110° and still smiling!

It's been a LONG time since we've been to an amusement park...1999 to be exact. Last year we really started getting the itch (and the begging from kids) to go to Busch Gardens.

Twice last autumn, we planned a vacation to Williamsburg to take the family to Busch Gardens. Twice last autumn, we were foiled in our plans...once by hurricane remnants and once by torrential all-day downpours. So this year we decided to try a little earlier in the year in hopes of missing the main hurricane time.

It worked--we finally got lucky this year! No hurricanes and nary a drop of rain! Instead it was a major heat wave with highs in the hundreds and super high Virginia humidity that made our skin glow with perspiration!

Here are four of the kids on the first ride we came to in Busch Gardens...they were so excited!

And lest you think from looking at the previous post that Emma had a horrible time...we saw a lot more of this cheesy, happy Emma than the sad little girl 1/2 inch too short for the ride!

Not only was she happy but boy was Emma a nut! She went on every roller coaster and scary ride they'd let her on and she'd get off giggling about how much fun it was!

EEEEEK! Are my kids touching a fifteen foot long python??

Cute little matching girls!

Friday at Busch Gardens seemed about as hot and sticky as any day could possibly be, but much to our surprise Saturday was even hotter! We seriously had a layer of sweat form on us walking from the hotel door to our car at 10am. Ugggh!

Thankfully Saturday was for Water Country USA. So we slathered sunscreen on every square inch of exposed skin probably 95 times and had a fantastic time playing in the wave pool, shooting down water slides, and relaxing on the lazy river.

And the highlight of the weekend for Glen?

Pompeii! As this 4 1/2 foot dolphin is dubbed by our kids. Glen made a 3-point shot in one of the basket shooting games and won this ginormous prize. He was really excited about his manly achievement and the kids were ecstatic when he let them choose which one to take home...however he did not quite receive the enthusiastic response from me that he was hoping for. I immediately questioned not only how we were going to carry it with us the rest of the day but where on earth we were going to keep it when we got home??!! It was actually pretty sad, I literally rained on his macho pride, nonetheless "Pompeii" is here at our home...taking up an entire twin sized bed.

I shouldn't admit this, but I'm actually hoping he'll get a hole in him soon so I'll have a good excuse to dispose of him.

We were completely exhausted by the end of the weekend...so exhausted that Ellie slept until 10:30 Sunday morning, but what a fun way to end a long summer!