Virginia vacation slide show

This is a slideshow of pictures from our vacation to Virginia with Matt's family in July.

Busch Gardens-Williamsburg

Sophie and I by hot air balloon at Busch Gardens

Once again, the girls loved the Sesame Street area at Busch Gardens

                                         

The girls while we were waiting to ride something (there were long lines for some rides the first time we went because it was on the weekend)

Abbie and Sophie riding a boat ride

                                               

The skyride

Abbie drives a mini-Dodge'em car

Abbie flies a plane

Ladybugs ride

Sophie and Abbie met an authentic Leprechaun

Recently, we traveled up to Virginia to visit Matt's family in Richmond.  It was a long road trip but overall the girls were good travelers. We had a really busy but fun week.  On Saturday, we visited Busch Gardens, and the weather was great!  There was a big crowd but we had a lot of fun!  The girls enjoyed riding all of the kiddie rides.  Sophie rode the big bumper cars with her Daddy and loved that!  Abbie rode the little bumper cars 2-3 times and was super cute.  She drove around in a circle most of the time.  Sophie also rode a couple of the wet rides with some of the adults and had fun.  We enjoyed seeing a couple of the shows too!  They were having some cooler weather the first few days we were in Virginia which was really nice.  On Sunday afternoon after church, we just took it easy.  It ended up at that Tom and Teresa's church was having VBS that week which we hadn't realized beforehand so the kids went to VBS on the first night.  On Monday, we headed back to Busch Gardens for more fun and then headed over to Virginia Beach where we stayed for a couple of nights.  

                  

Busch Gardens-Christmas Town

our family with the snowman

Sophie & Aunt Leia (with her funky hat) with the penguins behind them

me and the girls in front of Santa's workshop

One afternoon, we all bundled up and drove over to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for their annual Christmas Town. At this time of year, they are only open in the evenings and they have special Christmas shows, lights, Santa Claus, a few rides are open, etc. Anyway, Mimi had given us all long underwear for Christmas in preparation for this because she knew that it would be cold once the sun went down. It definitely was cold but not as bad as it could have been. We saw a couple of shows, some beautiful lights, visited Santa Claus (although next time I would skip it because I thought there was going to be more of a workshop inside), ate kettlecorn and tried to stay warm. Abbie was really not too happy once it got cold. The girls rode one ride while some of us stood right under a heater to try to get warm. It was a fun atmosphere though and very pretty with all of the Christmas lights up. The girls loved the Sesame Street show and there was another one where they sang a lot of Christmas carols that was fun!

"C" is for ... Cookie and Cookie Monster!

clever Matt bought a cookie to feed Cookie Monster before meeting him. Here's Matt, Sophie & Aunt Leia with Cookie Monster. You can see who's eyeing the cookie! Those clever marketing people too who decided to sell chocolate chip cookies right by where the characters come out to meet and greet folks!

Sophie with Zoe

Miss Abby Cadabby with Sophie & Daddy. The other Abbie did not want to meet the characters at all! =)

Sophie gets hugs from Grover

Sophie loved meeting all of the characters. She was also able to meet Elmo & Big Bird. That was a lot of fun! When asked what her favorite part of our day was at Busch Gardens Sophie said, "everything!" Abbie had a blast too. The adults were able to sneak off to ride a few roller coasters too.

Busch Gardens

Here we are at Busch Gardens in the Sesame Street area of the park. Sophie had been recently when she was able to spend a few days with Matt's parents by herself but she was excited to show the rest of us everything, especially in the Sesame Street area. It's a relatively small area of the park with just a handful of rides but the girls enjoyed each of them. Sophie was able to meet all of the Sesame Street characters but Abbie wanted nothing to do with them. They also put on a live show that we could watch. It was cool for us parents too because we grew up watching Sesame Street. =)

Sophie with Bert & Ernie

Sophie & Abbie

Sophie, Mama & Abbie riding the Elmo ride

Aunt Leia, Daddy & Sophie riding the roller coaster in Sesame Street land. It was actually a pretty decent sized roller coaster. I was a little surprised because I thought it would be a real "kiddie" roller coaster but it had a decent sized hill, some big curves & it was pretty fast. Sophie loved it though!