Maddie’s Great Adventure

There is still a bit of the glow of our great week with Maddie going on here.Â As I’ve sorted through the pictures, I’ve been trying to figure out what’s the best way to ‘put into words’ all the fun we had and all the memories we made.Â Do I make a list? Post a bazillion pictures?Â Maybe I’ll just talk about all the LOVE!

We LOVED that we had ‘bookend’ visits with this sweet family in Chambersburg, PA.Â Their home was our jumping off place for Maddie’s adventure, so we got to see them coming and going. Spending time with them is always a treat.

We LOVED that while we in C-burg we made a quick trip to the local (famous in the family) scratch and dent store and ran into MORE family there!

What an unexpected treat!

We LOVED that Maddie had a great time hanging out with those 2nd cousins before we left for Williamsburg, VA. (And again when we returned!)
Nothing like a little trampolining in the rain!

We LOVED that we got to connect with Maddie’s whole family on both ends of the adventure.

Those kiddos are experts at “OK, let’s take a silly one”. Love them!

We LOVED our campground! We stayed a bit out of the fray of Williamsburg at the Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center.

We didn’t spend a whole lot of time there, but it was lovely and quiet. AND it had a pool!

WE LOVED starting off our week with a bit of history – Yorktown

and then Jamestown

We even got to try our hand at identifying archaeological particles.

We LOVED our rainy day at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

I’ll be honest here. When we checked the weather for our week with Maddie we were pretty bummed. Rain was called for each and every day. It wasn’t like we could change our week, so we just carried on, regardless of what the sky looked like. Fortunately, we never had full-blown downpours. And the fact that it rained off and on throughout the day…well, it pretty much made the park look like this-

Turns out that Maddie is a bit of a roller coaster junkie, and those non-existent lines worked in her favor.

On this day alone Maddie rode all of the major roller coasters at least twice, and most of them FOUR times. We did a lot of cheering her on!

We LOVED our rainy-ish day at Water Country USA too!

Again, the lines were short and we were getting wet anyway, so what’s a little rain? Right?

We don’t have too many pictures of our time at Water Country because we were all enjoying the fun and water + camera just isn’t a good mix! At least not for me!

We LOVED that instead of rushing off to another full day at Busch Gardens, we started the next day with pedicures!

It was a great way to start the day!

We LOVED that while Thursday at Busch Gardens was a bit more crowded, we still had a great day. Maddie was able to re-do some of her favorite rides and we made sure to take in some of the fun shows that are sprinkled throughout the park –

A real highlight that day was a performance by Light Balance, a group that had been a finalist on America’s Got Talent.

(No photography was allowed, but if you have a minute this video will give you a great idea of what this group is all about. VERY impressive!)
We also stayed until the bitter end so we could see SPARK – their grand finale each day.

It was a little loud (for us old folks), but lots of fun.

We LOVED that for Maddie’s last ride of the day (and the week actually!), she was the ONLY person on the ride!

See those legs? They belong to our Maddie!

We LOVED that Friday was a stay-home-sleep-late kind of day.

Maddie and I worked on a sewing project

and then enjoyed a nice dip in the pool! (See picture at the beginning of this uber-long post!)
It was a great way to finish up our time in Williamsburg!

Saturday we packed up, and headed back to Chambersburg. One of us was pretty exhausted from all the fun.

(Actually three of us were pretty exhausted from all the fun, but SOMEONE had to drive, right?)