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!!

And Then There Was a Week...

Where, yet again, I have nothing to show. It has just been that kind of winter. MiniM.E. started the week with a cold and LittleL.G. was up all night Wednesday with a fever that turned into a full on miserable cold so we cancelled all our end of week plans with friends.

The wii has been a lifesaver.  Might as well get some exercise while being cooped up inside.

We did manage a weekend morning bowling excursion with Daddy but it only lasted one game because LittleL.G. wasn't really up for it and got pretty cranky towards the end. (Boy our kids are cute bowlers though!)

I did get to celebrate my birthday with a pretty fantastic ice cream cake and adorable singers.

The beginning of this week has been about the same as LittleL.G. is still under the weather.  We have plans to go to the Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Waterpark tomorrow, so hopefully she is feeling better really soon!

fun with selfies

feeding the alligators

"ahh-paane!!"

Adorable Little Dancers

Yesterday was MiniM.E.'s last dance class of the short winter session.  Since there was no recital to end it, we got to go in for the last part of class to watch them dance.  Of course that would be the exact moment when my phone was full and I couldn't take a video.  Fortunately, I had just taken a video of the practice one, so even though it is sans music, it is pretty adorable.

A Work Weekend

Over the weekend Gram and Grumpy came to help us put new flooring in our rental property after damage from a pipe burst.  We are so grateful they offered their assistance because it was impossible to find someone to do the work for us.

Much bigger project than we anticipated and we ended up working into the night Friday and Saturday and finished late last night.  We worked in teams of three while one of us watched the girls.  It was tiring but we are so glad to have it done!  And even though it was busy I think the girls had a good time too.

Even though we were busy, it was MiniM.E.'s last skating class so we all took a break to go watch.

Sunday I took the girls to church.  It was so nice out we got to play on the playground afterward.

Gram had the bulk of the kid watching duty and sent some pretty adorable photos to update me while I was working.

 Thanks again Gram and Grumpy!  Now to get some sleep!

Just Hanging Around

waiting for Daddy at the airport

special delivery!

balance bike race

"Hey, wait for me!" 

all twisted up

practicing pre-K

triple hammock swinging

best buddies

MiniM.E. getting her baby-fix