Hershey Park Happy

We really wanted to take all the kids to Hershey Park as a great way to celebrate the culmination of a successful "Camp Lebanon". It was a beautiful, 85 degree day at the park and we were not the only ones with the idea. The first 20 minutes or so, I wasn't so sure how everything was going to workout, but in the end the day couldn't have gone any more smoothly. The kids were incredibly well-behaved, patient, happy. We started with a few kiddie rides in first section of the park.
The whole gang rode the train first. Zach, Julia, and Tyler were the "conductors" in the front of the train. They were ringing the bell and saying "all aboard" and having a great time. Matty seemed to enjoy himself too!

Then we made our way over to some of the rescue cars. I had to include the following picture because I give Grammy a lot of credit for getting on this ride with Julia and being such a good sport!

Julia decided she didn't want to ride the helicopters, so Ty and Zach did it together. When I was getting them organized I was explaining to Tyler that he can tell Zach if he wants to stay low or go high. He immediately said "stay low, I want to stay low" and I asked Zach to keep him safe. As soon as the ride started they went up as high as it can go. Tyler looked scared and anxious the entire time but he never cried and then felt really proud of himself after the ride because he was all excited that he did it with Zach and kept saying that they went high. It was a cute bonding experience with his big cousin.

We eventually made our way towards the comet roller coaster. It was decided that I'd wait in line with Zach to ride the comet while everyone else went over to another kiddie section so the other kids could have some fun. Zach and I waited in line for an hour and 15 minutes and it was totally worth it! Zach's face was priceless and the first thing he said was "what's the next roller coaster going to be" and then "can we wait in line and do it again!". Clearly he enjoyed himself. As Zach and I were bonding in line, apparently Tyler and Julia were having a great time riding all sorts of different rides together.

Tyler was really feeling comfortable and somehow learned about holding your hands in the air and was starting to do it for several of the rides.

I didn't see him on the swings but Adam said he was probably most animated during the swings. Every time he go by Adam he'd yell something out and start hollering and smiling. The picture doesn't do it justice but Adam said it was priceless.

We were able to bring in a safe lunch. Somehow it came up in conversation that Zach was going to get some cotton candy for being brave. He was excited and celebrating like any 5-year-old would do and, of course, Tyler started asking if he could have some cotton candy too. Well, Adam made it his mini-mission to find out what the ingredients were and to our delight it was safe.

The very last ride of the day was the carousel thanks to Julia really wanting to ride it. It was a nice, relaxing way to finish out the day. As we were getting our things organized to leave the park we noticed the Reese cup character and the boys were all excited to get their picture with him. Julia wasn't so sure about it and by the time we got Matty the line was long enough that I felt bad. The boys looked so cute and Ty had to give him his high 5. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. We left the park around 4:30 and I think everyone was about ready to collapse.

The ride home was quiet as we all enjoyed the air conditioning and some down time. What a day it was and it made everything so much more special that we were able to share it with Grammy, Baca, Zach, and Julia. No doubt, we were all "Hershey Park Happy"