Busch Gardens!

Playing catch up here and getting the last of the pictures from our Williamsburg trip up.  We spent our entire last day at Busch Gardens.  C and I excitedly chattered about what we wanted to do at the park while hubby jokingly said something like "You only have the next 11 hours to get it done."  And you know what?!  We didn't even do everything!  We closed the place down and there was still one little section of the park we never made it to. 

On the tram, ready to start our day!

The height check. :)  Can you see the little white strip in between the red and purple?  That's where he was two years ago!  Boy, he's grown!

Getting his purple wristband.

Getting a little "talkin' to" about the importance of sticking close to Mom and Dad.

First ride of the day, the Battering Ram!

We had a good time crashing into Daddy at the bumper cars!

His favorite ride...the kiddie bumper cars.  He loved being able to drive it around all by himself. 

Posing outside the Curse of DarKastle.  This is the ride that he desperately wanted to go on last time, but he was too short.  So, he was looking forward to "going on that castle ride."  Well, if the name didn't say enough already, the warning sign that said some images may be inappropriate for children certainly gave us pause.  But, he really, really wanted to do it.  So, after making sure he knew it would be a little scary (but not real) and after accepting the fact that this might go down as one of our parenting fails, we headed in.  I think we psyched him out a little bit because as soon as we got in he said, "Mommy hold me!"  Haha!  So, I held him while we waited in line, giving him ample opportunities to back out.  Then it was our turn...we grabbed our 3D glasses and climbed inside our car.  Basically we were trying to escape a werewolf's castle because once outside the walls he wouldn't be able to harm us.  Thankfully C hid his eyes behind my hands for most of the ride, but he did get brave enough to see the creepy snake slithering out of the werewolf's mouth.  Note to self, just because your child is tall enough to go on a ride doesn't mean he should. ;)  C seemed to suffer no ill effects, and we all happily continued on with our day.  And I bet if we go back, he will insist on riding this again!

In the land of the dragons!

The land of the dragons has a bunch of kiddie rides.  This is where we spent a good chunk of our time two years ago when we came.

But, after Curse of DarKastle, crusing around in a yellow ladybug can be a little lame. ;)  As you can see, he is clearly bored and trying to spice things up a bit.

Ice cream break.

This was another one C was really excited to go on.  Escape from Pompeii.

As we were headed to get in line I noted how wet the ground was (assuming it was from all the wet people trekking through to ride again.)  While we all paused to observe, the boat came plummeting down the hill and we looked up just in time to see the real reason for the damp walkway.  This picture was before we even rode the ride! 

The ride was actually really neat with real fire inside (which C loved).  I didn't care for the giant splash at the end, but at that point it didn't really matter.  Ha!  Thank goodness we had clothes in the car to change into.

In the morning, the water wasn't turned on over in sesame land.  But, when we walked back by in the afternoon it was up and running.  It really wasn't hot enough to be comfortable running through freezing cold water, but that didn't stop our kid (or anyone else's).

Waiting for the predator animal show to start.

Is he tired of riding rides?  Or just tired of his mama taking pictures of him riding rides. :)

Another few rounds of kiddie bumper cars before closing time.

And lastly, the roller coaster.  Which he was tall enough to ride alone this time.  He was thrilled to go all by himself.  His sly little smile as it took off was just priceless. 

This mama however was not as thrilled!  The only roller coaster he's ever done by himself is at the mall in KS.  It's tiny and you can see the whole thing.  This is a real deal coaster and had me holding my breath every time the cars went out of sight and frantically checking to see that the kid in the red hoodie was still planted in his seat when the cars came back into view.  Yeesh!  I wasn't sad at all that we only had time for him to freak me out once. :)

We had such a great time!  Bonus that we used the here's to heroes program and our admission was free.  The woman we shared our table with at lunch time said the fall is a great time to visit.  Hmm...I wonder if lil' peanut is a thrill seeker? ;)