Family Vacation - Day 5 - Thursday

Note* cannot even begin to think about lining up 10 photos w/ captions. Html code, I surrender.

1. Weather Thursday was predicted to be rainy all day so we planned time indoors at a kids play place called “Jumpers”. Although the day dawned beautiful & sunny we still headed over to Jumpers for a bit. Annabelle immediately spotted the “Queens Chair” and jumped right up.

2. This was Annabelle’s Everest. A 3 tier climbing apparatus with many hamster tunnels ending at a long twisty slide. It took her 3 tries before she made it the whole way to the top. Much observing. Much thought went into the most secure way to reach her destination. As a parent I felt as proud as she did when she finally made it.

3.Once she reached the top she did this crazy 60’s Go-Go dance in the bubble. It was one of the funniest, most spontaneous things I have ever seen her do. Then she went down the slide.

4. Nate mostly ran back and forth. There was one jumper “3 and under” he spent some time in. The other ones had much bigger kids that seemed to intimidate him.

5. Then he found the tunnel. He must have crawled back and forth 50 times.

We left Jumpers and went to lunch at this great little diner we happened upon. From the outside it looked like a regular old diner. Inside it was painted with murals, had wrought iron tables and old fashioned street lights. We felt like we were sitting outdoors in 1940 Tuscany. The food was fabulous too and the kids ate way more than usual. All that exercise must have worked up an appetite.

We then arrived at Longwood Gardens, a huge arboretum with long walkways, gardens, tree houses and beautiful flowers.

6. In the lobby there were lots of cut flowers in vases that Nate loved to smell. He would stick his nose in so far that when he pulled back he would have pollen all over his face, thus earning him his rest-of-the-day nick name “PolliNate”. (Yes, I know we are awful. Tom’s puns do strike me amusing every once-in-awhile)

7. We climbed trees and explored treehouses.

8. Nate decided he was over the stroller and only wanted to hold hands with Daddy.

9. Annabelle only wanted to walk with Aunt Charlotte and help with Zachary.

10. Annabelle was fascinated with the bee hive and all the goings on. Nate just wanted to let those insects know what sound they were supposed to make. He would point at them and yell “BUZZ” and run away.

We cut out of here a bit early too after the late afternoon sun was once again baking us on the concrete. Both kids promptly fell asleep as soon as we had the van moving.

We had easy take out dinner at Uncle Frank & Aunt Charlotte’s then headed “home” for the evening.

Another fun vacation day.

Family Vacation - Day 4 - Wednesday

The decision was made Wednesday morning after Nate looked like this after he had woken up that we needed a day of rest. The past two days of sun and amusement parks had worn us all out. We spent the morning eating a leisurely breakfast, kids watching some DVD’s and straightening up.










Aunt Charlotte & Zachary joined us for swimming at the hotel pool, followed by lunch and a 3 hour nap for Nate. During that time we played with Zachary, Annabelle & Charlotte practiced Spanish and we just enjoyed our time visiting.


Then everybody went out to dinner at a fun Italian restaurant followed by some shopping (I found this great kids shoe store where they photocopy their feet, upload to a program that analyzes it and tells us their exact size. As it turns out, Nate has grown 2 shoe sizes this summer) and of course ice cream. Nate associates Aunt Charlotte with ice cream, a role she is happy to fulfill.


Then back to the hotel for baths & bed. A wonderful, low-key day

Family Vacation - Day 3 - Tuesday

	The next day we met up with Uncle Frank, Aunt Charlotte & Cousin Zachary again and headed for Sesame Place. For weeks before the trip I was worried about getting rained out as we were last year, never thought to fret about extreme heat, which is what we got. As soon as we arrived and were walking down the Main Sesame Street we spotted Ernie & Bert. I stood in line while Tom & the kids admired the murals painted on the storefronts. We saw E & B briefly for our photo op; Nate once again liked them much better from a distance. The other characters we saw were Cookie Monster & Telly, walking around but not stopping. I guess it was too hot of a day for people to be parading around in costumes. I know you couldn’t have paid me all the tea in China to do that job on that day. We did get to see the famous steps leading up to the 123 apartment building (please excuse Annabelle’s unladylike pose). Nate did knock on the trash can but I guess Oscar was napping. Annabelle and I rode a few rides and then we went for lunch. Then we swam a bit and played in a play area. Everyone was overheated and overwhelmed by this point so we headed to see Elmo’s World show instead of going to the parade. It was a great decision to go sit in the air condition instead of the crowded parade route, although I had been looking forward to parading I found a lot of our decisions on this trip were based on what was best for the kids instead of what we had in mind. Annabelle loved Elmo’s World. Loved it. She sang and danced and clapped and cheered. Before the show she was able to go up on stage and play “piano” and meet Dorothy the Goldfish. As soon as Nate hit the cool air he promptly fell asleep. How he slept through all those children cheering and Elmo screeching I’ll never know, he must have been beat. We walked around a bit more but then decided enough was enough and called it a day. That night we had dinner at the hotel with Frank, Charlotte & Zachary. Nice, low-key, relaxing. Just what we all needed. We all had long cool showers and went to bed early.

