Hershey Park

It's been a rough week. I'm feeling the sleep deprivation like never before. We've had a lot to do\a lot going on which is good in some ways because I've had to keep going which has kept me from falling asleep at odd moments but I've been pretty out of it which has made making my brain function quite challenging. There was a moment driving this week when I realized I didn't remember how I'd gotten to a place...kind of scary. But, last night saw more zzz's than usual so I feel a bit more human today. Plus, we've gotten lots checked off our to do list so I'm feeling pretty good about this week. So, time to reminisce about the last couple of days of our vacation which already seems like a long time ago.

Day 3 we hit the main reason for going to this area - Hershey Park. Dylan's pretty tall but we knew he still would be limited with what he could ride. The park has all the rides labeled by chocolate status which is pretty cute. Dylan fell in the Hershey Kiss category and could ride all the rides denoted by that label (and under which was Hershey's miniatures). There ended up being A TON of things he could ride. We were there for 6 hours of riding with virtually no lines and didn't even get to all of them.

Our original plan was to go back to our place for nap time so Dylan could get in a snooze and we could get in some lunch but he seemed to be going pretty strong so we stayed at the park as long as we could. Plus, they had an area for nursing mothers which ended up being the most relaxing place I was able to nurse Cade all week (air conditioned, rocking chairs, quiet, private) so I was cool with being out and about all day. I think it was around 4 when Dylan finally passed out in the stroller. He'd had a mini melt down just a bit before that but did great otherwise.

So, this post should henceforth be known as the post with lots of pictures (and captions) of Dylan riding rides.

Dylan and I on our own private roller coaster. There were no lines on the kid type rides and we were solo on lots of them.
That blur is us at the back of our own roller coaster. We've been watching the movie Despicable Me which has a roller coaster scene. Mike and I've been talking up how we would go on a roller coaster at the amusement park so Dylan would not entertain any other ride until we went on a roller coaster. Mike took a turn riding it with him when we were done.

Mini Scrambler - I love the look on his face on this one!

Dylan took charge of the controls on this one with Mike.

Ready to Spin

Mini Pirate Ship

Pure Joy - I Love it!

Mini Log Ride - Dylan and I rode this together twice in a row.
Notice us holding hands? Dylan insisted. Melted my heart.

Cade was a good sport....along for the ride. Watching what was around us and snoozing when he needed to.

The Chocolate Guy (as Dylan called him)
I was kind of surprised he wanted to go see him but he was excited to and gave
him the longest sweetest hug. It was pretty cute

The Train
We had to ride this a couple of times because it went by a deserted Old West scene
that had a skeleton hanging. Dylan loves skeletons so he needed to go see it again.

The train was Cade's very first ride!

Dylan got to pick which parent went on the ride with him.
I was pretty honored to have been picked many times.
Don't worry, Mike didn't get left out. There were several times
that I had to go off to nurse Cade that they were solo for lots of rides too.

Dylan also preferred the tiny kid rides to some of the larger ones he was able to go on.
He rode the cars 3 times in a row and was very specific about which car he wanted to ride.

I thought this sports car was an excellent choice!

This one cracked me up. Big conductor with one little guy passenger.

Cuteness

Waving As He Passed Us

Dylan and Mike on the Ferris Wheel
Dylan had a good time looking at the park all around us.

Cade taking in the sights.

We saw the KitKat guy on the way out. I thought it a perfect opportunity
to get an "after" picture. Both of the boys are passed out.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention that Mike and I got to ride a grown up ride. At the beginning of the day, before the lines to the roller coasters got long (there were lots of school trips at the park that day), we took advantage of the park's Kiddie Swap program. Basically you wait in line, one parent rides and then the other parent can hop on the next ride without standing in line again. Not surprisingly, Dylan didn't enjoy waiting around too much so we only did it once. But, it was an AWESOME roller coaster so it was a great pick to be our only one for the day. It was called Storm Runner. It launches you from 0-72mph in 2 seconds and went 18 stories up and then straight (and I do mean straight) down. It was definitely one of my top coaster picks of all times.