I Turned 31, Shrieking and Screaming

I mentioned it in a previous post, but this year I got the best birthday gift ever. My dad sent my mom out to the east coast to spend two whole weeks with me. It was the first time we've been together on the actual day of my birth in over 9 years, so to say I was excited would be a bit of an understatement.

We were at Gigi and Papa's house that weekend and they live close to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. So for my 31st I requested a day of screaming on roller coasters and rides. Little did I know it was going to be blazing hot, like surface of the sun hot, but we made the most of it.

First up, the tram ride from the parking lot to the park.


We seriously considered taking the kids to Sesame Street Place in the spring, but decided against it so we were excited to see a Sesame section at Busch Gardens.

This was the first park ride of the day.  Gammy was excited!

It was ridiculously hot and we hadn't thought to put their swim suits on under their clothes. Cam was good to roll in his basketball shorts, but we had to get creative for Riley so I bought a ladies t-shirt for her to wear. They were very excited for the chance to cool down. 

 

I'll admit I watched them splashing in the water with jealousy from the meek shade of a tiny bush.

After we dried off there was an epic meeting.  Cam was a little wary, but got close enough to give his favorite character a side hug and a high five.

Up to this point Camden had flat out refused to ride any of the little kid rides. We were kind of surprised by this because he usually loves wild rides and the scarier the better. Turns out he just wanted his first amusement park ride to be epic. So he tackled a roller coaster that I saw make kids much older than him cry.

They both loved the roller coaster so much and there were no lines so we rode it about 5 times before we moved out into the big park.  The log ride was just outside Sesame Street so Gammy, Riley and I gave it a whirl.  It was a Pompeii themed ride and Riley did not care for all the fire features inside, but she loved the drop and splash. We were in the back seat of a full car and we got completely soaked.


After the roller coaster Cam tried only one other ride.  We persuaded him to ride the swinging pirate ship with us and on about the fourth pass I regretted it.  Once we got swinging we were pretty high and the fleeing of weightlessness was stronger than I remembered and I felt just horrible for taking my 2 year old on there. He was fine, no crying, but he clutched my arm the whole time with his face buried in my shirt. After that, there was no convincing him to try anything else.

 Riley, on the other hand, ever the daredevil, tried ride after ride.



After a few hours we were all hot, sweaty, hungry and tired so we decided to return to Gigi and Papa's for an early dinner and to put the little man to bed.  We made plans to return without Camden that night for the bigger, wilder rides and the fireworks show.