Family vacation - Day 2 - Monday

We had our breakfast at the hotel and then headed for Six Flags. They recently opened Thomastown, featuring Thomas the Tank Engine and his Friends.

It was hot. Like crazy hot. The reader said 91 but I know it was worse than that walking along the cement. We spent about 3 hours at the park and decided to call it a day. The highlights included.

Nate got to ride his beloved Annie & Clarabel. Last count was 4 times, I think there was an extra one in there too. He would just sit and lean against us and gaze out the window. I think he would have been happy to do that the rest of the week. As long as the train was moving and there was a breeze we would have too.

We got to see Tidmouth Sheds. It was hard to get a picture because Nate just wanted to run from one train to the next. Here they are with Percy and Nate with his favorite Gordon.

Annabelle & I rode the Freight Cars (which she is sometimes scared of on the TV but not at all in person) and Harold the Helicopter. We played in the water fountains and slides too for awhile in an attempt to get everyone cooled down.

We happened upon Sir Topham Hatt while Tom was buying the kids a CD so his “handler” took our picture with him. Nate loved him from afar but not so much up close. We were pretty much melted down at this point.

Then we got our late lunch to go and retired to our air conditioned van and a 2 hour drive to Philadelphia where we had dinner with Uncle Frank, Aunt Charlotte and got to meet our new nephew/cousin Zachary who is completely adorable.

Family Vacation - Day 1- Sunday

We have returned from “Family Vacation twenty-ten”. We did a lot, we had some fun and I want to get it all down while the details are fresh in my mind. I’m going to break it down by days because I’ll go insane trying to match up pictures and text for 5 days.

Day 1 – Sunday.

This was our travel day. We left the house at Nate’s nap time after furiously packing up the van all morning. As we were cruising along in our loaded down mini-van (2 kids need a lot of stuff for a week!) with the Tupperware looking cargo carrier on top, a couple in a 2-seater convertible passed us. I said to Tom “That could have been us you know” referring to the years we thought our family vacations would only be him & I. He just smiled affectionately while looking at the snoozing kids behind us and said “Nah”. It made me ridiculously happy at that moment to be in our family mobile.

Then we arrived in Baltimore, checked into our hotel and walked to an IHOP a few doors down for dinner. It was a treat as there are none local. We had the sweetest server named Max who seemed amused by the kids. The other people in the restaurant trying to have a peaceful meal were not as amused when Nate loudly proclaimed Every. Single. Bite he took. “FRIES!” “GRILL CHEESE” We high tailed it out of there as fast as we could. These outbursts earned Nate the nick name “The Admiral”, after Phil Hartman’s character of Admiral Stockdale on SNL, for the rest of the trip.

Our kids are pretty regimented with their sleeping routine so it was a bit of a struggle to get everyone asleep at a decent hour.

Tricycle built for two?

With Annabelle taking a “goldfish & juice” break, Nate took the opportunity to ride her tricycle. Never mind he has his own perfectly sized, primary color, tricycle of his own, because this one belongs to Annabelle it is forever enticing.

Instead of her usual anguish when he takes her things she in turn took the opportunity to ride with him and steal some kisses while she had a captive audience.

Horsing around

Annabelle was riding her wooden rocking horse Saturday morning when she sighed heavily and said “Maybe someday I’ll get to ride a real pony”.

This was the first time I had heard of her desire to ride a live horse. Truthfully when I was a child I was scared of them, so it never occurred to me to ask her if she was interested.

As it happened we had a day planned at our Amusement Park where they offer pony rides. We bought her ticket; she waited patiently in line and jumped up on that horse like an experienced equestrian. She was all smiles the whole time, riding like the Princess Diva that she is. As soon as it was over she immediately asked if she could go again.

Of course my sweetheart, of course.

Her brother however, not a fan.

Especially fond of this one

This photo really captures Nate.

We were at a zoo with lots of animals but Nate's favorite thing was running back & forth across this bridge. He didn't even care about the ducks that were clamoring for his attention in the water below. He just wanted to keep moving.

They recognize their own

We recently went to a wildlife zoo where the kids could feed the animals.

The goats were especially fond of Nate.

Mail Call

There is a toy mailbox at our portrait studio that Annabelle just loves to play with. Whenever we are headed there she scurries around collecting things to “mail” while we wait.

After leaving there last time she told me she needed her own mailbox. I said casually “maybe we can make one out of a shoe box”. That was it.

She planned the whole way home. I could hear her talking from the back of the van. “I’ll paint the sides green, the top red….” she knew exactly what she wanted.

The next day while Nate napped we made her mailbox. It has lots of glitter, lots of paint and as soon as Daddy makes a flag for the side with Popsicle sticks it will be complete.