Ferris Bueller's Day Off

I got the hare-brained scheme a few weeks ago to take a day off before Will started school and do something fun with him. Well, I should say it didn’t start out hare-brained….it started out simple, like a trip to the movies or something. Before too long it had morphed into a surprise day trip to Kings Dominion. Just the two of us.

I was so excited the night before I could barely sleep!  I got up really early and made us some breakfast, sandwiches and a cooler of drinks. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I went and got him out of bed, put him in some clothes and loaded him in the car.  He was confused and sleepy but very pleasant. He knew I was taking some time off that week to be with him. And he also knew we had to run some errands one of those days. In fact, he told Matt that morning that he and I were going to the grocery store.

We headed north and about the time we crossed into Virginia, I was getting tired of the questions. So I finally spilled the beans. Thankfully a good friend had gone just a few weeks before and I was able to snag a park map/brochure from her to give him as a gift. This was key because he had no idea what Kings Dominion was but he could see all the coasters and rides on the brochure and was excited beyond belief.

He told me he had heard of Kings Dominion before but he thought it was a restaurant!!

Another funny tidbit of the day was him telling everyone that I had gotten him up way too early (3 mins earlier than normal, for the record) and that his brain didn't work well when he was woken up early and that he had to think really hard on those days. Ha!

Welcome love from Snoopy!

Telling Dad where we are....

Officially 48 inches! Big enough for a good portion of the rides!

We rode the Eiffel Tower first thing while we were waiting for the "real" rides to open.

We were very lucky in that the park wasn't crowded that day. As in we had 7 coaster rides under our belt in the first 35 minutes. Vomit. In fact, one of the coasters is called The Hurler.  This was my text to Matt:

After the 7 coaster rides, we rode a swing ride and after that I couldn't walk straight. Told Will we needed to sit down for a little bit!!!

We then hit the log flume and white water rapids ride (Will got SOAKED!)!!

A few rides in kiddie land....

Then it was off to his first inverted coaster ever. Man was I nervous about him falling out or hating it but he LOVED it! He wanted to ride it again but by this point it was close to 2PM and we hadn't eaten yet (b/c I didn't want anyone to hurl!!!) so it was time to eat. We did a few more tame rides after lunch and then hit the water park.

Needless to say, the water park made me extremely nervous. I never have been a huge water slide fan. Sure, the tame ones I like but not the crazy ones. The first one we rode was called the Tornado and involved me lugging a 6 ft, at least, tall intertube up the stairs by myself. Well, poor Will pushed it from behind best he could. By the time we got to the top, I was panting and I thought the muscles in my arm were going to burst. I hated that ride!!! And of course I went down in backwards!!  In fact, I saw it on some show on the Travel Channel last night called "Most Extreme Water Parks!"

We did a few more water slides...thankfully we stayed clear of the lazy river because there was a snake in it while we there!!!!  Not too lazy, huh?!?!?!

We headed home a little after 4 and made great time on the way home. Made it home in time to visit with Avery before bed time.

We had a great time but man, did Will miss Avery. He talked about her constantly and even cried once when  purple 18 wheeler passed us on the interstate because he knew Avery would love to see a purple truck.  Bless his heart!