Here we are at the entrance. Pathetic picture, I know. I'm all "Connor look at Matt! Say Cheese!" and Matt's all "Connor, hey buddy! Over here, Connor!" and Connor is all "look at all the people and the trees and the birds and the sky"...needless to say why we didn't have a successful photo with both of us looking! Owell!
Our first stop--the ridiculously HUGE alligators! This picture was taken for my Dad. Before we left for Busch Gardens, he told me he always had a fear of children being dangled over the single fence at the alligator display and to have Matt be extra careful holding him be the alligators. We got a good laugh and I told Matt when we got there, so we decided to prop Connor up on the fence next to the monster gators and take a pic! ***Important note: There were TWO fences separating the crowd and the alligators, so no lives were harmed during the production of this photo. We love you Dad! :)
Holy Moly!
My monkey and his friends. Hugs for Mr. Gorilla.
This otter was awesome! He would run around, jump in the water, and swim by Connor as if he was showing off for the crowd. He did it over and over and over...and Connor just loved it!
We checked out the elephants...
Then we made our way over to the first kiddie area with rides. I was secretly nervous to let my baby (ok...toddler...) ride this all by himself, but he hopped on in and was ready to ride. There were NO lines (which is such a blessing when you are waiting with a very impatient 2 year old). Connor would have been perfectly content with one or two rides around the track, but around the 8th time around, he was over it & ready to get out! Connor's first ride...check...
Then we spotted him...my little Elmo lover had found his buddy!
Then we were off to the kid jungle. Seriously, the biggest play area for kids known to man! There were stairs and latters and nets and jumping pits and real monkeys and water splash areas...the fun was endless! All areas, of course, were probably intended for children ages 5 and up, so my adventurous toddler had his Mom tagging along the whole way! Talk about exhausting!! Connor was NOT happy to move away from this area when the time came...
This rope net was about 50 feet above the ground. Mr. adventure hopped right on and started walking across. Around the time we reached the middle, we had a line of children backed up behind us, since Connor was moving at snail speed. This was around the time where the bigger kids thought it would be fun to jump and make the rope flop all around. We made it across and survived!
I couldn't decide if I wanted to tote around a stroller for the day, but we opted to just take turns holding Connor and letting him walk. It was a good choice up until about the late afternoon when I wanted a stroller for MYSELF to ride in ;).
Matt will probably kill me for these pics, but I got a kick out of them. Connor was using Matt's ears as handles...hehe!
We made it all the way around the park for the Sesame Street play area! Talk about kid zone! There were rides, playgrounds, characters for pictures, and a character show. Our entire day was based around making it to one of the character shows with Elmo and his friends!
Connor cracks me up. He did it with Santa and continues to do it with other costumed friends. He gets so so so excited when he sees them. Can't wait to get up close. Waits patiently around the other excited children. We finally get up close and...freak out!! He has to safely be at least two feet away from all characters! This might explain why I was used as a barrier between Connor and big bird in this picture...
We rode on ride #2...I tried to sit and hold Connor (since he wasn't too sure about sitting on his own), but I got told by the ride lady that adults must stand. Luckily, Connor decided he didn't mind sitting, so we were ok!
I really wanted to browse in the Sesame Street store, but I was secretly afraid that I'd have a tantrum on my hands when we had to leave all the store goodies behind when we were done browsing. Connor did pretty well. He said hey to Ernie, Bert, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Big bird, flipped through a few books, then we headed out.
While waiting for the character show, Connor HAD to check out big bird again! This is as close as he would get... :)
Then it was time! Connor had no idea why I was so excited to see his reaction, but it was so worth it. Connor just sat, clapped his hands, pointed to the characters, and enjoyed his view of Elmo & friends. The show lasted less than 10 minutes, but it was perfect timing for Connor's attention span.
My little Elmo watching his buddy on stage!
I had been talking Matt's ear off about how I wanted to ride this train around the park. Anytime we reached a train station, the train had just left and there was another 45 minute wait. We made perfect time after the Sesame Street show, so we hopped on and watched in meer seconds how Connor fell into a deep sleep! It worked out beautifully! We just stayed on the train for a good 45 minutes to let Mr. Smirf snooze and squeezed another hour and a half out of the park before we left!
On our way out, Connor scoped out his fave...a fire hydrant! Hugs for the fire hydrant...
