This past week I had a birthday! Yeah, 21.. again. HA! OK OK I really hit 34. Instead of spending my birthday fighting crowds for Black Friday and spending money we don't have...we loaded up and headed north.
Now.. before I go any further .. due to the last post and yes us not having any extra money....let me start by saying.... we didn't pay for it. A HUGE Thanks to my mom who purchased Chris and me along with my brother and sister-in-law tickets for Christmas last year. It was a combo pack for Sea World and Busch Gardens. We all went to Sea World in April earlier this year.. and well since our tickets were to expire the beginning of December this year and the fact that Chris and I needed to get out of the house for some fun time; we loaded up and headed to Busch Gardens. We stopped by my Mom's and picked her and my Grandma up and then met up with my brother and his family there.
It started off a little crazy with taking us over an hour to get in due the lady who was checking our bags and stroller in telling us we needed to go get our "paper tickets" exchanged for real tickets and directed us to a kiosk where it would not read our ticket number. So we ended up in the ticket information line with 100 other people experiencing the same problem. We had a manager walk us through and once scanned we were in and off to a go!
Our first stop...to EAT (and we had the all day dinning arm bands to eat / drink free all day), we were all famished by the time we made it through the ticket issues and then we were on the go and non-stop. My brother and his family left earlier than us but the remaining 5 of us pretty much closed the park down. It was an Awesome birthday and just an over all great day! The weather was beautiful and the company was great!! (Thank you guys)
Just outside of the eatery. Gramma has been trying to get all 3 kiddos to take a picture with her and leave it to mine to want to be engrossed in the boats rather than taking the picture. Can you imagine how it will be in a few months with kiddo #4? HA!:
After lunch, our next stop was at the Kanagroo exhibit. The boys weren't permitted to go into the petting portion as they were too small and could fit in the slots of the cage; so we waited for the "grown ups" on the bridge and watched them from a distance. Or as the conversation that took place went like this: Cagen: "Mom, why can't we go in there?" ; Tamara : "Because I'm not big enough"; Cagen: "But I am!" it was too cute!!:
One of the kangaroos:
The handsome boys waiting for the gang to catch up to us on the bridge:
Our next stop was to see the Animal Show! It is amazing to watch how these animals were trained and they mostly were all adopted from a shelter. They had cats / dogs / birds galore of all sorts / mice / pigs / kangaroos. Mine and Chris' favorite was the guy would toss up the Parrot and played with him like he was a football and the bird tucked himself down and everything. It was pretty neat.
Part of the gang:
The whole gang minus me taking the picture:
Gramma and Ky waiting on the show to start:
Gramma and Kyler into the show:
Mr. Cool Cagen with some handsome shades:
After the show we got to pet the animals. Charleigh wanted her picture with the owl: 
Aunt Tamara's arms is in the way.. (lol) but you can see Kyler's hand petting the owl: 
The kiddos (and the bigger kiddos) wanted to ride the rollercoaster:
The kiddos (and the bigger kiddos) wanted to ride the rollercoaster:
The group of "permitted" kiddos allowed to go in:
I was SO proud of Kyler. He was going to ride the rollercoaster and was even excited to stand in line with Gramma, Uncle Tim, Aunt Tamara and Charleigh. On the outside line, he was measured and passed the height requirement, however they came over and told them he was still too short to go on. He was seated and ready to go ;-( But he was good and got off (still wanting to ride) and then watched his cousin ride it.
I think the "saving grace" from the rollercoaster was that Big Bird was at the exit and Kyler took off to a run! He didn't want to leave from Big Bird then.
We found a ride that Kyler was able to go on! Daddy and Kyler waiting in line for the ride:
Daddy and Kyler on the ride!:
Charleigh trying to get her airplane to go up. It was giving her a hard time: 
Aunt Tamara and Cagen on their plane:
Aunt Tamara and Cagen on their plane:
Three little monkeys sitting on an elephant:
Shortly after this my brother and his family left and we continued exploring. Our next stop was to see the gorillas.
This one we named Kyler cause it sleeps just like Kyler does:
After walking down a little further we found a .......
And one VERY EXCITED little boy SO badly wanted to ride it!
Kyler, Gramma and Daddy:
Daddy, "Great" and Mommy:
He sat on the outside so he could get a great view of the critters.
We saw:
Giraffes (and they were so close to us)
A gaggle of Gazelles:
Did you know you can always spot the Momma Rhino very easily? She's the one with the sharpest horn..as she does this to protect her while pregnant or her baby just after birth:
One of three of the new baby zebras:
Kyler dubbed these as Papa Pat's cows:
Our first "Christmas" picture in the sleigh. However Mr. Kyler was SO into the Choo-Choo train he wouldn't look at the camera:
Look Mom.. elephants!:
We cruised around some more and found the Hippo tank. Kyler loved the large amount of FISH!:
So Kyler was watching the Hippos and was engrossed in them when one of them came right up to the window face to face with him. He was standing on the rock ledge looking in and my mom was standing right behind him. He was bailing off that ledge practically climbing her legs to get away from that monster getting him.
We went and grabbed some dinner and on our way back to ride the train again, we found Mr. Big Kitty who was not there earlier. He was foul at something and kept pacing back and forth.
Waiting for the Choo-Choo to return to pick us up:
All Aboard!!! Gramma, Kyler and Great loading up for a night ride:
I love this picture of the three of them:
And off we go.. wind blowing:
Mr. Big Stuff was SO Excited!!:
We couldn't see any animals this time, but he didn't care.
Daddy and Mommy:
Mr. Big Stuff didn't make it very far into the 2nd ride and he was OUT! Which was good as we thought it was going to take an army just to get him off the train. He went right into the stroller and kept sleeping even as we moved him from stroller to shoulder during the tram ride to our car. He woke up once at the car as we had to change him, but once in his car seat he was out for the long haul.
The next morning Kyler and Gramma took off on a bicycle ride. The next thing I knew they were calling me to come join them at the park.
Race you... my van vs your bike!:
Later that afternoon, we headed to my SIL's and BIL's house to collect our critters. We ended up staying for dinner and letting all the kids play. The older kids were climbing the tree and Mr. Monkey See Monkey Do had to join in. He was crying cause he couldn't do it so Daddy was off to the rescue.
The older kids left the tree and Kyler still wanted his turn:
Here he was in the dark --the only light was from my flash on the camera -- trying to climb the tree by himself. Oh be still my heart.
Then Uncle Kevin put on a fire and my Pyromaniac was off to catch front row seat:
We shortly later loaded up and headed home. We had ONE VERY HAPPY BOY to have his puppy back with him. He would NOT let Daddy put Kasey in the kennel. He HAD to hold him the ride home. I love the smirk on his face here:
And just in case you couldn't tell he was a happy boy.. check out those cheeks:
Once home, the critters crashed! Kady and Kasey had SO much fun playing with Chloe, Cody and the kids, there zonked out and didn't even care to eat dinner when we got home.
Look Kyler, here's this years Christmas present to you.. oh wait, you've already opened it. HA!:
We decided it was time to take Kyler to see Santa. He was checking out Frosty while waiting in line, but would NOT go near him!:
Here he is checking out Santa and Santa's Elfs:
But DO NOT!! I REPEAT DO NOT PUT ME IN THE MAN'S LAP!!!!:
So if that wasn't funny enough. I tried to come to the rescue and we ended up with this shot. I'm thinking of making this our Christmas card for this year.....
...I know, I'm a bad Mommy for laughing.
