Knott's Berry Farm

A view of Knott's Berry Farm from where we rode on the top of the Stagecoach.

Before we got to L.A. I was toying with the idea of taking Julia to an amusement park. I was sure she would love it. Whenever she is on the swings at the park she always tells me "higher, higher" and throws her hands up like she is on a roller coaster. So Wendy suggested Knott's Berry Farm since it was free for Julia and half the price of Disneyland for me. Plus I'd never been there so it would be an all new experience for both Julia and I. Below, Julia gets a bearing on the layout of the park.

Of course Julia did love it. Not only did she go on every ride she was tall enough to go on (which granted wasn't a ton, maybe 12?) but she went on her favorite rides 2-3 times. And she learned the appropriate response is to scream with delight on the fast rides. Well, maybe she would have done that anyway because she usually screams when she gets really excited. She was definitely worn out at the end of the day.

The only other person who was available to go with us that day was Woody. He gallantly became our photographer, videographer, load bearer (backpack carrier), and even a nice chair in the shade during the shade-less Peanuts Characters show (seriously, you'd think they would put a cover over the amphitheater for the show that is especially for kids and has no natural shade). Don't worry, we let him come on all the kiddy rides with us too, although sometimes he had to sit alone.

Julia's favorite ride was probably the Carousel, and her favorite animal to ride was the zebra.

Riding the train. It was hard to get her to sit still on this one since we didn't have seat-belts like the other rides and she was well aware of it.

We did manage to get a picture with Snoopy!

Here is a video of crazy Julia riding a couple rides and bouncing in the bounce house. I especially like how she throws her hands up in the air at the end of the first clip to imitate the kid in front of us. At the end of the second clip she saw the Ferris Wheel and was pointing out that she wanted to go on that one, which unfortunately we didn't because she was a couple inches too short for it still (it was a pretty open seat).