Virginia Vacation Part 3

On Thursday we only ended up staying for a few hours at the water park before heading home for lunch and some sight-seeing around colonial Williamsburg. That was a lot of fun! All the little shops, sites, and people in costume were so neat to see. The boys enjoyed going into some of the stores to see how saddles were made and what mercantile shops looked like. We got to watch a colonial-era pipe band perform and heard the cannons being fired. We loved seeing the courthouse and had fun trying out the stocks. Maybe we should invest in some of those for time-outs! By the end of the day it was hot enough we figured another stop at Rita’s was in order and picked up a couple water ices for the trip home. After dinner and getting boys to bed we started to get things packed up so we’d be ready for our 10am check-out. Apparently they have a 30 minute grace period, then they start charging you $100 an hour every hour you’re over, so we wanted to be sure to be outta there!

Friday morning went surprisingly smooth and we only had to chug 1 gallon of milk, and 10 popsicles before we checked out, which the boys were happy to volunteer for. We figured we’d end out the trip with one more trip to Busch Gardens and had another fun-filled day. Luckily it wasn’t quite as hot as it had been earlier during the week; of course though, that combined with the fact that it was a Friday made for a more crowded park, but still not too bad. Jeff and I took a couple turns going on some rides, but it just isn’t the same when you have to go all by yourself, so we spent most of the time taking the boys on rides, and saw a few shows. One in particular, was a cute little show with all sorts of animals that did funny things, Jacob & Caleb got a kick out of that one. I loved riding with Jacob & Caleb in the sky tram. We loved riding together as a family on the train, and also on the riverboat. That was our last ride of the day and I was so pleased that Jacob, Caleb & Matthew were so good. Jacob & Caleb wanted to sit together on their own little seat and enjoyed the ride and seeing the sites. While they were excited, they were still very well-behaved. Matthew was just happy as could be and kept giving smiles to everyone around him. There were two older gentlemen with beautiful southern accents operating the boat and they kept going on about how impressed they were with our children. One of them made the comment, “It’s always a pleasure to have nice young people aboard.” And their last comment to us was, “You should have another child.” Now, Jacob and Caleb were definitely NOT perfect throughout our trip, they’re typical kids-just think back to Caleb's incident at the water park, but it was sure nice to have such a good experience on our last ride. I think all mothers need a few of those moments to keep you reassured that you’re doing a good job with your children. I know I appreciated it. (I do have to add though, just before coming down to the ride I had found a penny on the ground near the wishing fountain. I threw it in and wished-yes truly & seriously- that Jacob & Caleb would be sweet, happy little boys the rest of the day. I guess it worked. YEAA! That wishing well was the real thing! I need to go back so I can make some more wishes!)

At the end of the day, we had all had our fill of rides and amusement parks for a long time. I do have to add though, that my favorite ride in the park was definitely the ‘Griffon’ ride. It’s the world’s tallest dive drop, floorless coaster in the world. It’s 205 feet tall, but the best part was that it’s first big drop, drops you 205 feet at a 90 degree angle (that’s STRAIGHT down) at over 70 miles per hour. That’s just seconds after it dangles you for 3 seconds hanging over the edge, and moments before it sends you upside down and through loops, drops, etc. It holds 30 passengers in unique stadium seating so everyone has a great view. It was a blast and the only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Jeff there with me. Oh well, I had some nice people to chat with while waiting in line.

At the end of the day we were all ready to head home. All three boys took a pretty good nap at the beginning of our long car ride home, and as hard as I tried not to, I joined them for a while. The car trip should have only taken about 6 hours or so, but just outside of Washington DC we hit horrible traffic and it took us almost an hour to go three miles. Good thing we were stocked up with lots of fruit, water, and other snacks. Matthew especially has a fondness for goldfish crackers. Eventually we did make it home to our apartment, which felt remarkably similar to an oven, where we quickly turned the ac back on and unloaded our bags. On Thursday night Jacob had asked me, “Do we have to go back to our other house?” I think everyone had the same feelings, a vacation is a great time to enjoy our time together, but it was also nice to get back home and get settled into a routine. We were just grateful we had all day Saturday to re-coop before Sunday and the upcoming week. It was definitely a vacation to remember!