2 Kids, 3 States, 4 Parks, 5 Days

So, if you think that we’re absolutely insane – you might be right. Who in their right mind would take a 4 year old & a 6 month old on an amusement park hopping extravaganza? 
We would, that’s who: a roller coaster nerd and his Disney World once-upon-a-time Cast Member wife. I’d say, we’re uniquely qualified to take such a crazy trip – we are, after all “professionals”. Which leads me to the disclaimer of this post:

All of the experiences captured in this post were executed by professionals – do not try this at home.

Okay, but in all seriousness, we figured: what’s the worst that could happen?
We strategically planned our our trip to include not only roller coasters, but a lot of family-friendly stuff too. We planned to visit Sesame Place one day (a park entirely geared toward little kids) and Dutch Wonderland one day (a true “family” park) – in between our days at two different Six Flags parks.

We also strategically planned our trip at the very beginning of June. We figured we had the best chance for warm weather (without it being scorching) and with most schools still in session, we figured the parks would be on the slower side. And we were correct in both of those assumptions. We had perfect weather & the longest line we waited in was about 20 minutes for the Safari at Six Flags Great Adventure – almost every other ride was a less than 5 minute wait, if not a walk-on.

We literallyhad the besttime. I am going to remember this trip foreveras a huge highlight. It was simply so much fun. Sure, things got a little crazy every once in a while, but overall, the memories we made as a family are simply priceless. It’s been about 2 weeks since we got back from our trip, and just looking thru these photos brings back all the happy memories. And puts this crazy idea in Derrick & I’s heads that maybe we should plan another park-hopping trip! We’ll see!

We have tonsof advice, tips, and tricks to share after experiencing these four parks as a family of four, but we’ll be writing about each park individually in the coming weeks! This post is simply an overview of our amazing time away!

Disclaimer: Just in case you can’t tell, about half of the images in this post were taken on my iPhone and the other half were taken with my DSLR. Sometimes, the best camera is the one you have easiest access to! I’m not crazy enough to have my DSLR in my hands at an amusement park all the time – especially with two little ones – that’s just not happening.

Our original plan was to get up early Saturday morning & drive to our first park: Six Flags America. But then, Derrick got home from work Friday night & asked, “How spontaneous are you feeling?” I guess you could say I was feeling pretty spontaneous because we packed up the car & left that night! I found a really great last-minute deal on a hotel that would put us about an hour away from Six Flags, so we finished packing, loaded up the car, and headed out!

It started out as an accident, but it turned into a fun routine – I took a photo of Leander every night we arrived at a new hotel. I just couldn’t get over how cute & chubby he was all snuggled up on the hotel bed! 
And just in case you’re wondering: Leander did amazingthroughout the whole trip! We brought the pack-and-play and he slept in it every night like a CHAMP. We got this cool cover for the pack-and-play that not only made it completely dark in there, but also gave him his own space apart from us (and he couldn’t see us) which was the key to our success I think! I’ll write more about our hotel stays later.

So, on top of the nightly photos I took of Leander, I also took a photo every morning of the kiddos before we headed off to the parks! They are some of my favorite sibling photos ever.

So, our first stop was Six Flags America! Neither Derrick or I had ever been to this park – so the whole experience was completely brand new.

Derrick hit a huge milestone at Six Flags America! He rode his 200th coaster there! Two hundred roller coasters – can you believe that?

Our day at Six Flags America was the hottest of the entire trip – thankfully our Six Flags Memberships come with free refillable drinks, so we were able to easily stay hydrated – and we let Braelynn cool off in the splash pad whenever we were in this area of the park.

And then we were at hotel number 2!

Day 2 took us to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA.

We loved Dutch Wonderland! Neither of us had ever been there either and we really weren’t sure what to expect. We had so much fun there! Leander was able to participate in the most rides with us there, and Braelynn had a blast in their waterpark area! We all walked away shocked at how much fun we had there – it was such a fantastic experience!

Off to our 3rd hotel!

Giving the kids a bath every night was definitely a challenge (hotel bathtubs are just icky) – but this particular hotel had a nice oversized sink, so that meant that Leander could have a sink bath! (Take note of how wet I am in these photos – HA)

Day 3 took us to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.

As we were leaving the hotel the next morning, Lady had a little “accident” – her ear fell off. It left our little princess quite distraught – but we promised her that we’d fix her at our next stop (and we did – we got a sewing kit from the front desk and a few stitches later, she was as good as new!)

