I go back and forth about how I want to spend our summers. Relaxing and lazy summers spent outside by the water? Or action packed and seeing all the things? Maybe I’ll alternate - rent a house one year for a slow paced vacation and the next year spend the summer going all over and seeing everything I want to see. Or maybe it’s a result of feeling so locked down the past few years due to the pandemic and getting used to being a family of five.
But as I’ve stated before, I’ve been itching to do more lately. So this summer I planned a few things that’ve I’ve been dreaming about. Number one? Santa’s Village!
I actually wasn’t sure if we’d do Storyland or Santa’s Village - I didn’t really feel strongly one way or another, but eventually I leaned towards Santa’s Village. I felt like our family likes Christmas more than fairy tales, and I heard the park had more shade for hot and sunny days.
Well joke was on me, because the day we had tickets ended up being some of the worst weather I’ve ever seen. It rained all day, alternating between slow drizzle all the way to windy downpours. The whole drive there I was dreading it, and while we sat in the parking lot waiting for everything to open, I didn’t want to go. But we had tickets, we had met family there who had driven hours to meet us, and we didn’t really have alternative plans.
So the adults put on ponchos and rain jackets and grabbed a few umbrellas. The kids didn’t really understand or want a plastic bag over their head, so they went with hoodies which covered the shirts I’d spent time making just for this day. And off we went.
We definitely started out overwhelmed - there were so many things to see, maps to look at, scavenger hunts to start, plus the added shock of being outside in the rain. But we slowly figured it out and headed towards the rides. It took us a little while to figure out who was into rides and who wasn’t (a few rides backed out of at the last minute), and which ones were our speed, but we got there.
G was less interested in rides, but there is a parkwide scavenger hunt that he and my dad really got into. E surprised me with loving a ride that I had originally thought would be too big for them. One of my favorite parts of the park is the fact that almost all the rides are family friendly - meaning adults can go on and so could F. She rode at least 5 rides, and I even got my dad on 3.
There were also shows and movies you could watch - we watched a Christmas light show at one point to take a break from the rain and walking. We played some carnival games, went on the carousel, and got our prizes for completing the scavenger hunt.
There were a lot of fun photo opportunities that we skipped due to the weather, but honestly I’m probably the only one who would have enjoyed that. The rain actually helped keep some of the crowds away, so the lines were fairly short, and at least we weren’t overheated or sweating all day! At the end of the day we stood in the parking lot stripping everyone out of their wet clothes and into dry stuff for the ride back. We’d bought the kids some lollipops and honestly I think they had fun day. They didn’t care about the rain (I spent most of the time begging them to stop splashing me with every puddle they walked by) and just went with it.
I already want to go back, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well everyone did with the rides. It made me realize that we’ll be able to have more fun at amusement parks in the future, and maybe even make it to Disney some day!
