A Birthday at Silver Dollar City

We love Silver Dollar City! So, when my parents asked if we would meet them there for my birthday on Friday, it was pretty much a no-brainer. Given that we needed to be home on Saturday so would need to drive there and back in one day, perhaps we should have given it more thought, but oh well, we'll know that next time.

Silver Dollar City is in the middle of kids' fest, so it was a great time to take the kids. In addition to all of the usual kids rides and play areas, they had special shows geared to kids and lots of little tents set up with tables for sand play, giant tic tac toe, checkers and lego construction. We played our way around half of the city and through the cave and had so much fun that we didn't even make it around the whole park.

Here are some pictures of our fun:
The kids-desperate for Mom to snap the picture so that they can play!


Playing in the sand


Mommy and Daddy playing in the sand


Mommy and Nate riding the flying elephants!


Riding the pirate ship-note Nathan's face-eyes screwed tight shut, hanging on for dear life. I asked him afterwards if he liked it, and he grinned and said he loved it and wished he could be a pirate. We called him "Captain Fuzzbeard" for the rest of the day.


Grandpa and Nathan riding the frogs


Daddy and Noah riding the frogs


Noah and Nathan riding their first ride all by themselves!


Grandma and Rosie flying in a butterfly


Daddy and Rosie using the airgun to shoot foam balls


What I don't have any pictures of was the best part of the day-riding the Lost River Ride as a whole family! Rosie just made the minimum clearance to ride the adult water rides, but as Noah had been so upset when I took him on the Lost River last time, I didn't even suggest it this trip. But, to my surprise, as we were passing it he begged to ride. I reminded him about how upset he had been the previous trip, and he assured me that he wasn't afraid anymore, so we gave it a try. It was great. We had all three kids with us, and as there wasn't a line, the attendants let us ride through 3 times without stopping. After the 3rd trip through we were all thoroughly soaked. The boys wanted to keep riding, and the attendants would have let us, but Rosie's teeth were starting to chatter, so we got off, dried out and grabbed some supper before the 4 hour drive home. If you don't count the drive home, it was a most excellent way to celebrate my 31st birthday!