Busch Gardens

We went to Busch Gardens on Sunday and had so much fun. There really isn't any way to fit in everything you want to do in one day there. And we were very limited to what we could do since Joey can only ride a very, very, small amount of rides. And we still didn't have enough time in the day. Busch Gardens is only about a 45 minute drive for us, and once a year, military can get a free pass, so we did that.

Joey's first stop when we got there. He did not want to leave this water fun. He would have stayed there all day if he could.

Joey wouldn't go to Elmo alone. He did give him "five" with Daddy holding him.

The gang. Earl, Joey, Stephen pushing the stroller, Katrina holding baby Ashlynn, and Walker.

Joey riding with his friend Walker, who was so nice and rode a lot of little kid rides with Joey so he didn't have to do it by himself.

Me and Joey are on the far right side of this picture, in front of the worm's head.

Waiting in line...

We were very lucky. It wasn't crowded at all. There were hardly any lines for anything, even the crazy roller coasters.

On Prince Elmo's Spire ride, Joey kept telling everybody "Hold your hands up!" like he was on a roller coaster or something.

Watching the Sesame Street show.

Joey saw this tree and immediately ran into that little door, then all of a sudden he came running out like he saw a ghost or something. It was hilarious. We went to go see what scared him and turns out, it talks to you when you're in there. Ha ha.

Walker, Joey and Earl.

Joey and Earl got to pet the Clydesdale horses.

This is us eating lunch. Our friends, the Spivey's, showed us around. They have season passes and go all the time, so they knew exactly where to lead us for Joey rides.

Joey loved all the rides he got to go on. There were many he couldn't do that he wanted to, because he's too little, but he kept saying, "I'll go on that ride. I'm not afraid."

In the Land of the Dragons, there was a ton of stuff for the kids to play on, like tree houses and water stuff.

He rode this hot air balloon ride twice.

He loved anything that had water in it.

Children's Museum of Virginia

We had a busy and fun weekend. On Saturday we went to the Children's Museum of Virginia. It wasn't really worth the price, but it did keep Joey occupied for a while.
And Earl too, apparently.

They had a massive collection of trains and tracks. They had these bubbles that you could go into and be inside the train track. Joey loved them.

His favorite part was the bubbles section. He got to stand inside while his Dad made a bubble around him, so he was inside a bubble.

They had this little kid town set up, with a bank, market, bus, firetruck, motorcycle, doctor/dentist office where they got to go in and play pretend.

Summer's End

I'm bummed that summer is almost over. Last Tuesday, we were lucky enough to work out a day where Angela and her girls, our friends from Camp Lejeune, who now live in Quantico, VA, could meet us at a beach in between our cities. Well, it was a much longer drive for them. We missed them so much and are so happy we had a chance to catch up and enjoy the beach, one of our favorite things to do together back at Lejeune.

This particular beach we went to was called Buckroe Beach in Hampton, VA. It has a playground right behind the beach, so that was handy. Joey loved that more than the beach, actually.

These pictures are out of order, but I'm having trouble moving them around here on Blogger today, so they'll have to stay that way. This is the kids after showers and a change of clothes. We spent all day at the beach. We left around 5:30 that afternoon.

Adison, Joey and Allie.

One of the playground toys.

Me and Angela.

The kids picked up as though they've never spent a day apart. They moved from Lejeune before us, in Feb. I think, so it's been a long while since we've seen them.

The playground from our spot on the beach.

It wasn't very crowded at all. This beach rents paddle boats and kayaks, too, but we didn't do that.

Joey's swimming trunks were a little big around the waist, so he was constantly mooning people without meaning to.

Wrapped up before the showers.

Yesterday, Joey and I found a couple playgrounds nearby to try out.

This was at the first one, but it was pretty small. But another little girl showed up and Joey and her started playing together right away.

Then we headed to the city park, which was much bigger (and much less shaded...so hot).

This was the area Joey was running to when he tripped and fell right there on the concrete sidewalk. Joey trips and falls alot, and has always had a knack for putting punk knots on his head, but this bump on the head was so loud, it seemed to echo in the trees around us. It scared me pretty bad. I've never heard a sound like that. Poor guy. He didn't cry for long, but I took him to the doctor's office just to get him checked out and make sure he was really okay. And he was. Whew.

Joey can now write his name. Well, the Y in Joey ends up looking like a T, but the JOE are unmistakeable. He's really getting there! He starts preschool on Sept 9th, and his first soccer practice is that same night. We're going to have a blast this fall. He'll have 1 practice a week, then a game almost every saturday. Can't wait to post pictures of him in action. :)