Celebrating 2nd year as a family at Hershey Park

To celebrate the second anniversary of our becoming a family we headed to Hershey Park. Lukas was big enough to ride a lot of rides by himself and with us. It was a hot day but the shade made it more bearable. We were concerned about the crowds but the front part of the park didn't appear as crowed as we expected. We found out why later. Lukas was very excited to be there since one of his favorite foods is chocolate!



We did a couple of kiddie rides and then took Lukas on the Coal Cracker flume ride. He was having a great time at the top, then we came up to the final drop. Lukas was in the front part of the car by himself, I told him to hold on tight to the bars inside the car. As we got off Lukas said,"I don't want to do that again." We don't normally by ride photos but couldn't resist this one...


Lukas is not the best when it comes to waiting in line even if it is short. He still makes use of the Kazakh squat as can be seen here. This was the line for the first ride we did. We only waited about 5 minutes.


Lukas looooves cars, so he had to "drive" a race car. Lukas steered and daddy pushed the gas pedal....


See you at the finish...


We managed to get Lukas to go on the Super Duper Looper. He made me hold his hand tight the whole time. He did well, but again said he didn't want to go on that ride again. We may have scared him off big rides for now. He requested the kiddie rides the rest of the day.

PIRATE SHIP...



FLYING FOR THE RED BARON...


LEADING THE TRUCKER CONVOY...




THE SWINGS...



Last stop before Chocolate World was the arcades. While Lukas and I were earning tokens playing games in the arcade daddy was outside playing a different game. Lukas one just over 500 tokens and had enough for a bunch of little stuff. While waiting to pick out his stash daddy comes in with a big grin and a huge teddy bear. He one it playing the same game he one our beloved Nemo with. I think I preferred the fish, he takes up less room.

If there is a motorcycle Lukas will be on it...



Saying hi to a family favorite...Mr. Reeses


Photo op with Mr. Hershey and his new friend, Beary...


Lukas insisted that we buckle his new friend in next to him for the ride home. It was a long day but Lukas stayed awake until about 5 minutes before we arrived home.

Mt. Airy VFD Carnival...the Real Deal

It's the end of July so it must be time for the Mt. Airy VFD Carnival. I goofed last week and we arrived at an empty carnival grounds. Lukas was pleased to see that the carnival was really here this time. He couldn't wait to get on the rides and play some arcade games. Since he is actually tall enough to ride most of the rides alone we got him a ride all night braclet. We definitely got our monies worth out of it.

Here he is riding some of the rides...

GETTY UP HORSEY!

HI MOM, HI DAD

MADE A NEW FRIEND ON THE RIDE

LOOK AT ME

RIDING THE DRAGON COASTER

BACK SEAT DRIVER

BIKER DUDE


No fish this year, just a toy car and an inflatable guitar. Mr. Rock star was very excited. While we were there we also got to visit with cousin Kevin. Lukas fell asleep on the way home after a fun filled evening.

Play date with Papa and Grandma

Lukas is offically a Dolphin now. He has moved up to the Pre-K class at school. To prepare for the start of the new year his school was closed and mama was at a conference with Aunt Debbie so the men in the family went to the State Fair with Grandma Shirley to see his cousins show their heifers. It ended up the girls weren't showing until much later in the afternoon so they didn't actually get to see them compete. Wayne did get a picture of Cheyenne before the competition with what ended up being her first place heifer.



Needless to say they managed to have fun and all reports back state Lukas was very well behaved.

Milking a "cow"


Riding the rides...



This was supposedly his favorite ride...go figure

You've been a US Citizen for a year...how are you going to celebrate?

It was a year ago today that we arrived home with Lukas. The moment the plane touched down at Dulles Airport he was officially a citizen of the USA. To celebrate we decided to go to the Mt. Airy Fire Dept Carnival. Lukas' cousin Kevin is a volunteer with the MAVFD so we got Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Butch to go with us.

Lukas was all about the rides from the moment we got there. He was actually tall enough to ride most of the rides by himself which was the way he prefered it. I was surprised at some of the rides he went on. He would have gone on all of them if he could have. He even did the fun house. Smacked into a few glass walls going through the maze and would break out in hysterical laughter each time. I will post the videos on a separate blog post.



He loves the carousels and anything to do with riding a horse or pony.


The train went extremely slow much to his dismay but he still enjoyed being on the train. He kept going, "choooo, chooooo" as it would go around.

Lukas was checking in with the people behind him.


This is one of the rides I was surprised he could go on and he loved it, it went really fast.


This was much more fun than the train because it went faster. That's my boy, best seat on the coaster is the front or back.


Fortunately he wanted me to ride the ferris wheel with him because he couldn't ride it alone. He didn't want to get off.




He kept spinning himself round and round on the spinner ride.

Carnival Rides....Live action

You'll notice in a lot of the videos he is looking around planning where he is going next and what ride he will ride on. My apologies for the poor quality of some of the videos. I need to learn to stand back a little farther when in video mode.