We hit up Denny's for dinner for a free kid's meal. Connor conched out that night and slept clear until 10:00am! We had a great, tiring trip! :)
Our first stop--the ridiculously HUGE alligators! This picture was taken for my Dad. Before we left for Busch Gardens, he told me he always had a fear of children being dangled over the single fence at the alligator display and to have Matt be extra careful holding him be the alligators. We got a good laugh and I told Matt when we got there, so we decided to prop Connor up on the fence next to the monster gators and take a pic! ***Important note: There were TWO fences separating the crowd and the alligators, so no lives were harmed during the production of this photo. We love you Dad! :)
Holy Moly!
My monkey and his friends. Hugs for Mr. Gorilla.
This otter was awesome! He would run around, jump in the water, and swim by Connor as if he was showing off for the crowd. He did it over and over and over...and Connor just loved it!
We checked out the elephants...
Then we made our way over to the first kiddie area with rides. I was secretly nervous to let my baby (ok...toddler...) ride this all by himself, but he hopped on in and was ready to ride. There were NO lines (which is such a blessing when you are waiting with a very impatient 2 year old). Connor would have been perfectly content with one or two rides around the track, but around the 8th time around, he was over it & ready to get out! Connor's first ride...check...
Then we spotted him...my little Elmo lover had found his buddy!
Then we were off to the kid jungle. Seriously, the biggest play area for kids known to man! There were stairs and latters and nets and jumping pits and real monkeys and water splash areas...the fun was endless! All areas, of course, were probably intended for children ages 5 and up, so my adventurous toddler had his Mom tagging along the whole way! Talk about exhausting!! Connor was NOT happy to move away from this area when the time came...
This rope net was about 50 feet above the ground. Mr. adventure hopped right on and started walking across. Around the time we reached the middle, we had a line of children backed up behind us, since Connor was moving at snail speed. This was around the time where the bigger kids thought it would be fun to jump and make the rope flop all around. We made it across and survived!
I couldn't decide if I wanted to tote around a stroller for the day, but we opted to just take turns holding Connor and letting him walk. It was a good choice up until about the late afternoon when I wanted a stroller for MYSELF to ride in ;).
Matt will probably kill me for these pics, but I got a kick out of them. Connor was using Matt's ears as handles...hehe!
We made it all the way around the park for the Sesame Street play area! Talk about kid zone! There were rides, playgrounds, characters for pictures, and a character show. Our entire day was based around making it to one of the character shows with Elmo and his friends!
Connor cracks me up. He did it with Santa and continues to do it with other costumed friends. He gets so so so excited when he sees them. Can't wait to get up close. Waits patiently around the other excited children. We finally get up close and...freak out!! He has to safely be at least two feet away from all characters! This might explain why I was used as a barrier between Connor and big bird in this picture...
We rode on ride #2...I tried to sit and hold Connor (since he wasn't too sure about sitting on his own), but I got told by the ride lady that adults must stand. Luckily, Connor decided he didn't mind sitting, so we were ok!
I really wanted to browse in the Sesame Street store, but I was secretly afraid that I'd have a tantrum on my hands when we had to leave all the store goodies behind when we were done browsing. Connor did pretty well. He said hey to Ernie, Bert, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Big bird, flipped through a few books, then we headed out.
While waiting for the character show, Connor HAD to check out big bird again! This is as close as he would get... :)
Then it was time! Connor had no idea why I was so excited to see his reaction, but it was so worth it. Connor just sat, clapped his hands, pointed to the characters, and enjoyed his view of Elmo & friends. The show lasted less than 10 minutes, but it was perfect timing for Connor's attention span.
My little Elmo watching his buddy on stage!
I had been talking Matt's ear off about how I wanted to ride this train around the park. Anytime we reached a train station, the train had just left and there was another 45 minute wait. We made perfect time after the Sesame Street show, so we hopped on and watched in meer seconds how Connor fell into a deep sleep! It worked out beautifully! We just stayed on the train for a good 45 minutes to let Mr. Smirf snooze and squeezed another hour and a half out of the park before we left!
On our way out, Connor scoped out his fave...a fire hydrant! Hugs for the fire hydrant...
We hit up Denny's for dinner for a free kid's meal. Connor conched out that night and slept clear until 10:00am! We had a great, tiring trip! :)
1 comment:
I had no idea that Bush Gardens was so little kid friendly. Kylie would die at all the Elmo stuff! It looks like you guys had a blast! And you are super brave for entering that giant rope playground thing. I might start trying to talk Dustin into stopping there on our next trip down to Fort Myers. :)
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