the school year is officially upon us as we kissed zach goodbye this morning to go and change some high school lives! i truly feel so blessed that we have summers together and let me tell ya…it was THE best summer ever. we wrapped up the summer with one final hurrah at kings island for a full day of fun!! my dad + stepmom gifted us gold passes to kings island for christmas last year, including meal plans making for an all-inclusive family day out. kings island has some really fun fall + winter fun too, so while this wasn’t our ‘last day’, it probably was our last {and first!} day at the water park!

this was our first time really at the water park side and we had the perfect day for it…it was hot and with most schools back in session, we really lucked out on the crowds too. we had briefly stopped by this side last year when i was 38 weeks pregnant with mills and it was freezing, making for a not-so-great time. this year, the girls were so comfortable in the water {thanks goldfish swim school!}, mills could toodle around, and they had a BLAST!

the fan favorites were the slides, this tube ride and the pirate ship. i couldn’t believe how much there was to do for little kids!!

we opted to skip naps and i knew it was going to come with a little sass…but in my opinion, these days are totally worth making adjustments for and making the best out of the day. that called for fruit snack breaks on the lounge chair, extra lemonade breaks and a power nap {like 15 minutes} for mills in the stroller!

around 3 we packed up, changed into some clothes and headed over to the roller coasters. the girls were on the verge of {or in full blown} tantrum central but i was convinced we could rally with some roller coasters + a snack and i’m SO glad we did!

mills was SERIOUSLY the CUTEST…and had so much fun riding all the rides…and then screamed if the girls got to go on without him. i swear….the excietment oozed out of this kid and it was contagious to anyone who saw him.

the merry-go-round is amongst our favs and mills screeched in happiness the entire time.

snoopy love for the statue…

then the REAL snoopy came out and OH.MY.GOSH. i could have cried seeing how sweet they were with these characters!! it had me planning a disney trip instantly in my head!!

i mean seriously.

we took a pause for the cause and hit up the indoor restaurant for some mac n cheese, burgers + chicken tenders before wrapping up the day.
everyone was winding down around dinner so a quick energy burst allowed us to ride all the coasters just one more time on the way out. by this time, we literally were walking onto half-filled roller coasters and the girls kept pleading their case to ride ‘just one more wide, daddy, pweeeease!!!’
he couldn’t resist.
daddy of the year…it was the best day. so many wonderful memories and the girls were still talking about it today!
summer, we love you.