Wild & Bright

(Post for Saturday, 12/28/24.)

For the girls’ Christmas this year, we got them tickets to Wild Adventures! One of my employees told me about it when they were on a super cheap deal (half off, so only $30 each), and she also told me how to get Addie in for free, with a season pass for pre-school kids. Jeff and I actually used to get season passes every year when we were first dating and newly married, but we hadn’t been in years and years, and this was the first time for both girls.

And aside from the inevitable frustrations and typical grumpy times (from not only the kids, but also us adults), we had a great day! The girls really did love every minute of it, and had so much fun. We knew Emerson would love the rides, but Addison surprised us with how brave she was.

Addison turned out to be a little adrenaline junkie, loving every single ride, and wanting more. I was worried she would be scared or nervous, but she loved it! She kept saying, “I wanna ride another roller coaster!!”

We also found one of our church families/friends there, and kept seeing them all over the park. Emmie even got to ride one of the rides with her little buddy. He actually chose to ride with her, instead of his own brother 🙂

This was after they rode this coaster for the second time, and were just hopping with excitement!

We all loved going on the ferris wheel together! It was a beautiful time of day for that too, and loved seeing the sun in the distance.

Had to get some kettle corn for a snack, of course!

Followed by fun and dancing and singing at the tree lighting ceremony.

Saw a beautiful white tiger, but ended up not seeing any of the other animals or even going to the petting zoo, because we were too busy riding all the rides instead.

The Candy Cane express safari train took us on a tour of all the Christmas lights once it was dark, and that was super fun.

By this point, it was about 7pm, and we were all fading fast. We decided to forego dinner in the park, and just headed out a little after 7, and stopped for dinner at a little country buffet in Madison, FL. But on our way out of the park, we made sure to make our way back through this “tunnel of stars” since it was full-dark finally.

We also thought these little geese posing in front of the giant trees were cool.

Emmie and I stopped for one final potty break on the way out, and Jeff and Addie kept walking to the car, so they could come back and pick us up. So we snapped a couple more photos of Emmie girl, and then headed to the exit for Jeff to pick us up from the front sidewalk. (And with approximately 10,000 steps by then, we were more than ready to be picked up and save a few steps.)

After we got back in the car from the dinner spot, we put the girls in their jammies, and gave them their sleepy gummies, and they snoozed all the way back home.

By the time we got home, their big brothers, Ryan and Gabe, were at the house waiting for us! They drove themselves down for the first time yesterday, since Gabe has his own car now. Addie didn’t even wake up when we brought her inside, so we just laid her straight down in the bed. But Emmie was super excited to see them, and stayed up late with the rest of us, all chatting and hanging out. It was 11pm before I got her down and myself into bed, and we were both super tired at that point, and very glad to be off our feet and laying down in cozy beds.