Busch Gardens!

We decided to take the kids to Busch Gardens on Monday.  Brian and I have had season passes for years, and right now they still have free preschool passes for kids who live in Virginia.  So for now, it's still reasonably priced entertainment!  Once we need to buy passes for all these kids (and they can't split a kids meal) it might be a little different!  Ha!  I can't believe that we hadn't been there since Hallowscream  in October.  We're usually there in the spring, but there just hasn't been time for it this year!

Our first stop is always the Sesame Street Forest of Fun.  The rides are perfect for our little ones, and Hudson is currently obsessed with Elmo, so he had a blast!

We stopped to watch the beginning of the Elmo show.  Hudson was a little confused by the gigantic Elmo dancing around.  He finally caught on and said, "Melmo!"  But before that he was a little contemplative.

Elmo's roller coaster was closed, which is a bummer because it's the only thing the two big kids talk about.  It's the very first thing that they want to do when they get there!  So we went on the other rides instead.

And that was fun, too!

I didn't think it was going to be nearly as hot as it actually was (I even wore shorts, which I NEVER do), but fortunately we were able to hang out under some of the water mists!  The kids LOVED them.  And so did I!

We stopped for lunch at Festhaus (we were all super hungry by 11:45!).  They have a new show, and I honestly have no idea why they changed it.  It isn't that good.  It's a new fairy tale themed show, and well, there is a lot of singing.  Like, if you were ever confused about WHY Simon Cowell used to say that people belonged in a theme park, this would explain it.  Not very good.  And to top it off, the fairy tales included the Big Bad Wolf - which is like a dagger to my heart since they got rid of the actual Big Bad Wolf roller coaster.  But also made my three year old cry because she is terrified of all types of wolves!

We stopped to ride the planes and bumper cars after lunch.  We also let the kids try a soccer game.  Wyatt lost.  Reese won a soccer ball.  Let's just say that her winning did not go over well with her big brother!

After bumper cars we stopped for a bathroom break, and Brian needed a drink.  So he got a Bud Light Lime.  And then he needed to do something with one of the kids, and I ended up with his beer in my hands.  And of course, this is one of the four pictures he chose to take of me all day!

We also stopped to ride the carousel.  Hudson was excited to see the "horsie," but as soon as it started moving, he wanted off!  I believe his exact words were "No, no, no, no!"

We did the Land of the Dragons stuff for the big kids, and then made our way to the exit.  We made a few stops. Wyatt loves the Scrambler, and then we stopped for kettle corn.  We also came across this nice Boa Constrictor in the aviary section.  The child who is terrified of wolves?  Yeah, we had to hold her back from this.  Go figure!

The snake was actually a lot closer to them before I moved to take this.  They are crazy.  I wanted to be away from it!  Hudson didn't want to move either, he was pointing and saying "Snake!  snake!" while we watched it and after we moved on!

We stopped to check out the Clydesdales before we  left.  There's a new foal, and of course Wyatt wanted to know if it was dead because it was lying down.  Seriously, these kids.  They did have the dog out for us to pet, and Hudson really enjoyed visiting with her!

We had a really fun day!  It was our first "outing" without the double stroller, which meant that both big kids walked the entire park, with almost no complaints.  We did have a little bit of a breakdown over some water bottles, but that was about it!  They definitely made it enjoyable enough for us to want to take them back!  Ha!