Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Classic exchange between Mary Grace and William

I just found this note I had written, intending to blog it, but never got to it until now:


Mary Grace:  "I only like the white part of cookies and cream"
William:  "Whatever"
Mary Grace: "Whatever is a naughty word"
William: "That is false"
Mary Grace: "What does that mean?"
William:  "Something that is not true"

This is from May 2010.  William was 4 and Mary Grace was 5.  William shows a command of boolean logic  at age 4.  Funny.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Hershey Day 3

Actually, a little misleading title as we left Hershey PA on day 3 to head to Ikea.  We had been wanting to go there since the basement is all but finished now and we had a list of decorating ideas and accessories to stock up on.  We also got to meet some Seton friend from William's class for dinner, as they have recently relocated to Pittsburgh.

We got on the road nearly on-time and the trip went pretty smoothly thank you Scooby Doo and iPad.  But alas, an hour long Scooby Doo movie does not fill up a 4.5 hour drive across central Pennsylvania.  We relief on crafts, books for that.  On of the cool things we saw were tunnels through the Allegheny mountains, I think 4 of them, then one last tunnel in Pittsburgh.

We arrived at Ikea just before lunchtime and headed right in for lunch then an extended shopping trip that took us to dinner time.  The Hoyle's met us there and upon their arrival, we put the kids into their child care so we could shop peacefully.

We gathered up all of items on our list and a few more, picked up the kids and headed across the street to Ichiban hibachi for a yummy dinner.  It was the kids first experience with hibachi and they loved it.  Sadly their favorite memory was getting "pee'd on" by a little squirt gun placed inside a ceramic figure held by the sushi chef.  Good times... good times.

After dinner, we got on the road at about 8:30 headed for Rochester and had an eventless and extremely long drive back home, arriving close to 1:00 am.

And so ended our family vacation, except for the part where I had to assemble and install the stuff from Ikea.  :)   It was a good time and we look forward to our next road trip to Corning in the fall.

My favorite memories are sleeping between the kids in the hotel on the second night, alternating snuggling with either one and becoming familiar with how often they turn over, William kinda crying on one of the kiddy rides when there were kids easily 2-3 years younger than him on the ride (and Mary Grace consoling him while still on the ride).  Losing William at the water park for a good 15 minutes when he told me he was going down a water slide then changed his mind, leaving me at the bottom scratching my head.  And feeling like Clark Griswald driving the kids hours and hours to an amusement park.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Hershey Day 2

After our "preview" evening's 2.5 hour tour of the park, we went back to the hotel and crashed hard.  It was a long day.  The next morning, we headed out to Hershey with the goal of getting there by 10 to avoid the rush.  We got there by 10, but I was one of thousands with the same idea.   I think there's no avoiding the rush at Hershey.

We started out the day on some of the standard rides like the "meant for little kids" flying helicopters:


 Then moved on to the Scrambler, which the kids and Daddy enjoyed immensely!




After several other rides, we had lunch and headed towards the water park.  On the way, we encountered this ride:

http://www.hersheypark.com/rides/details.php?id=83

which had a short line (10 mins), so Daddy decided to inconvenience the kids to take a ride.  It was awesome.  I look forward to taking the kids on it next time we go!


On to the  water park.  We didn't get any photos of the water park for obvious reasons, but suffice it to say that it was incredible.  Castles with all sorts of water toys, a huge tower with 4 different water slides, a overcrowded lazy river and then it started to rain at 4:00 (as we expected).  We relaxed and waited for the rain to pass, then rode some more of the kids rides, like the carousel.


And the flying jets ride


We left the park exhausted at 7:00 and stopped for pizza which we ate in the hotel room while watching Sponge Bob Square Pants.

A good nights sleep and we prepared for day 3 of our summer roadtrip!