Derrick has been to this park before! It is the home of one of his very favorite roller coasters: El Toro. I’ve been hearing about this coaster since the day I met Derrick, so I was anxious to experience it! I’m so thankful to report that I absolutely loved riding El Toro (part of me was a little worried that I wouldn’t love it), but I really really loved it.

One of my favorite photos of Braelynn from the trip!

Hotel number 4!
(And one of my favorite photos – Derrick reading the kiddos their bedtime story – he’s such a good Daddy!)

Day 4 was Sesame Place day! Braelynn isn’t super into Sesame Street (she’s only seen the show a handful of times, but she knows who Elmo is at least) but we still knew that she’d love it! She was tall enough to ride just about every ride in the park!

Braelynn was technically tall enough to ride this coaster – Oscar’s Wacky Taxi – and she was going to ride it with me! We made it all the way into the station & the coaster came roaring in and it was so loud that it scared her. We tried to coax her into riding the rest of the day and she refused. So, Derrick road it all by himself (he’s the only one with his hands up in this train!)

Huge shout-out to the very nice lady at Sesame Place who took our singular family photo of the trip!

I was vying for the “Mother-of-the-Year” award on this trip – I knew we were going to Sesame Place, and I knew that Braelynn would want to pick up a souvenir plushie. So, I thought ahead & found her an Abby Cadabby doll at the store before we left. I went into one of the gift stores while we were there & realized that I had found (almost) the exact same Abby Cadabby that they sell there at Sesame Place! SCORE. I was literally over-the-moon proud of myself. We gave Braelynn the Abby Cadabby doll as we were leaving the hotel to go to Sesame Place & she came with us everywhere. She’s in so many of my photos from the day.

And then, the day ended. We left the park & were packing up the car when we realized that Abby Cadabby was no longer with us. I had taken these photos of her on the next-to-last ride we rode, so we knew that she couldn’t be far! Derrick heroically ran back into the park to try to find her, but as the park was closed for the night, he didn’t get very far. He talked to several security guards & visited the lost & found twice – but no luck. Our poor girl was destroyed. She cried for almost an hour. It was so devastating – we were all so sad for her! We promised her that we’d do our best to find her another Abby Cadabby doll.

On to Day 5! We had originally planned to simply wake up and drive home, but again, Derrick looked at me as we were going to bed the night before & said, “What do you think about going back to Six Flags for a few hours in the morning before heading home?” (In case you’re wondering, Six Flags Great Adventure & Sesame Place are only about 30 minutes apart from one another, so we stayed in the same hotel two nights in a row that was right in the middle of the two parks). I loved the idea, so we went for it! (In case you are wondering, we bought Six Flags Memberships for the year, so we could visit as many times as we wanted – just like a season pass – but it’s good at every Six Flags park.)

Another one of my favorite memories: Derrick running the line at El Toro! As “members” we got into the park a few minutes early & of course, we went straight to El Toro. Technically, the park wasn’t open yet though, so he was told to wait at the entrance until a park employee came down to officially open the line. As he waited, groups of people came back & tried to walk up to the ride (just like he did). He took over the place of a park employee & ran the line for a few minutes: telling everyone they needed to put their loose articles in a locker, that the ride would open momentarily, it was so cute.

And, his work paid off as he was officially the very first person in line. See those long arms held high at the front of the train? Yep, that’s Derrick!

One of the things on our “must-do-again” list at Six Flags Great Adventure was the Safari! I don’t have any photos from our first time on the ride because I was holding Leander, but I let Derrick hold the little munchkin the second time we went & I loved taking photos of all the animals! It is definitely one of the best attractions at Six Flags Great Adventure!!

Braelynn loved riding all of the kiddie coasters at every park we went to, but if you ask her, her favoriteride was the log flumes!! Dutch Wonderland has one and Six Flags Great Adventure has one – she lovedthose rides!!

And that was it! We purposefully left the park by 1pm so that we could get to Shady Maple Smorgasbord by 3pm and still fall under their “lunch” price. If you’ve never been, Shady Maple is a MUST stop in Lancaster, PA area – literally the biggest buffet you have ever seen, with more food & drink options than you could possibly ever try! We mostly go for the unlimited chocolate milk & dessert (and Derrick eats as many steaks as he possibly can). It was the best ending to our trip!

AND! Shady Maple has the world’s biggest gift shop underneath the restaurant, and we had a feeling that we might be able to find another Abby Cadabby doll there. Sure enough, we were right! Our little girl was thrilled beyond words to have her back!!

So that’s our trip in a nutshell! We have so much more to share about each specific park – stay tuned!