Since we took the Honda, I drove for two hours and Brian got car sick, and the camera happy once he started to feel better. He started taking pictures of everything, and I got really annoyed, really quickly. He thought it was hilarious. Oh my husband. This is my grumpy face which he gets to see quite often, but normally from the front.
The first thing we got to ride when we finally arrived was the tram. We
were parked right next to stop #2. Of course, Brian wouldn't actually smile, but had to make a goofy face when I told them to look at the camera.
Here's the official entrance before we gave them our tickets.
Kayla insisted on bringing her baby and stroller into the park with us. It was so cute because she pushed her around and made sure her baby could see everything.
Before we could ride any rides, we had to get her measured to see what she could ride. She measured in at 36 and 3/4 inches.
Mom and I took her to Silver Dollar City last year, but really the only thing she could or wanted to ride was the carousel. That was not the case this year!!
She rode the elephants, or "Dumbos" as she named them.
And the teacups...
And the Galleon, or as I've always called it "the big ship". There's a back story for this ride. I rode on this with my mom when I was fairly young. I thought it would be really fun, but about 30 seconds in, I started crying, became traumatized when they couldn't make the ride stop, and remained afraid of the ship until I was about 14 years old and rode it at Six Flags Over Texas. That was when I finally conquered my fear.
I was so scared Kayla would have the same experience, especially since she's so young, but she LOVED it! It was her favorite ride in the park. She even said she liked it when it "tickled her tummy". I didn't get a picture of her on this ride because Brian and I both rode it with her for two reasons...one, we both wanted to ride it, and two, we were both convinced she probably wouldn't like it. Man, were we wrong! She rode it three or four more times, per her request.
Another thing that was really cool was this ball area where the kids can shoot balls from multiple levels. Of course, Kayla being the type "A" kid that she is, was not interested in all at shooting the balls, but rather started picking them up off of the ground and placing them in this giant red tub. Bless her heart. As you can see, it was a lose-lose situation.
She said another one of her favorite things to do was getting to ride the train. I thought it was really cool because it was actually a steam-powered engine. Since we sat in the first car, we got to see the engineer work some of his magic. I thought it was really cool to watch.
About half way through the train ride, we stopped on the tracks and listened to a grandpa character tell the Christmas story. I had to capture Kayla's expression while she listened intently.
I almost teared up during this portion of our time at Silver Dollar City. Last year, this was the one ride other than the carousel Kayla was interested in riding, but she just wasn't tall enough. This year, she was good to go!! This was the first time she'd ever ridden a ride without me, Brian, or Mom going with her. She was fearless and rode it three times. In the second picture, you can see the pink and blue blur of Kayla in motion.
Silver Dollar City has over 4.5 million Christmas lights which is more than any other amusement park in the country!! They really were beautiful!
After we walked back to the "Grand Exposition" portion of the park to ride the Dumbo ride and the big ship again, we watched the light parade.
The light parade was beautiful, but WAS NOT worth the mass exodus we faced when we tried to leave the park after it was over. Brian talked to one of the workers there before the parade began, and he said the official count of visitors in the park at around 7:00 p.m. was 20,100!!! So, this is what it looks like when that many people are all trying to leave at once.
I did manage to catch this shot of the trees while we were at a literal stand still with folks in front of, and behind us.
Brian took this picture of the entrance right before we got back on the tram to take us to our car.
It was a great experience and we will go again next year, but most likely not on a Saturday!!
