Our First Family of 3 Vacation

Why have we waited so long to go on a vacation with just the three of us?! We had such a great time and it's so much easier to go places with only 3 people (as opposed to the DeVore clan of 100)!

We drove down to Williamsburg, VA Thursday night after Ja got home from work. It's about 3 hours away and Macy did great on the drive. We stayed at the Marriott at Ford's Colony (we love free hotel points!). Macy loved the hotel and kept saying, "Macy no home. Macy hotel!"

She loved playing with the phone. I don't think she's ever seen one
with a cord before!

Friday we got to Busch gardens right as it opened at 10 and stayed until about 6 p.m. It was so empty! Macy never had to wait in line for a ride. Ja didn't either. He was able to walk right onto the big roller coasters he wanted to ride. We watched great shows and ate great food. Macy's favorite show was the Pet Shenanigan's show with dogs, cats, a rat, and other animals doing tricks. It was actually very funny and entertaining. The rest of the day she asked for more puppy. She sat still through all the shows because they all involved a lot of music and dancing.

There is something magical about watching your child riding rides for the first time. The look of fear on her face turning to amusement is very exciting to watch. We were both so proud of her for riding the big girl rides all by herself. All that weekend she would say, "Macy big girl! Macy big girl rides!" She even remembered which were her favorite and requested to go on them again. I'm still so proud of her and smile thinking about her on the rides. If she got a little scared she would look around and see her other peers smiling and laughing so she would too. It was so cute. Macy and I went on the tea cup ride and it actually was quite fast even without me spinning the cup. She definitely got scared so I held her close to me and started saying, "Wheee! YAaay!! Whee!" She noticed I was having fun so she started saying it along with me and then had more fun on the ride. She would scream like that on other rides too. Well, not really screaming as it was pretty quiet but that was her way of saying she was having fun.

The first ride of the day: the tram from the parking lot to the front gate. She LOVED it!

We got a lot of video of her on the rides so I'll have to make a video to share.

The tickets we bought got us into Busch Gardens and Water Country U.S.A. Saturday was the first open day of the season for Water Country and it was totally empty! Ja did all his favorite water rides multiple times. Macy and I mostly did the lazy river which she loved. As soon as we got out she would want to go again. The best part of the day was getting Macy to go on more of an adult ride. We wouldn't think she'd be ok with it because she had to sit by herself in a little section of the raft. I was in front and Ja was in back. She did it though and the ride was actually pretty fast. She got a little scared but didn't cry. We were so proud! She eventually grew less scared of the water and walked into the pool up to her chest with Ja. We would tell her she was so brave and such a big girl!

Water country doesn't have as many kid rides, and it was just a tad cold, so we decided to head back over to Busch Gardens. Since we had done everything we wanted the day before this was just a fun and relaxing day. We did all of Macy's favorite rides again and the puppy show again. She was having the time of her life and Ja and I had such a great time watching her grow up before our eyes.

We let her play in the water area of Sesame Street right before we left. She got soaked I didn't bring an extra shirt which is why she has no shirt on :) She was out cold before we even left the parking lot. It was a busy and fun day!

This was the best time of the year to go to Busch Gardens. The weather was perfect and it was empty! It's our favorite amusement park now. It's so beautiful and great for little kids. Disneyland is fun too but it's always crowded and so expensive! This park is great because it's geared for teens with their big roller coasters but has great kid rides too. Most of the people there were teens so they kept out of our way :)

Even though Macy probably won't remember this trip and the fun time she had it was a great bonding experience for us all. It gave Ja and I great memories to share and we will always look fondly on the weekend and what a great little girl Macy is (I mean, big girl).