What an amazing experience we had this weekend. If you are in the Ankeny area and have never been to this, I highly recommend going. From what I have heard it is always the weekend after 4th of July. We enjoyed every moment of it. The best part of all was that it was so well organized with ample parking nothing was super packed. I think at most it was a 5 minute wait to get on anything. Maybe it was our timing or just how it always is.
They had a section that is set up like a fair with rides and games. This part does cost money. We bought tickets as oppose to wrist brands because we weren’t sure which of our 4 would want to ride stuff and which ones would not. They all surprised us and wanted to ride various rides. Joey stuck to the kiddie rides while the older 3 all tried something a little more daring. Benny and Jimi went on one that spun very fast and loved it. Megan, Benny and Jimi all tried the pirate ship. This one had mixed reviews. Surprisingly, our one that likes roller coasters disliked this the most, Benny. He was sitting with his two older siblings, so I think the seat belt was pretty loose on him, which made him feel like he was going to fall out.
Next, we checked out the vendors, this was inside and the AC was a nice relief from the 90 degree weather outside. We looked at several booths and settled on buying a birthday gift for our neighbor who’s party is today. Once we cooled off we ventured out to a section only open on Sunday, which was Family Day. The section for Family Day had several freebies from different sponsors, games, treats, petting zoo and even a meet and great with some superheros, the local police department and Ariel (who the boys would not take a picture with, all though Joey kept making eyes at her when we went to the next booth). The kids all had so much fun, but we were all so burned from all the sun.
This is a tradition we plan on continuing hopefully for many years to come. The kids talked about it all night last night.
