Storyland

This weekend, Phil, Ryan, and I went to Fresno to visit Phil's mom and Don and his dad and Pat. On Saturday, Grammy Beth and Papa Don took all of us to the zoo. The first thing that I discovered upon arrival is that my camera had a dead battery, however, Grammy has posted pictures on her blog and I also stole some pictures from her blog.





Ryan was a little overwhelmed by the zoo and how big the animals were, but the petting zoo really suited him fine.



We spent about 2 hours there, then we took Ryan to Storyland to ride the train, which he had been asking to ride for most of the morning.



While in line to buy our tickets, I got caught up in the moment and the nostalgia, and decided that we should get the Storyland pass as well as train tickets, not thinking how long we had been out in the sun and how much longer we would be there with the Storyland pass. We had to wait 15 minutes for the next train to run, so we took Ryan to Hansel and Gretel's candy house and up and down a slide. Phil, Ryan, Grammy, and I all took turns going down the slide, which tickled Ryan.







The train finally arrived and and Ryan was elated. The train fascinated him and he was engrossed in every turn and bump. The train made a stop at Playland, where Ryan could see kids on a race car carousel ride, at which point he reached for the ride and started yelling, "help! help!" Grammy, of course, came to the rescue and bought Ryan tickets to ride. Lucky for Ryan, his height was to his advantage, and he was tall enough to ride the cars by himself. He grinned for the whole ride as turned his little steering wheel.



As the ride was ending, the train whistled for us to board. We quickly grabbed Ryan and jumped back on board. The train took us to Storyland, where we all realized just how hungry and tired we were. Phil and Don sprang to action and went to Piemonte's to pick up some delicious sandwiches for a picnic lunch while Grammy and I took Ryan through Storyland. We went to King Arthur's castle first, which was air conditioned and heavenly.




Ryan sat down at the round table and asked, "Eat? Pray?". We told him no and that we would have to wait some more for our food. We visited the Three Bears house next, which is one of Ryan's FAVORITE and most life changing stories as he reminds us that big things are, "PAPAS", and little things are "babies".



He loved sitting in each of the bears' chairs, but again he asked us, "Eat? Pray?". We visited each one of the little vignettes at record speeds and continued to be asked, "Eat? Pray?", until we finally sat at the picnic tables outside Storyland and Phil and Papa arrived with our glorious sandwiches and saved the day. Phil now says that Piemonte's is one of the best lunches of all times, partly because their sandwiches are the best, and partly because he was near "starvation."

I can't wait to visit the parks again, but maybe just separately next time.