Trip to VA: Day 4

Yesterday was playground day.  Auntie Jen took us to a place called Fort Fun- easily the biggest playground we have ever been to.  There were tons of people there but it hardly felt crowded and there was plenty of climbing and sliding and swinging to do.  We took a break to feed the geese and ducks and then played some more.

In the afternoon we stopped back at Auntie Jen's to see her kitty again and play on the swing in her yard.

Then we went back to the beach we went to on Monday. The weather was so much nicer and the girls walked the beach and put their toes in the water.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Auntie Jen and Virginia.  MiniM.E. was so sad and kept asking why we couldn't just stay.  We all had a great time and it was hard to leave to come home.

We left a little earlier than we planned, which was a good thing because it ended up taking us about 3 hours longer to drive to the hotel we planned to stop at and we had to drive until almost 3am to get there!!

Needless to say we are all exhausted today and were so glad to only have two and a half hours to drive home.  It's going to take a few days to recover!

Overall the trip was a huge success! I definitely see more road trips in the future!

Trip to VA: Day 3

Because the time change has the girls waking up an hour later anyway, and because everyone was so tired from the road trip and staying up late last night, this morning we really had to scramble to get down to breakfast since it only goes until 9.

Auntie Jen met us and ate breakfast with us and then she took us to her work- a Petco that just opened a few weeks ago.  MiniM.E. has been so excited to go to Petco with Auntie Jen because we got to hold a lot of the small animals that Jen has been sending us videos of.

We touched a turtle, and a snake, held a lizard and a chameleon, just looked at the tarantula (eek!), and held a really furry mouse.

The girls played dog trainer with the mascot puppy in the training area for a while.

After Petco it was time for the zoo!

The Virginia Zoo was AWESOME.  There was hardly anyone there and the weather was beautiful.  Sunny and warm enough.  It was just the right size to see everything in a couple hours.

snack break with a goose

photo with a peacock

playing on the stage

 There were 10 week old baby tigers to watch play and a playground where the kids could play with "tiger toys".

looking angry by the baby tigers

riding the turtle statue

The girls had a great time and we had to drag them away when it was time to leave to beat the traffic home.  We picked up Jen's boyfriend Dan and headed to dinner at Cheddar's.  We had some great appetizers, but our waitress had some difficulties and we never ended up with our dinner. Fortunately the appetizers were hugenormous!  We went back to the hotel for another swim and the girls stayed up late.  Going to be another scramble for breakfast tomorrow!

Trip to VA: Day 2

We made it to VA!

We woke up, had some breakfast at the hotel and after a quick luggage cart ride, we were back on the road.

MiniM.E. dozed in the car, but LittleL.G. stayed awake the whole drive.

...so as soon as we checked into the hotel, she fell asleep.

That gave us time to catch up with Auntie Jen and for MiniM.E. to explore the hotel a bit.

When LittleL.G. was done with her nap (possibly because we woke her up), we went to Auntie Jen's house to see her adorable nuzzly kitty and then drove to the beach to feed the seagulls.  We were hoping for some warm weather but it was cold and windy.  The girls still had a great time watching the seagulls and played on a playground nearby for a while before the wussy grown ups got too cold and decided to call it a day.

We went back to the hotel for their complimentary cocktail hour.  Then, because we promised MiniM.E. we would see the pool we went for a swim and decided afterwards that since it was late and the girls needed to get to bed, we would just order a pizza for dinner.

They were exhausted by the time they finally went to sleep.

On the agenda for tomorrow: Petco and the zoo!

Trip to VA: Day 1 - Road Trip!

This week MiniM.E. has school vacation and Daddy is back in Dresden so we are traveling to VA with Gram to visit my sister.  She moved down in August and we haven't seen her since then, so we are all excited to go and visit.

Originally the plan was to fly, but it was expensive and still required a lot of travel time, so in the end we decided to drive the 9.5 hours in two days.  Thankfully going with Gram means we can take the van and one adult can sit with the girls in the back and dole out activities and snacks and put on movies, etc.

