Winterfest!

On every anniversary trip we take, we do our very best to be completely frugal about the trip. We try not to spend tons on food or admission fees to places and focus instead on the joy of being together and finding free things to do!

But! We do try to find one thing to do on each trip that is our big splurge of the trip. We're willing to spend a little on one experience per trip. On our first anniversary, we went to a Colts Game. On our second anniversary, Ryan surprised me with a super romantic dinner on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building in Chicago. We actually didn't have a big item on our third anniversary because we had just taken a long vacation in the fall and had to keep that whole trip pretty low key. On our fourth anniversary, we took tours of the two big hotels in French Lick and took a carriage ride at one of them. On our big fifth anniversary, we took a lunch cruise around Sarasota Bay. Last year, on our sixth anniversary, we had a fancy brunch at a rotating restaurant. This year, our big ticket item was going to Winterfest at King's Island. And. It. Was. So. Much. Fun!!!!!

If you know us at all, you know that Ryan loves amusement parks and I do not. He's been to King's Island before, and of course, I had not. But this was like both our favorite worlds colliding. Amusement park for him, winter joy for me!

Originally we had planned to go on Saturday, but the forecast called for heavy rain right during our ice skating time, so we switched our visit to Sunday, and even though rain was in the forecast then too, we hoped it would either be lighter - or go away entirely! The night was b.i.t.t.e.r.l.y. cold and it did rain/sleet/snow almost the whole time we were there, but we were able to stay mostly warm and dry, and we had the best time. TRULY the best time.

I wasn't kidding about bundled up about bitter cold.

We chose to get one of the big passes that included parking and a meal for each of us. It cost a little more, but Ryan was pretty sure we saved money overall by not paying extra for food and parking. We did have to pay extra for ice skating, but I'll have more on that in a minute.

Winterfest is only open on the weekends, and on Sunday the hours are 5-10 p.m. We stayed that entire time.

We arrived about a half hour before they did the big lighting ceremony, so we explored the park a bit. Ryan discovered a roller coaster that was open, so he had to do it!

I chose to stay on the ground, but he was able to get right in and out! There was barely a line, since it had just opened, and since he rode as a single rider, that pushed him through the line faster.

Then we went to the lighting ceremony, which was really fun!

Then we walked around for a while, enjoying all the lights and photo opps!

 We found a nice, low-thrill train ride that took us through a light display of the 12 Days of Christmas. That was fun!

We started to get hungry (and we needed to warm up) so we found dinner. Without a doubt, it was both the unhealthiest and tastiest dinner we had the entire time. The concept was similar to Chipotle - building a bowl of food with all kinds of toppings. But instead of a rice base, it was a MACARONI AND CHEESE or TATER TOT base. So basically a carb mountain. I got the mac and Ryan got the tots, and we built them up with all kinds of goodness. I ate every single bite. I never eat every single bite of any meal.

We ate on a little heated porch and even got to enjoy live acoustic Christmas music while we ate. Our meal passes came with bottomless hot chocolate/coffee in insulated mugs, so we took our warm drinks and went back out to explore some more!

 Ryan rode the roller coaster again - and he found a little tubing ride, too!

And I found an ice sculpture underway! I love watching this!

We found a couple more fun photo opps...

And then it was time for ice skating!

I had never been ice skating in my entire life. Never. I've never even been roller skating, actually. I felt like this might be an opportunity to break every bone in my entire body, but Ryan really really really wanted me to skate with him, and I really really really wanted to be brave, so I agreed to try.

You should know that I was absolutely terrified. I was comforted only in the fact that between the frigid temps and the lateness of the hour (we took the last time slot) most of the people had gone home, so there weren't a million onlookers watching me attempt to shuffle like a 115 year old woman.

I definitely wasn't too proud to use the seal walker, and I named mine Louis. He stayed with me most of the time I was on the ice.

Ryan says in the regular season, the ice rink is a massive fountain. He was so excited to skate on it! He documented my first experience well, and I tried to return the favor, but trying to stay on my feet, hold onto Louis, and take pictures was a feat!

 (The couple in the picture below isn't us, but you can see the rink.)

Ryan left me two or three times to take a normal person's lap around the rink. Each time I lapped, I got a little faster, and eventually I returned Louis and just used the side of the rink. I never let go of SOMETHING but I did get faster with each lap!

 I was so glad I was brave and tried it!

When our skating was over, so were the park hours. We headed back to the Airbnb to warm up!! It was seriously the most fun evening and TOTALLY worth the ticket price!