we arrived in the hershey/gettysburg area on saturday afternoon. set up camp. and headed off to hershey’s chocolate world.
it was a lot different than i remembered from the time i went when i was like 8 or so. everything was just digitally projected onto machine shaped “screens” and there was audio coming at us from like 10 different directions. music. hershey mascots talking. informative stuff on our car speaker. it was a little overwhelming. and the kids were miserable.
example.
everyone perked up enough to get a pic and then we were done for the night.
on sunday, we slept in, had a big breakfast, and then headed back, this time to hershey park. first up, we had to measure the kids to find out what rides they could go on. anna was a reese’s peanut butter cup.
isaac was a twizzler. which didn’t matter because he wouldn’t go on any rides. i take that back. it mattered because he was too tall for the couple of rides he would agree to go on.
hazel was a hershey’s kiss.
but she preferred to hang with the reese’s pb cup.
when we were just through the gate, we ran into our first hershey character. the girls were game to take a pic as long as derek went too.
then a little warmup ride on the merry-go-round.
anna was a fan.
hazel was unsure.
dino ride. anna cried because she was worried she would lose sight of me.
so, i ended up riding way more rides than i had hoped for.
random spinny ride. the worst.
arms up for the cool kids.
hazel wanted to ride this balloon ride. no one would go with her. but, she didn’t care.
tea cups. double spinning. great.
swing.
bumblebee. another lone ride for the crazel.
ladybug. i managed to get a decent pic of all three kids before they started. and, bonus, i didn’t have to ride it!
all three of them actually enjoyed something at the same time. it’s a hershey miracle!
mini pirate ship for the girls. isaac was actually on this ride, but jumped off just before it started.
mini rollercoaster. (we’re in the back).
they had fun!!
then, we ran into the reese’s character.
train ride. hazel cried when it was over because she “wanted to go to the mainland”…
so. this is the point in the day where everything changed. after our ride on the mini rollercoaster, we got a tip that the “trailblazer” would be a good next step for the kids. they were all big enough to go on it, but with a parent. (technically, anna could ride with isaac, but he was not interested). anyhow, even though she seemed so tiny, hazel piled in with me and off we went. she loved it.
then, i ride switched, with a more apprehensive anna. she also loved it.
so, hazel wanted to ride again. and we did.
she LOVED it.
seriously. she would have gone on it all day long.
except she fell asleep. 🙂 (so anna and i went on it a bunch of times).
while hazel slept, derek entertained the older two kids while i rode some bigger rollercoasters. i’m a fan of the wooden ones.
when i was done, i found the kids playing skeeball with derek.
we began to make our way towards the front of the park. anna and i stopped for another couple of rides on the trailblazer. then, i talked her into riding the comet, which was a smaller wooden coaster that she was tall enough for. she was a little traumatized, but very proud of herself for trying it. later, she told me that she actually liked it. she’s a champ.
anyhow, it was late and dark and we had a pack of tired kids on our hands, so we wandered out just as things were getting all lit up for the evening.
and that’s our great adventure to hershey….