Knott's Berry Farm

Sam lost his first tooth on our trip. He was so excited. He had been waiting for that day. He has watched his big brother and sisters lose many teeth. Now, he is part of the club.
On Friday of our trip, we went to Knott's Berry Farm. We decided before our trip that we would do one big family event like this. We researched all of the many options in the area. Since our family has never done any kind of amusement parks, this seemed like the best choice. It had rides for ALL the kids and was a way better value than the other "big name" options. We decided to try for those when Laila and Isaiah are a little older. We found that our decision was the perfect one for our family. We arrived at the park at 12:30 that day.

Isaiah is ready to ride those rides.

This was the first ride the kids rode. Everyone but Laila was able to ride it. I can't even tell you how many times throughout the day, that they rode this one.

Lauren and Isaiah

Second, we rode this big skateboard that went back and forth. We learned a lot about our kids personalities on this day. Lauren, Sam, and Isaiah are the daredevils. They want to ride all the wild rides. Lauren and Sam even rode their first big roller coaster and they loved it. I would like to have taken them on more, but time didn't allow. Cody, Abby, and Laila are the cautious ones. They think through each ride and even though they usually enjoy them, their faces show their fear.

Perfect example of the different personalities with Abby and Isaiah

Same thing with Cody and me

Isaiah would have ridden every ride at that park if they would have let him. He was not tall enough to go on this ride.

Here are Rick and the kids on the ride.

Here is Isaiah lamenting that he can't ride with them.

One of the great things about the park is that the lines were not bad. Many of the kid rides were only a couple of minutes of waiting. As the night time came, they could even ride, and get right back in line to ride again. Rick doesn't do spinning rides. I don't mind them. I joined the kids for the "Crazy Hat" ride.

You can barely see that Isaiah is there as well.

These kids loved this ride.

Isaiah's dream is to one day ride a school bus. Every time we see one, he asks, "When I get older, I ride a school bus?" My response is always, "Some time, Isaiah, some time." What he doesn't know is that our school doesn't have buses so if he does get to ride one, it will be on a field trip, not every day. Anyway, they had a "Camp Bus" ride. He LOVED it and got to live out his dream of riding on a school bus. I don't have a picture of it where you can see that he is actually on a bus, though. The memory will have to sustain him.

Laila was able to ride a few rides. She was pretty content most of the day to take in all the action from the wagon. Later in the day, we did let her get out and walk some. She would help push the wagon. Whenever we would walk through an area with music, sister, would get her groove on. It was so adorable.

She is having a good time!

Hot air balloon ride

Rick, Lauren, and Sam on the swings.

I was so proud of my big kids. They really wanted to make the time fun for the little ones. They would ride smaller rides with them so that they could have the opportunity.

Lauren and Laila driving

Cody and Isaiah driving.

Wild woman driving

I just think this is precious. Laila waiting to ride.

Sam, race car driver.

We went to an ice skating show about Snoopy. It was fun. The ice skaters were way better than I expected. It also had several of the Peanuts characters in it. It was a nice break after walking around all day in the heat.

One really cool thing that they had happened when it got dark. They had all these lights around the park. If you buy their $1.00(of course, another way for them to make money) glasses, you could see shapes throughout the park wherever there were lights.

This was my least favorite ride. It was a big rig truck that the kids sat in the cabin of and the parents sat behind them. There were about 6 trucks and each of them had 4 horns on them. So, I got to listen to about 20 of the horns honking nonstop throughout the ride.

This is my "Get me the heck off this noisy ride" look.

It is all worth it for the smiles on these two faces(Isaiah is in there with her).

Funnel Cake, I waited all day for that!

We stayed at the park until it closed 10:00. They had to kick us out. By the time we got back to the truck, at 10:30, this is what Laila looked like:
That says it all. We were exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. I think all the kids fell asleep on the half hour drive back to the condo. We really enjoyed our time!!