Catch Up, Part I - Canobie Lake Park

So my new favorite thing to give for a birthday present is an outing. Sometimes it's a movie, or the museum or another favorite spot. When our neighbor Ben turned 8 a few weeks ago, we told him we were taking him to Canobie Lake Park and he was so excited! A week ago Wednesday was the day we decided on and we all had a blast! It was pretty hot so we were able to check out the water park section which we had never tried before and I think it was the highlight of the day for both the boys, and for Ana! Ian is quite the dare devil, we have long said that he will be jumping out of planes some day. But for now, his stunt desire is squelched by his height as he is just a little bit shy of the 48" requirement for the "big rides" at Canobie (ironically, his friend just makes the height requirement and he wants nothing to do with anything high or fast!). Fortunately, they found plenty of rides that made them both happy between the kiddie section and the rides that fall between like the Teacups, the "Dragon" junior roller coaster and the bumper cars. We even convinced Ben to join in on Ian's most favorite ride "The Boston Tea Party" which is high and fast and very, very wet. The wall of water that this ride produces when you reach the bottom of the gut wrenching hill is amazing and in fact, if you are standing on the sidelines watching you get about as wet as the riders themselves! I was very proud of Ben for trying it and he "liked it" but he "didn't want to do it again". So we made our way over to the water section and let the kids play some more before we headed home. Ana really enjoyed doing her hand foot crawl and walking holding on to our fingers through the shallow pools surrounding the water slides. All in all, I think everyone had a nice day and we ended up staying in the park for about 7 hours! We ended the day in our traditional way with a ride on the Merry-G0-Round, it was Ana's first time and she didn't smile much, but she didn't cry either so I'm calling it a success!

Riding the junior version of "Davinci's Dream", the spinning swings:

The kiddie helicopters:

Getting ready to board the "Dragon" junior roller coaster:

Below is the wall of water produced by "The Boston Tea Party". That's Ian making a run for it, he knew what was about to happen but didn't find it in his heart to share with his poor pal Ben who is standing blissfully unaware that the wall was about to land right on him!



Yet he still went ahead with trying out the ride, go Ben! Look how happy they all look. I don't think Ben had any idea what was in store right around the corner for them!

This was them coming down. Ian and Greg look pleased. You can't really make out Ben's face, but it kinda gives the impression that he might lose his lunch. Greg said he had an iron grip on his leg the whole way down.

Ana's first ride on the Merry-Go-Round, not sure if she knew quite what to think!



She however loved the wading pools in the water section!



Oh, and the french fries too, shhhh don't tell the pediatrician!