To make it easiest on the girls, we left a couple hours before dinner, stopped to eat and take a break, and got back in the car.  LittleL.G. had a rough time falling asleep for the night but other than that both girls were amazing and no one fussed or cried at all!

Settled in in NJ for the night with about 3 hours and 15 minutes to finish the drive tomorrow.

So far so good.  If the rest of the trip is as good as today, we will drive to many places in the future, or it could take a downturn and we will swear off road trips for a long while... hoping for the best!

Goodbye Daddy Breakfast, Playground and Ducks!

Daddy left yesterday to go back to Dresden for another week.  Instead of leaving from the airport they took a car service down to Newark.  MiniM.E. was pretty bummed not to get to watch people go through security, so we softened the blow with breakfast at the Iron Roost.  Miserable lighting, great food.

LittleL.G. was so off her schedule from the waterpark that she napped on the drive TO breakfast and after dropping Daddy off MiniM.E. was blinking back tears, so to make her happy and find something to do while LittleL.G. was NOT napping we went to the playground for a while.

Beautiful weather!  Then we played outside MORE when we got home.  The girls were worn out by dinner time and ready for bed.

Today we went to the doctor for LittleL.G and found out she has an ear infection.  Which is hopefully why she was such a miserable sleeper at the waterpark since we have four nights of hotel coming up-- Gram arrived today since we will all be leaving on a "road trip" to VA to see Auntie Jen tomorrow.  It was another nice day so after a super-nap from LittleL.G., we went downtown to see the ducks for the first time in months.

Next stop, VA!

Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Waterpark

Last year we stayed overnight at the Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Waterpark and on the drive home vowed that we would wait at least a couple years before trying it again.

And then we decided to go again anyway.  MiniM.E. has been subtly dropping hints that she's like to go to the waterpark again by doing things like loudly jumping around and singing about the waterpark and spending long hours asking repeatedly when we can go again.  Finally we bit the bullet and booked a night with the underlying plan to get the good deal on Great Escape season passes so we can use the indoor waterpark and the outdoor waterpark and the theme park whenever we want. It's so close that we could just drive up for a couple hours and it will be nice to have another activity.

Even though we also said last year that we would just drive home to sleep since it was ridiculous to try to put two kids to bed in a hotel and we woke up so early with nothing to do, we figured it couldn't be as bad as last year... 

So we packed up all our stuff and left yesterday afternoon to arrive for check in.  MiniM.E. was SO excited.

We arrived and the girls were trying to get their bathing suits on before we'd even set everything down.

While we finished getting everything settled and got ourselves ready to go to the waterpark the girls played the iPad.

LittleL.G. was a little timid at first

But MiniM.E. jumped right in!

Maybe a little too quickly because a knee scrape after one of her first slides almost had us heading home after less than half an hour at the park.  It took a bit, but we finally convinced her to stay and keep playing and we had a great evening.  

The girls were tired after two hours so we went back to the room to order pizza.  Definitely an improvement over eating at Johnny Rockets like last year.

Putting the kids to bed went well too!  And for a few hours we thought we had it down... 

Until LittleL.G. woke up and WOULD NOT go back in her crib.  For hours.  And then, after finally going back to sleep, woke up an hour later and WOULD NOT go back in the crib.  After finally going back to sleep again, at least the girls slept in until 6:30.  We did our breakfast at Denny's and instead of heading right back decided to take a walk around Wal-Mart for a while to kill some time.

It worked out well because as soon as we got back it was time to get dressed for the park!

Another great day of playing (and napping for LittleL.G., who was tired for some reason...).  MiniM.E. even did some of the big kid slides this year!!  And we more than doubled our previous record of 1.5 hours for day 2 and stayed until after lunch!

Even though we weren't planning on it, we all had a great time this year (forgetting about the sleeping part).  See you again soon with our season passes!!