Ivan has now ridden the roller coaster called The Demon 8 times. I have ridden it 6.
Here we are happy in the line for ride number 4 of the day.

The line for the Demon was short. Ivan was tall enough to ride.
It was his coaster.

My coaster preference was Spacely Sprockets a smaller Jetsons themed coaster in the area of the park for smaller kids. We rode that twice, but then Ivan would smile up at me and say, “Demon?” And back we went to the Demon.

Here he is with the flame letters that spell “Demon” in front of the roller coaster.

The joy of a water cannon is not to be underestimated. Here’s Ivan at Buccaneer Bay firing his water cannon.

Then he wanted to ride the pirate ship ride. We fired the water cannons on our pirate ship at sharks, skulls, and passers-by.
Here we are waiting to board our vessel, The Black Jack. Ivan is very happy for his chance to ride a pirate ship.

Ezri rode on a cat on the carousel. Ivan was on this little piggie.

Ivan up on an elephant

Ivan down on an elephant

Ivan with his tall, green apple slushie

Friends waiting to go on the rides

Waiting for the bumper cars in the bright sunshine and heat

Sweaty, bumper car selfie. Ivan steered and I pushed the gas peddle. He wasn’t tall enough to go on by himself because he wouldn’t have been able to reach the peddle. There was a lot of spinning in circles, but he loved driving himself.

Ivan also won a stuffed penguin that he has named Flippers in a carnival fishing game. Flippers came home and Ivan had him join a stuffed animal meeting with 13 other stuffed animals. Then Ivan read him two stories – Go Away Big Green Monster and The Egg. He slept snuggled with Flippers last night.

But when asked what his favorite part of Grove Fest he said, “It was going on Zero Gravity. Oh yeah!” He also liked breaking a board at the karate class demonstration we stopped at and playing in the Train Station fountain. He threw a penny in and wished for me to not ever be bossy. Not my favorite wish – since “bossing him” is a parent’s job. We talked about it and he revised to wishing for me to not ever be grumpy with him. Seems unlikely, but a good wish.

Snuggling while Ezri rides a crazy spinny ride.

Enjoying a snowcone to the live music of the Manning Dads.

Riding the frog hopper with a friend.

All the kids got to pick a last ride. This was Ivan’s choice and he loved it. He would like to ride a real dragon, but this was pretty great too.

Driving this car was serious business – just look at Ivan’s face.

We are inside the Dizzy Dragon ride which Ivan stumbled off of at the end. Ezri took the photo.