A fun but LONG day

A couple of weekends ago, we packed up and left our house at 5AM and headed down to Tampa for a funfilled day at Busch Gardens with the Cruce's.  We decided to all pile into our vehicle with Tracy & I utilizing the 3rd row.  Since we would be coming back in the same day, John didn't think he could stay awake for the drive so we thought it was best to all ride together - all 7 of us - 3 kids and 4 adults - oh the memories we made (if you could have seen us trying to crawl in the back of the vehicle everytime - thankfully we didn't get any pictures)

We went to Busch Gardens last year and Baylie & Brody were free using a Preschool pass.  Well, BG allowed us to renew the pass for 2011.  We thought this was a great deal until I called on Thursday before we left just to verify a few things and they informed me that we were supposed to renew the voucher at the gate by April 15.  It was just hard for me to believe they were making us drive all the way to Tampa just to renew a voucher.  We tried to fight it but they kept saying there was no way around it.  We figured we just play ignorant when we got there and pray for the best, which is exactly what happened - Brody and Baylie were free.

Heading into the park

Checking out where to go with a little help from their tall friend.

Since we all rode together, there was only room for 1 stroller which Trevor won the seat for, so B&B had to walk but thankfully they did really good.  Our first stop of the day was BG new roller coaster - Cheetah. It is SUPER FAST and one of the best rides ever.  Since the kids couldn't ride it we took turns keeping the kids.

John & Jason finishing up on the Cheetah

Of course with BG comes lots of animals

And then it was the kids turn to ride - and boy did they ride

Oh yeah, all 3 rode it but Brody's face is priceless - he doesn't like to get wet.

Trevor LOVED Big Bird - he is such an outgoing kid

Don't they look like such big kids.

Showing off their kangaroo impressions

Trevor was too small to go in the kangaroo exhibit but he was able to get close to this one near the outside.

Trevor barely holding on.  A couple of minutes later he was out.

On the skybuckets

Cool kids

Aren't they too sweet.

The merry go round has to be Trevor's favorite ride of all.

Brody had waited in line for a ride that showed you had to be 46" to ride, well when he got to the front they measured him and he was about 1/4" short.  Well, Brody broke down when they told him he couldn't ride.  I felt so sorry for him.  So, we gave him the option to ride whatever he wanted as the park was closing soon.  He chose the Scorpion which is an adult roller coaster with an loop.  I was pretty leary about him riding it, but he was all smiles when he was done.

At the end of the night, they were all 3 in the stroller for the ride out to the car.

So, after stopping to eat dinner we got back home around 12:30.  Thankfully it was daylight savings time so we gained an hour of sleep that night.  Also, the kids actually slept the entire way home which was very peaceful since Tracy, John and I did our share of sleeping as well.  Thank goodness Jason can handle driving late at night.