Since I only teach Pre-K during the school year I don't make any income during the summer, which unfortunately doesn't leave us with a family vacation budget to visit grand places like Disney World, Disneyland, Hawaii, a cruise, etc. However, this does allow me to get creative with local and nearby attractions to make our summer fun! When you're smack-dab in the middle of the country you're somewhat limited on options for family vacations. Don't get me wrong, the options we have are wonderful, but you pretty much have the choice to either drive a few hours to various amusement park or make a longer drive to the National and State Parks. These are the options we've considered: South Dakota: Black Hills & Mount RushmoreHeading north for 8 hours we would arrive in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I have been here several times and it's always breathtaking. There are also several fun stops along the way, Wall-Drug anyone?! If you drive along you'll see the countless signs for it. Plus we always make a stop along the way in Valentine, NE to see Smith Falls. If you have extra time you can also tube down the Niobrara to add to your experience! Once in the Black Hills we drive through Custard State Park, ride the Alpine Slides, Tramway Adventures, visit the Crazy Horse Monument, and of course visit Mount Rushmore, I especially like to hike the trails surrounding Mount Rushmore. Colorado: Estes Park & DenverThe Colorado border is a little over five hours from our home and the first stop would be Estes Park, an additional 3.5 hours away. We could also journey down to Denver (3 hours from the border) which has a ton of kids activities, or go down south to ride a train through the mountains, which is on our travel bucket list. Wyoming: Yellowstone National ParkIf we were to make a longer drive, we would head northwest 14 hours to Yellowstone National Park. I've never been here so I can't attest to all we would see along the way nor what fun attractions Wyoming itself might hold, in addition to the majesty of the park. This trip is absolutely on our travel bucket list, but at a later date when we have more days to travel. Missouri: Worlds of Fun & Kansas CityNow we're getting closer to home... Three hours south of us is Kansas City (Missouri or Kansas depending on what venue you're at). Both Worlds of Fun and Kansas City over a ton of options for our family. Crown Center alone has Legoland Discovery Center, SeaLife Aquarium, Union Station, Model Train Experience, Fritz Railroad Restaurant (your food is brought to you on a model train!), Crayola, and more. Great Wolf Lodge is also nearby for a fun indoor waterpark option. Worlds and Oceans of Fun is a great Midwest amusement park offering roller coasters, thrill rides, a waterpark, and Planet Snoopy for kids. Planet Snoopy is what makes Worlds of Fun a big contender for our vacation. Within Planet Snoopy there are 15 attractions dedicated to the littles in our family. It features classic kids rides like boats, airplanes, mini roller coaster, balloon ride, etc. One area I know my kids will love is the Peanuts Playhouse, which is an interactive foam ball play area designed for children with foam targets, cannons, and slides! Ocean of Fun features lots of water slides, wave pool, lazy river, kids splash areas. Daily tickets to Worlds of Fun (for 2017) vary depending on the day of the week, time of the day, how many days you're visiting, and whether you're buying tickets ahead of time online or at the gate. For us, buying two-days of tickets online would cost us $59 each, plus a $30 for 2-days of parking, totaling $266. There are a lot of options including inclusive dining, VIP parking, etc to make your visit more enjoyable Iowa: Adventureland & Des MoinesLastly we come to our closest attraction Adventureland in Des Moines, which is only 2 hours away. This amusement park is family-owned and features lots of rides for adults and kids. They don't have a dedicated kids area, but there are kiddie rides scattered throughout the park. It is a very quaint amusement park with a cute main street as you enter. Your park admission also gets you into Adventure Bay, a wonderful water park with slides, wave pool, lazy river, and a fantastic splash zone area. Two days of tickets for 2017 run $67 for adults and $62 for kids 4-9. Parking is $10/day unless you stay at Adventureland Resort which provides a free shuttle. So for our family it would cost us $276 if we stay off-site, or $256 if we stay at their resort or campgrounds. Decisions, Decisions...All of these are excellent options and provide unique, educational, and fun experiences for our young family. For us, we were working on a limited budget and only four days, so all the national park options were out.
Our vacation is between Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, or Adventureland in Des Moines. Check back soon to see what we pick!
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Summer is time for sunshine, swimming, family vacations, and for me, A LOT of downtime to entertain my kids! These new books from Parragon have provided great summer entertainment for my kids, especially on the road and in the hotel on our family vacation to Des Moines! MoanaMoana is HUGE in our house and these two Disney Moana books are packed full of fun activities to keep my kids busy. Some activities they need assistance with, but mostly they like to work on their own. Plus they include tons of stickers and a free digital book download! Choose Your Destiny Is very colorful and filled with coloring, word searches, mazes, matching, and stickers. Born to Voyage feature matching activities, counting, coloring, stickers and push-out pencil toppers. Marble ManiaMarble Mania has got to be favorite item from this set. I love seeing unique and engaging games, especially when they are hands-on, which Marble Mania certainly is! Inside the box are pieces to build 3 board games, 25 marbles, and a game book. I really appreciate that everything can be stored back in the box! With the Marble Mania contents you can build 'Extreme Pinball', 'Marble Maze', and 'Awesome Archboard'. The 'Marble Mania' was easy to assemble, but probably the most challenging game because it takes a lot of balance to pull it off. It makes a great quiet time concentration activity for kids! 'Extreme Pinball" was the hardest to assemble because you make the shooter, but it's a lot of fun once assembled. My boys especially liked this game. 'Awesome Archboard' is a very easy game to set up and play and it was a lot of fun to teach my boys the classic game of shooting marbles across a surface. Overall, this game set is a ton of fun a provided A LOT of entertainment for a family game night! 4000 Stickers Under the SeaMy youngest LOVE stickers so it's no surprise that his favorite book is 4000 Stickers Under the Sea! The stickers are adorable and range from fish to sharks, mermaids, sea turtles, penguins and much more! Each page has an activity kids can complete like adding fish to the scene and finding hidden objects. He loved this book during our downtime on our vacation. Doodle and Draw Spots, Stripes, and SquigglesTo wrap up our new summer collection from Parragon we have Doodle and Draw Spots, Stripes, and Squiggles! This book is great for kids who like to draw but need some direction on what to draw. Hey get to draw toppings on cupcakes, decorate the sails on boats, give dinaours a patterns, and lots of fun doodling ideas! No compensation was received for writing this post, however the books featured were provided complimentary from Parragon. |
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