Summer family trip to Great America.

This is a sponsored post by Great America.)

Hi friends!
Where are you headed this summer with your family? Any fun adventures or plans? Well, my family had a some which included things like pizza, all can drink refreshments, face painting, games and my 5-year-old on a 108.2 feet high roller coaster. Um yeah. Two words-
Great America?!

My family and I headed out last Saturday morning for our trip to Santa Clara. Home of one of the best theme parks ever Great America. Great America is located about 2 hours away from Sacramento and I wanted to make sure we got a head start so we could have the entire day to play. So I packed up everything the night before and when it came morning we grabbed breakfast jumped in the car and we were off.

We arrived at Great America around 12:30 PM once there we parked and grabbed our tickets, fast lane wrist bands and map. Getting through the gates were quick and easy and even for a Saturday, the crowd moved fast. Our first stop, of course, was the carousel. It’s one of Ivy and Aria’s favorite things to ride anytime we head to a theme park and it’s conveniently located right in front of the park in celebration plaza. The character carousel features 2 stories of fun characters to choose from. Aria rode a horse and named it Rosie, so cute. After the carousel, we started to head through the park when we came across none other than Charlie Brown himself. Ivy couldn’t wait to take a picture with him, though Aria was a little too scared. After the girl’s little meet and greet they decided that they wanted their faces painted. Ivy went with a girly flower, while Aria went with a cool spider. They absolutely loved their new face art.

 

 

By now it was time for lunch and all of our stomachs were growling. With so many options like Starbucks and Aunt Annies, it was hard to decide but we were sold on The Great American Pizza Company. Traditional pepperoni pizza Great American style. The line was seriously long, I’m pretty sure everyone wanted pizza that day. But it was totally worth it and they were even nice enough to throw in some breadsticks for our wait. Not only did we grab pizza but we also grabbed a souvenir bottle. With the souvenir bottle, you are able to get free refills daily at any refresh station in the park! So there wasn’t a moment of thirst the entire day because we were gladly hitting up all the refill stations. 

After we finished our food and watched all the big kids go upside down on the roller coasters in amazement our next stop was the games. Great America offers a ton of family fun games in the Action Zone like the one we played. The girls had to catch magnetic fish with a pole and once they caught 3 they won a prize. They each choose a stuffed animal snake to take home with them. But the fun didn’t stop there because it was time for the first ride. Ivy and Dayjhan headed to the fast lane line for Tiki Twirl while Aria and I grabbed some snacks, cotton candy, and more souvenir refills. We made it back just in time to watch Ivy and Dayjhan twirling in the air. I’ll admit I was kinda jealous seeing them having so much fun, but I’ll also admit the cotton candy helped that a bit 🙂 Once everyone was back on the ground per Aria’s request we jumped on the Eagles Flight. We really felt like Eagles flying and soaring across the top of the park. We could see everything it was amazing. While up there the girls spotted our next stop Tasmanian Typhoon.  

Tasmanian Typhoon is a wet and wild water park but unfortunately, I forgot to pack swimsuits when I packed the night before even though I remembered to pack an extra pair of clothes for after they got wet. So backward right? Hmm, tired mom brain I guess. Nonetheless swimsuits or not they didn’t care because they ran right in barefoot. They splashed and played under the sun before it was time to dry off and go explore Planet Snoopy. 

From rides that went in the air to swings that made you soar and a playground that you’d never wanna leave the kids had such a fun time on Planet Snoopy. Which coincidentally featured all of the best rides for little ones in my opinion. I could go on about Planet Snoopy all day but my blog is long already long enough and I haven’t even go to the best part. 

After exploring the park more and a few stores plus a few more rides with dad (because mom doesn’t love heights or spinny things) Ivy was ready for her very first ever big kid roller coaster! Ever since she was really tiny Ivy always expressed interest in the big kid roller coaster but had never been tall enough until that day. 

The Gold Striker! As I mentioned before 108.2 feet in the air, 53 miles per hour and not a ride your typical 5-year-old would ever even wanna go near my kid did it! Not only did Ivy met the height requirement for the ride but if there was a brave-ness requirement she would have met that too. So proud of that little brave hearted kid of mine.

Our day at Great America was everything and filled with memories. Thank you so much to Great America for hosting our visit. We can’t wait to go back soon.

To check out all things Great America + plan your family’s trip click here.