Emily Grace's Birthday Trip

This is the third birthday trip. One would think that I would be getting tired of the these but it is not true. I look forward to each one with great anticipation. I am at least as excited as the girls each time. This time we are going to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA. Realizing that we will be able to cover all of the Great Wolf Lodge attractions in few hours I took the liberty of reserving us days at Busch Gardens and Water Country USA. We left the day after school let out. This is our first stop in Roanoke Rapids, NC on the way.

We arrive at Great Wolf and take a few minutes to for some pictures.

After checking in and getting our complementary ears, we took a picture in front of the fireplace. Emily Grace later asked me if I realized that I took a picture with my ears on backwards.

Our room was great. Fourth floor rooms have cathedral ceilings.

We first spent a couple of hours in the water park inside and out. We rode every ride a few times and spent some time in both pools. After the water we dried up and played Magi-quest.

We looked into all of the dinning options and decided upon some of an old friend who were right around the corner. 

We ate on the balcony with a view of the pool.

The arcade was next.

Finally, off to bed.

The next morning we were at Busch Gardens at opening. The first thing we found out was that Emily Grace was now tall enough to ride any ride in the park and we both could not believe how much she had grown.

The horses were first - of course.

You never know what the crowd will be like when you show up and an amusement park but it quickly became apparent that we were among few people. This was the wait for Loch Ness Monster.

We got out of Loch Ness and walked toward Scotland. This was the crowd along the path.

The eagles and wolves were out.

I hope this continues to be the case but Busch Gardens has has beautiful parks.

We are about to load onto Invader.

Emily loved it - see!

I remember when this ride was inside a building across from the show in Ireland.

I love the way that Emily loves roller coasters but would not want to miss the Merry-Go-Round.

The swings is an old family favorite.

Emily Grace loved Verbolten. 

Since there was very little line we took the opportunity to ride again.

We ran into a teacher at Emily Grace's school, Mr. Canady,  who was on his honeymoon.

Loading onto Da Vinci's Cradle

This is the most people we could gather for our ride on The Battering Ram.

Lunch at Trapper's Smokehouse

Another Ride on Invader

Testing the chair for our third ride on Verbolten.

Rain drove us out of the park around 2:00. This was the crowd at that point.

We checked into our room at Powhatan Plantation

The rain continued and we ate at Panera Bread.

The next morning the rain continued. We set out for Water Country USA. We got there to very low crowds. We were the eighth car in the parking lot. Every ride we walked right on all of the first 3 rides told us that we were their first customers. It was not until our fourth ride that we stood behind anyone else to get on a ride. We did not have any way to take pictures in the water so our only pictures take place on our way out of the park.

We rode this ride three times and it became Emily Grace's favorite ride at Water Country USA.

I love this girl. I love her passion and her zeal for life. We had a great time together and I will never forget this trip and I will never forget this time together. We had some very unique opportunities on this trip with crowds lower than we we are likely to see again and this girl was a champ and flexible as we rolled with all the punches and enjoyed opportunities to fullest. I love these girls and had more fun on these trips that anyone will ever know.