PSYCHE!!!!
If you believed that baloney filled post, then you are seriously deprived of Lara-esque humor and need to read my blog more often.
However, if you were one of the knowledgeable few that knew something was up as soon as I said "fevered brow", then congratulations to you on being a Golden Seven connoisseur (DAD!).
While Emma actually did wake up with the 101° fever, we weren't about to let a beautiful day in
Hershey, PA go to waste. We gave Emma the grape flavored ibuprofen and bee-lined it straight for the park. We figured she could always just take over the stroller from Ellie if she needed to rest.
It was a little slow moving at first getting past the crunch of people at the front of the park, but once we got moving we soon discovered the joys of visiting another amusement park besides
Busch Gardens where we've had season passes the last two years.
Spencer and Cami discovered a "ride" they'd never seen before that they loved. It's the wave runner. They dive down this hill of rushing water and attempt to "surf" against a powerful wave of water that threw grown men up the hill like rag dolls and ripped poor girls' bikinis down to their knees (the workers had a blanket they threw over people whenever that happened, but it didn't stop us from getting an eyeful a couple of times while we waited to watch S & C take their turns).
The lines were really long for the Wave Runner, but Spence and Cam totally loved the thrill of fighting against the water and riding the wave and thankfully were able to maintain all of their clothing!
Soon the grape flavored ibuprofen worked its wonders and Emma spent most of the day looking like this....
It actually ended up kind of ironic, that although Emma was the sick one, Ellie was the one who spent the day whining for food and crying for us to carry her. Of course the whining may have had something to do with the dime sized blisters she got on each foot from breaking in a brand new pair of shoes which we had just purchased the night before when we realized that she'd made it into the car barefoot!
All in all, we liked that Hershey allowed us to bring in our own food and drink PLUS had several affordable restaurants to choose from (like Subway and Nathan's). We also liked the fun water rides, although we hadn't brought in the younger kids' swimsuits and wouldn't have let Emma swim anyway (we do draw the line sometimes).
I definitely did not like all the smoking stops that seemed to be around every corner. Busch Gardens is smoke free and I did not realize how much I appreciated that until we got a hefty dose of second hand smoke yesterday. Thankfully the smoking was contained in little gazebos though, so at least most of the park was smoke free.
I also liked that there were plenty of rides for the little kids, like this Frog Hopper ride. Emma, Cami, Adam, and Ellie all could ride it and all of them loved it (actually Ellie didn't love it until she got off, but she might have loved it another day when she wasn't quite so hungry and blistered).
We're glad we went and glad that ibuprofen proved to be the miracle drug that kept Emma from having to sit in the stroller even once. It was a fun day for all and even better that we came home just in time to see
BYU win against OU!!
***************************************************************************
We spent the day mowing the lawn, wiping Emma's fevered brow, and occasionally engaged in rousing thumb wars where I was accused of having freakishly long thumbs. It was a long horrible day (until BYU miraculously won the game), but Emma got the rest she needed and is doing much better now.
