Rain? Of course, we're going to an amusement park!

Day 26
Monday, June 20th

Our plan for the day was to go to Busch Gardens amusement park.  I made lunches the night before, loaded up snack backpacks and the camel backs were filled to the brim with water.  Bummer thing was when we woke up, we woke to RAIN!  However, we are used to forging ahead, even in the rain, so forge ahead we did.  Good thing we brought these......

At this point, the rain was slightly warm, so no big deal.  However, as the morning progressed and the rain turned torrential, it got quite a bit colder!!  First stop for the riders, Elmo's world!  This was our first morning of dealing with consequences handed out for bad behavior.....Luke and Laurel both got their first ride taken away.  I know, mean parents, right?  Well, we have found that discipline while traveling is a tricky beast.  There are some things that just cannot be taken away because it makes everyone suffer, or there are events we have paid for already that we just cannot miss or be late to.  SO, this week, it was missing rides.  Luke handled his consequence just fine.  Laurel?  Not so much.....she lost her second ride as well.  This is ride #2.....a REALLY slow water ride, but they seemed to enjoy it anyhow!  Laurel sat in her stroller and sulked.

This is the first ride all the cousins got to ride- Mark and Alex were on the other side.  I think the ride went up about 20 feet but they all got into screaming like they were being dropped 10 stories free fall!

It was right after this ride that the rain really started coming down, and even with ponchos on, we were all getting wet.  Even riding in the covered gondola scenic ride, we were still getting wet!  Didn't hurt the smiles though.....kids see rain as an added extra in the adventure!

The kids all wanted to see this Pet Shenanigans show, so we slopped our way to the outdoor seating area....and got our very waterlogged seats-

Lunchtime? 

Wet......Bill went out to get our food out of the car only to find out he couldn't bring it back into the park (lame), so we hiked out to the front of the park and quickly ate our lunch under the shelter of a ticket booth.  It finally stopped raining and we all warmed up and dealt with...humidity!  What can I say, weather back east is crazy!

It was back to riding rides.........for those of us stupid enough to get on a ride that I fondly call 'the Scrambler'.......Jen got suckered into riding because we didn't think the girls could ride by themselves and I was already spoken for by Alex....

Right after this photo was taken, Jen yells to Mark 'Where's Nolan (my 2 year old nephew)?' as she pointed towards the empty stroller.  Well, in the 5 seconds it took my brother to turn and take the picture, Nolan escaped his stroller and was no where to be seen.  Jen bailed out of the ride, so the girls DID actually get to ride by themselves.  Nolan was rescued a ways down the path, he found the employee blowing bubbles from one of those motorized blowers.....crazy kid!

We found a fun game for the kids to play and because it was not very busy, we were able to stage it so that one of our kids won every time...only 2 played at a time!  The end result?  They each got a $6 angry bird souvenir.....way happy kids!

My sweet nieces and Laurel as we get ready to get on a log ride.  Alex loved it!

The excitement of the day for those in the group that liked roller coasters....me, Mark, Jacob and Jen (Eric, by this time, had found his coaster mojo but was not tall enough for this ride)......was to get up enough courage to ride The Griffin.  Here we are on our way to get in line-

Basically, a coaster that drops those insane enough to ride it at a 90 degree angle straight down.  It was the craziest coaster I've ridden yet...and our faces say it all.....especially mine....this is right when the ride hangs us out over the drop for about 5 seconds-

It's literally, all down hill from here and quite scary too!  I think the vein in my neck nearly popped!

Still screamin......

After a few more crazy moves, the ride ends with a splash...we all look pretty happy at this point.  Yes, because it was nearly over!

Jacob loved the ride and was thrilled to tell me he kept his eyes open the WHOLE time. Turkey! 

Despite the rainy start, ride missing opportunities 3 of our kids had to experience (Eric and Luke missed a ride later for shoving each other, sigh) and a runaway 2 year old, we started our walk out of the park in good moods.  Gregory and Jacob were pushing Alex and Nolan in their strollers ahead of us all and they decided it would be fun to 'race' each other to a decorative boulder nestled in grass.  It all happened in a matter of a minute-Jacob lost grip of Nolan's stroller and it hit the curb, launching it froward, right toward that boulder. God was certainly watching over him and my boys-Nolan's head barely missed direct contact.  He bumped his cheek, but because he was buckled in, major catastrophe was avoided.  Talk about a heart in your throat moment.  The boys were horribly embarrassed and felt terribly about Nolan getting hurt and they learned an incredibly valuable lesson...2 actually...always buckle a child into a stroller and don't race with strollers!!

We ate at a local, very affordable, BBQ joint with really good burgers and BBQ sandwiches. The kids had hot dogs and by the time the meal was over we were ALL ready to call it a day, to rest and ready ourselves for a sweltering day at Colonial WIlliamsburg.