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This is the LAST of the “look back” at 2020 blog posts (I promise).
But this one is different.
Photos will always be my absolute favorite. There is just something special about a moment, captured in time, frozen in order to be remembered. I love photography & the art that comes with it. I love pictures on my walls & big fat photo books full of stories & memories.
In 2020 though, I fell in love with another “memory-capturing-medium” and that is video.
What began as an experiment (“Could I go to an amusement park & take photos AND video AND still enjoy myself?”) turned into a full-blown obsession. And guess what? I learned that I could take little snippets of video here & there, while still grabbing my big camera for photos of the kids & roller coasters, all the while still having fun myself. Because it turns out: these acts of “documenting life” are enjoyable & fun for me (just like riding a roller coaster is fun!)
And so, mid-way thru 2020, I began systematically taking videos of our family & creating vlogs of our days at amusement parks.
I love photos, but there is just something different about video that I love just as much! Something about seeing the kids laughing & hearing their little voices, watching them eat ice cream & enjoy riding rides, seeing them run around & dance – video is magic.
And so, I created a “highlights” video from our trips in 2020. It’s a little sparse at the beginning (I added some photos to fill it out) because I didn’t take a lot of videos at the beginning of the year. And now, I really wish I had. But, that’s okay! Onward & forward.
In 2020, we visited Nickelodeon Universe at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, NJ (and we went in February, so no germs to worry about yet!) On our way home, we stopped at Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains of PA.
A few months later, we visited Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN. Then on to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, IN. From there we went to Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, KY. And we ended that trip with a visit to Kings Island in Mason, OH.
Derrick & I were invited to the media event at HersheyPark for the grand opening of their brand new coaster: Candymonium, and we went back to HersheyPark with the kids 2 weeks later for an extended weekend there. (This is when I started actively vlogging our trips!)
Derrick & I took a day trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH (without the kids!)
But then we returned a few weeks later, with the kids (we have Cedar Fair season passes, so why not?)
We then traveled back to Kings Island for 2 more days there.
And ended our traveling season with 2 nights at the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, OH.
Of course, we also spent LOTS of time at our home park of Kennywood in West Mifflin, PA – we were there AT LEAST once a week for the short season that it was open.
We are so thankful for all that we were able to do, even with all the uncertainty of 2020. We are SO excited for a new year & all the exciting new adventures 2021 will bring!
If you’d like to see MORE of the videos I created, documenting our family’s adventures in 2020, hop on over to my YouTube channel – here!
