Busch Gardens

We had such a great time on our vacation to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg! We went to see the new "Sesame Street Forest of Fun" and even had breakfast with Elmo and his friends. I had outfits made for L&D and they looked so cute. Libby wore a monogrammed Cookie Monster pillowcase dress and Drew wore a monogrammed Elmo jon jon. I got them from a new seamstress, Patsy, that I met on Etsy.com (cool site for hand-crafted items). I like her work so much (she helped me with 2 other orders) that I'll be selling a lot of her things on my Cayenne Paper website. So, look for it soon...

We went to the breakfast on Monday morning, which was great because there was only 9 families there (when the room seats 35 tables). We got to meet and take so many photos and videos with ALL of the characters- Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar, Bert, Ernie, and Big Bird. L&D were like deer-in-headlights for the first few minutes, but they loved watching them sing and dance and giving hugs. It was so fun.

The park itself was also fun as they had a lot to do for the little kids. There was one section that had the kiddy boats, swings, airplanes, etc. We saw the Clydesdales and they are enormous! We even took photos with one of them, Marty. He was in several of the Budweiser Super Bowl commercials.

We saw lots of animals at the Jack Hanna Wild Reserve and went into an aviary where birds flew right onto you and played. We watched a show with pet tricks called "Pet Shenanigans". They had cats, dogs, mice, ducks, pigs all doing funny tricks. It was cute. We ate good funnel cake, walked ALL over and were pooped by the end of day 1. We went back again the next day and it was much more crowded, but also very sunny and hot. We decided to do lots of indoor stuff (like special shows) and played in the waterpark in the Forest of Fun. We went to a few shows, including one with Irish dancing, and even a 4-D Elmo movie. I had never been to one of those. You wore 3-D glasses and things were really coming out at you. Drew kept trying to grab them. Then, whenever it rained or wind blew, water fell on you or your seat shook, etc. It was cool. But Libby did NOT like it one bit! She mostly sat in my arms facing the other way!The characters came out for a show and it was great b/c we were able to meet and take photos with Grover, Zoe, and Abby since they weren't at the breakfast.

I was excited because in France, we got Libby and Drew's silhouettes done. I have always wanted these and found out they were very expensive and hard to find here. The young girl that did them was so nice and flexible with 2 toddlers before lunch. She sat down and while they wiggled and chowed down Fruit Loops (new-found vacation treat courtesy of Embassy Suites free breakfast bar), she hand-cut these without drawing them or anything. I thought they would come out horrible, but I think they look pretty good. Libby's hair is a little "big", but it was poofy that day from the humidity!

We drove home late that afternoon and have been trying to catch up on 2 days without naps and sleeping in a hotel room ever since! I made 3 different slide shows because we had SO many photos...

Breakfast with Elmo & Friends:

Day 1 at Busch Gardens:

Day 2 at Busch Gardens: