Busch Gardens at Tampa Bay

I went to bed feeling pretty spent from the day at SeaWorld, so I let myself sleep in. We had some friends who were flying to Colombia, and had a long layover here, stop by for a visit and breakfast. Corey and Mel got up early at like 6 to make a big pancake and fruit breakfast for them and everyone. I rolled out around 7:30. After Corey got out of bed, Peter came in to keep me company.

We had a nice visit for an hour with Jeff and his twin girls, and then we headed out around 8:45 for another day of fun. Busch Gardens opened at 10 am, and it's an hour ride out there, so that was not too off our planned departure, go team. Parking and getting into the park wasn't too painful. As we were in line, they had a sign to measure how tall you needed to be for each ride, and Natalie was good for most of them, so we let these 6 kids take off for the roller coasters as soon as we were in the gate.

Have fun MelWesAbiLilySophi&Natalie! And they're off.

Corey and I walked slowly with Owen Daniel and Peter. Then we just all happened to meet up again 10 minutes later at the American Alligator exhibit. We finally saw some Florida Alligators!

Ok, now the big kids are leaving. Their favorite ride was the Iron Gwazi. It looked so fun! I'm going to have to come back when I'm not preg so I can go on it. 

They hit all the coasters during the day. Corey and I and the little boys went to the Serengeti Train ride.

It was great - the kids got to see animals and we felt like we were doing something, with the added bonus that we were able to sit down during it. 

After that we headed to... you guessed it, the merry go round. 

Yay, we get to do what we did yesterday! The line for that wasn't too long, which was good. The merry go round was close to a roller coaster that Owen and Daniel were tall enough to go on called Scorpion. It was a 60 minute wait, but since it was a ride EVERYONE (except P and I) could go on, we decided to do it. So the big kids met up with us and they all went on Scorpion and I stayed outside the ride and watched Peter. 

Waiting in line - 

It was Owen and Daniel's first roller coaster ride ever! 

I was filming the ride, so looking at the screen didn't allow me to see their faces very well, but a lady next to me and watching said "Did you see that little boy!? He looked so scared!!" And I said "I think that's one of mine..." They posed for me afterward and put on brave faces, but yeah, they thought that was terrifying and they didn't want to do roller coasters any more after that. 

Since we were all together, we did the merry go round again. And then Lily was going to take O and D on the Sand Serpent, and I was able to convince the other kids to go with them. That was a really long wait too for such a short ride, but oh well. Waiting and waiting. It looked like a short line but it took an hour!

Wes went and did another ride by himself, them came back and took P on the merry go round. And this was my favorite pictures of the day. Peter is SO cute and he loves Wesley!

After the rest of the group was ready for their turn, I got permission to walk up the exit to take a picture of them. Daniel did NOT like it. 

It kinda wasn't a roller coaster, but I guess it kinda was, so I might have tricked them into that one. Owen was ok but didn't love it and didn't want to do it again. 

We had an odd number of people, so Lily got to ride with strangers. 

Then we let the kids relax with rides that were more their size and style. They went to the Phoenix and Kiddie Train. 

That was just right. 

Meanwhile, the older kids were enjoying rides - 

...and animal exhibits. Everyone really liked the hippos.

Corey took O and D on the bumper cars, Peter and I couldn't ride that (lame) so we played with his Lightning McQueen for a bit and then he went #2 and I didn't have another diaper so I walked around looking for toddler looking kids to see if I could buy one off of anyone. I didn't see anyone I felt like I could ask, so I just kept walking to the bathroom, and once in there at the changing table, I was able to ask a lady next to me and she freely gave me a diaper, which was so kind. Corey took the boys back to the planes, train, and motorcycles again, and I walked back there and Peter was clean and comfortable and fell asleep. 

We parked in the shade and it started to feel a bit chilly. Near the end of the day, the older kids wanted to take Owen on Cobra's Curse and then they'd be good to go. So we walked over there. MLSN were in line for that, P was still sleeping. Wes ended up going on a different ride alone and then we were just waiting for the other kids to come back. Corey and O and D never made it cause they were looking at the hippos, and then O had to use the bathroom. Wes came back and we sat together. I took a pic of him demonstrating what I did for most of the day.

It was getting cold, and the kids were done. We went to go find Corey and O&D. Mel and Sophi were grateful Lily shared her sweatshirt with them. 

Wes said he'd share his jacket with Peter. 

They had said that after the Cobra Curse they'd be done, but then Lily hadn't gone on Iron Gwazi and said she wanted to do that, and the rest of them wanted to it one more time. And I know I'd like to do that if it were me, and it was close to the exit, and "only" 50 minutes, so they did that, and I watched the kids on the Gwazi Gliders. Sophi wasn't feeling up to another coaster, so she went with Peter on the Gliders. 

Daniel and Owen having a party!

Corey waited for them and when they were almost done, I took the boys to use the bathroom and then we all met up and headed to the cars. We would have followed each other home but I lost track of him on our way out of the parking lot and also forgot that he was getting gas. I had already filled up at Costco last night. On the drive home, there were such crazy drivers that were speeding sooo fast on the toll roads! Abi was in the car with me and is my witness, they were being crazy dangerous drivers, zig-zagging in between cars in all three lanes! It happened at 3 different parts of our hour drive home where two cars were racing each other, and then one final time before we got off where one car was just being crazy, I was relieved that they didn't cause an accident, atleast not that I saw. It was nuts. I'm glad we didn't get killed. I was ahead of Corey, but the drivers spooked me so I went a little slower in the right lane and we all ended at the hotel at the same time. Corey and I are glad the kids had a fun day. We are also grateful to be able to sleep in and rest tomorrow.