Way back in May my Dad was in town and we decided to take advantage of some free tickets from BlogHer and the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company to go to Knott’s Berry Farm. It was awesome. Best decision ever.

I haven’t been to an amusement park with my parents since Bug was one. I haven’t been to many amusement parks at all really, but I’m adding them back onto my list of fun things to do together as a family because we had the best time.

It could have gone really wrong. I was worried. As you know, Toby and I are divorcing but we’re still friends. Toby loves amusement parks about as much as he loves getting his fingernails peeled off and my parents, well they have different interests.

Could we all hang out all together for a whole day and have a good time?

The answer is yes and it’s because of this little girl and the fact that Knott’s really does have a lot to offer for all ages.

It’s amazing how you can put your differences aside and focus on what is really important when there’s a cute little toothless six-year-old in your presence. She makes our world go ’round and she’s spoiled rotten to prove it. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about how Knott’s Berry Farm brought a family together and against our expectations we had a really good time. All of us.

In case you’re not familiar, Knott’s Berry Farm is 160 acres of world-class rides, live shows and attractions here in Southern California. Knott’s prides itself on providing thrills of all sizes and fun for families, children and couples alike. The attractions vary from sky-high roller coasters to panning for gold!

We planned our route over a delicious lunch in the Fiesta Village.

My tacos were not photogenic because of the funny green jalepeño relish, but they tasted delicious. Even Bug ate her whole lunch which says a lot. She never eats.

We rode trains.

We gawked at the crazy roller coasters.

We made the mistake of making Bug go on the log ride. I thought she would be fine because she loves Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland which is way faster and scarier and personally, the log ride is one of my all-time favorites. What’s scary about riding a log down a lazy river?

I think I remember loving it as a kid but maybe my memory is failing me because after we made her go on it and she about lost her lunch, I looked it up in the little map they give you at the entrance and sure enough it was graded as a black diamond thrill ride. Who knew?!! Consider me schooled.

Bug didn’t forgive us for quite a while after that. Good thing Knott’s Berry Farm has a lot of trains and horses to ride and shows to watch or we would have been stuck twiddling our thumbs. There was NO going on roller coasters after that.

It was actually fine by me. I used to really love roller coasters but now I just think about my neck getting jerked around and somehow the thrill isn’t quite what it used to be.

This ride looks like chiropractor city to me but maybe I’m just old. They were fun to watch though.

Even more fun was watching Bug’s reaction to the thrill rides. She was having none of it. No way, José.

Which is fine because there were lots of kiddie rides she did like.

Driving with Papa in a truck was a highlight.

Pretty much all of Camp Snoopy was the highlight of her day. She could have stayed there all day.

Getting a stuffed Snoopy definitely helped. See what I mean about spoiled? I’m such a sucker.

No, I didn’t buy her a Domo. I was tempted though. Look how well they match her.

Of course Toby had to one-up me by letting her take about fifteen zillion throws at the ping-pong fish bowl arcade game. It was fun though. We were all rooting her on.

Thankfully she did finally make one in and boy was that win sweet. There’s nothing like winning your very own cheap imported stuffed neon parrot that probably cost fifty cents to make. It’s all about the build-up.

She promptly named him Ping Pong and sent him off to live in my purse.

But I have to say, rides and arcade games aside the best part of Knott’s Berry Farm was the shows. I did not expect this at all. I thought they were going to be cheesy and I worried we’d lose Toby to a six-hour long smoke break, but he stayed with us the entire time and seemed to really enjoy himself. Of course my dad laughed his head off but then my dad looooves all corny jokes. But everyone really loved them. Even Toby.

I don’t have any photos of it but at the end of our day, when the sun was sinking and my camera battery was long dead, we ducked into Marshall Purdy’s one man show. It wasn’t that crowded but slowly people trickled in. I had no idea what to expect. Would it be can-can dancers or just one guy with a banjo?

It turned out to be one guy with a banjo, but he had us rolling with laughter. He put together a ramshackle band with members of the audience and really crazy funny instruments made out of mops and wash buckets, knee cymbals and some kind of stomping paint roller thing that I can’t even begin to describe.

He called my dad up on stage and made him wear a girl’s mop hat and play the washtub bass and that just killed us. I was crying it was so funny. My mom tried to video it but we were all laughing so hard none of the footage came out from all the camera shaking. Thankfully my dad is a really good sport and enjoyed every minute of it.

It was the best way to end the day. We finished it up with a nice quiet dinner in the Ghost Town and went home tired and happy.

When you go to amusement parks are you a thrill seeker or a show watcher?