Busch Gardens Trip

We just got back from 3 days at Busch Gardens and Water Country in Williamsburg, Va with our friends Jane and Scott and their little guys Trent and Brady. We had a great time. The weather was OK. We only got rained on once but the park was not crowded at all. We hardly had to wait to get on anything. Collin was so excited to get there and go on some roller coasters but when we got there and got in the seat for the little Sesame Street coaster he freaked out and got off before the ride began. So we went on the log flume instead and he loved it. He got a little scared just before the big drop but by then we couldn't do anything about it and he said it was super fun when we got off. I told him that was a roller coaster on water and he said he wanted to try the Sesame Street one again. So the next morning I put him on it and had to take him right back off again. I won't be trying that again any time soon. We went to Water Country Thursday after Breakfast with Elmo. Collin thought that place rocked. He was able to do so many things there. He went on tons of big water slides with Tim while I hung out with Nick while he napped. When they were done, we switched and I got to take Collin on the Aquazoid. Its this really tall, black tube slide that scared the pants off me. You're going pretty fast and its pitch black so you have no way to orient yourself. I thought for sure it would scare Collin but I was wrong. As soon as we got off, Collin wanted to go again so up we climbed and down we went again. I was really glad I didn't have to do it a third time. We took Nick with us on the Big Daddy Falls which was a pretty tame yet fun slide, but he hated it. As soon as our raft took off, he shrieked MOMMY and jumped in my lap where he clung to me and shrieked for the rest of the ride. Thankfully it was fairly short. I think that did him in though because he wanted nothing to do with rides at Busch Gardens after that. I felt really bad for him because he was scared of the characters at Breakfast with Elmo anytime they weren't on stage, the water slide freaked him out and the Sesame Street 4-D show petrified him. He clung to me the entire time, even taking his glasses off didn't help. Collin absolutely loved that though. He was giggling and reaching out trying to touch things the whole time. On Friday I was able to get Collin on the flying machine which is one of those rides that has several groups of cars that spin around as you go up and spin around in the air. Basically, its a very spinney ride. I don't think he would have gotten on if he'd seen what it did before hand but it was loading just as we came off the balloons and I was able to get him right on. He couldn't wait to find Daddy and tell him about it. He also went on the swings. I had to go with him and we had to sit in the double seat which he was not happy about. He's a big boy after all, but rules are rules. So you can swing him high up in the air and spin him all you want, just don't make him go down because down is scary. Even the sky ride, which I find scary, didn't bother him. In fact, he told me that was one of the best things he did. Personally I find being suspended high above the park by a wire a lot more scary than being strapped safely in a harness on a coaster but clearly, I don't think like a 4 year old any more. He told me it was the going down part that made the roller coasters scary. I guess that's the difference between being 3 and 4. He's now old enough to know that hurtling down a hill at 50mph isn't just thrilling, its scary too. I can't wait till it goes back to being thrilling again and he grows an extra half inch so we can get on the rest of the really good rides he was just a little too short for this time around. All in all, it was a great trip. I can't wait to do it again someday.