Busch Gardens... with Eli McGregor

We are already "Off School" for Thanksgiving Break, and spent the First Official Day at Busch Gardens! We took Eli with us, since he's FREE and well, we wanted to spend some time with him... There are MANY pictures here, but all are pretty fun, so ~ Enjoy Eli's Day of being a McGregor, you know, McGREGOR STYLE!!

I know, I know... boring-going-into-the-park-picture... some of these are for his mother... she likes DETAILS about what her kid does without her.

If you are a McGregor who is too short to ride rollercoasters (tragic, I know!) then you spend the time your DAD/Uncle is riding them with the McGregor who ISN'T too short... trying on things in the gift shop.

Yeah, he'd rather have Carly try them on FOR him...

... also while waiting patiently, you get to see the World Famous Clydesdale Horses.

... and, your Mom/Aunt will take you to see some Educational things, such as a replica of King Tut's tomb. Creepy.

... and his mummy.

Right about HERE is where we SHOULD have realized Eli ONLY wanted to be in his stroller...

We TRIED to get him to ride Montu... lucky for him, he's TOO SHORT. Seriously, Eli! If you are going to be a McGregor, you have to ride rollercoasters!

Side Show... for my sister! (Laurie, if you Right Click, you can make that your wallpaper for your desktop! HA! You are WELCOME!)

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #1: Took this picture THROUGH the glass of the giant fish tank... but aren't the babies cute!??! And their very protective Mama is yelling at the roller coasters... HA!

Eli checking out the turtles in the underground fish tank...

... so Uncle Ryan decided he needed to GET OUT of the stroller to see them better... it might not look like it, but Eli is YELLING at Ryan here. What can I say, the boy loves his stroller! And perhaps he watched Jaws with his Dad and the great wall of fish swimming towards him freaked him out. I'm just saying...

"Save me, Uncle Ryan!!!"

Umm, is it just me, or does my son look EXCEPTIONALLY huge LEANING down to see under the water line? How did this happen?!?!

The Lazy Lions.

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #2: The giraffes. These 2 were running ALL OVER together! Just running side by side, like running buddies! So fun to watch. So graceful. Click on that picture and check out the one on the right's front leg so high in the air. We counted at least 13 giraffes on the "Serengeti Plain" today...

Cousins are good for showing you what's for sale... Eli loved this puppet. Of course!

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #3: The sea otters. See that one there, CLICK on the picture. He was carrying shells in his paw. And he dropped them once, and scrambled like a nut to get them back in his paw before his "friends" stole them! AND, he was running on the land part of their display, WITH THEM IN HIS PAW. So very funny to us! Also funny was

FUN ANIMAL MOMENT #4: The zoo keepers walked past their tank and the 4 otters went BONKERS trying to get to them and swam all around the tank following them! Then another group of zoo keepers came out, and they did the same thing! I'm wearing khaki clothes next time I go!

Eli got to watch the TALL ENOUGH McGregor's ride a rollercoaster... that's Carly and Ben in the front, with Ryan right behind them!

Heading out to McDonald's... this cracked me up!!!

He wasn't very happy with me for breaking his french fry in half (hey, I thought he'd like one for each hand!!!) and spent about 10 minutes trying to put it back together!!!

Seriously, Uncle Ryan... I'm not ready to be a McGregor ~ you people are CRAZY!!!