well.  In fact, Emma ASKED to go on this.  Evan took a little convincing, but Carter refused.  This pendulum-type ride took them nearly upside down.  Emma and Evan are on the far left.

 Can I get one of these in my backyard?  He may learn a lesson or 2 if we used this in reality.

 Oh, yeah.  Here's my "sassafras"--tongue sticking out and all.  Lizzie, when in the mood, has the ability to crack everyone up around her.  I can't imagine life without her!

Here we are.  This was towards the end of the day before we split up to ride those favorite rides one more time and go to the dance party/fireworks show.  What a blast!