Scariest Moment of my Life

It has been too long since we were in sunny Florida! The snow doesn’t bother me much. But when it is more like ice needles shooting from the sky than big soft fluffy flakes… I am not a fan. I guess it is still pretty to look at, but I want to go play outside! Zoey and Zander love playing outside and Rosie-Cake-Love is just bursting with energy, so she could use some warm weather too.

Since I can’t go to Florida now I have been going through old pictures reminiscing about our last trip, and that is when I realized, I didn’t really share much of it! I still have these fun pictures from a day we spent at Busch Gardens. I also promised I’d share something that happened while we were there. It is something that happened to Zander that is still hard for me to talk about without crying… SO scary.

First the fun part!

You may have heard me say this before, and if you have you probably think I am crazy, but I absolutely stand by it. I like Busch Gardens more than Disney World. Disney World was so fun… But, I’ll be honest, when I go to a theme park I am there for the rides. I love crazy roller coasters, and you don’t really get that at Disney World. I also am not a fan of long lines…. At Busch Gardens it is only $50 to have front of the line passes ALLLLL day long! Yes please!! And the rides are sooo much more fun! They aren’t entertaining like Disney, just faster and more exciting. The Zoo and kids rides are fun too!

Despite my love of fast roller coasters, the day we spent at Busch Gardens on our last visit was mostly dedicated to the kids. They had a halloween event going on and we couldn’t miss it. Kris got a fast pass and went on all the rides a million times. I took the kids trick-or-treating on Sesame Street while he did that.

Of course, Kris kept insisting that he take the kids so I could go on rides, but I wouldn’t let him. Watching the kids was what I wanted to do and here is why:

• Zoey wanted to meet Elmo, SOOOO bad… I don’t know how to put it into words, but her excitement was PRICELESS. She was so happy when she finally got to meet him and I wouldn’t have missed that moment for the world.
• She also wanted to go on rides all by herself. This is a big deal for Zoey. I love seeing those milestones and seeing her confidence when she tries new things.
• Trick-or-treating is fun! Zander got to go too, which meant 90% of his candy was all mine 😉
• It was super hot and I wanted to go to the waterpark with the kids.

Now the Scary Stuff…

The one absolutely horrible part of the whole visit was when I took the kids to the sand pit. Seems like a safe place to go, right? That is what I thought. I’m used to my kids playing on the beach, throwing sand at each other and on themselves, even eating it sometimes. I had NO idea it could be so dangerous.

Zander has a sand bucket and was filling it up one handful at a time. He worked so hard on filling up that bucket and it was so cute to watch. After he got it about half full I watched as he picked it up. Before I had time to react he dumped it upside down onto his face – with his mouth wide open.

I ran over expecting a loud scream next, but what happened was so much worse. Absolutely no sound came out at all. He had breathed in so much sand in his mouth and nose that he couldn’t breath. I tried to scoop it out, I brushed off his face and started hitting him on the back. Nothing. I turned him upside down and continued hitting his back, hoping to hear a cough a gasp or anything. But after a minute without hearing a breath I knew I needed help and I ran to the nearest worker I could find to get help.

My children have choked on bites of food before – but there is always still struggled breathing noises, or coughing/gasping for breath. I remember Zoey slipped in the bath once and swallowed some water, she didn’t make any noise for the longest 10 seconds of my life. This was a good minute with no sound or even the tiniest breath and I was panicking.

I asked the worker for help and water and splashed it over Zander’s face since he still had so much sand in his eyes and nose and ears. Then I flipped him over and hit his back a few more times well the worker said they were going to call medical. FINALLY he started coughing. I have never heard a more beautiful sound. The coughing was followed by vomiting a ton of sand. Then came the tears – I am not sure who cried more, me or Zander. He was fine. But man that situation turned scary so fast and unexpectedly.

Gah. I hate being scared like that. But besides that experience, the whole visit was so fun.

After trick-or-treating and the water park we went and walked around the zoo and saw all the animals. We will definitely go back to Busch Gardens next time we are in Tampa – although we will definitely be avoiding the sand pit.

Have you been to Busch Gardens? What was your favorite part?

Keep scrolling for more pictures or…

My Top: Democracy | Zoey’s Swimsuit: SwimZip (yes she is wearing Zander’s top… She prefers it.)