Great Wolf Lodge 2017!

Once again, Jack and Anna requested a trip to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate their birthday.  As we have done in the past, we decided to take advantage of fair day. We planned to go up on Thursday, which meant the kids would only miss that day of school. Unfortunately, I still had to go in to work for a few hours. Since I only started two months ago, I don't have much time saved and I am sure I will want a day or two around the holidays. Therefore, I went in at 5:45 Thursday morning, to get a half days worth of work in.

We headed up late Thursday morning, stopping for lunch along the way. We checked in and headed straight to the waterpark. For Luke, the difference a year made was huge! He was all about the slides. They also changed the height requirements, so the only thing he could not go on was the Tornado (probably the surf board thing too, but we didn't go over there). He was very enthusiastic. First, he tried the baby slides, he just went up and down, probably a hundred times. He was able to stand himself up at the end and was tall enough that he didn't need a flotation device. Then, I asked him if he wanted to try the family raft ride. Last year, we went on it and he hated it! Several times, he would think about going, we'd climb the stairs, and then he'd change his mind. Not this year! We rode that thing repeatedly. Then, we rode the two faster slides. I thought for sure he'd be scared, but he wasn't, not even a little bit. We rode and rode and rode.  He still doesn't like the giant bucket, but he was willing to climb the structure to get to the slides up there, although, he didn't like them as much as the tube rides.

So, what were the older kids doing all this time? We have no idea. Like we did last year, we were with a group of friends. There were something like 6 families from our neighborhood who joined us and all the bigger kids just ran off by themselves. Every now and then, we'd spot one racing by and I think they may have occasionally joined us on the family raft ride (one here or there). But, with their friends there, they didn't need us.

We played for almost 4 hours and then realized we needed some dinner. Jack and Anna wanted to go to a sit down restaurant. I was hoping for Olive Garden or Cracker Barrel, but they chose the very fancy Taco Bell. At least it was close. We had our quick dinner, and went to Walmart to pick up some breakfast food. We made it back just in time for story time. Jack and Anna didn't want to see the show or hear the story, so I let them wander the hotel by themselves--in small increments. They had to check in with me every 5 minutes. Luke HATED the lobby and avoided it at all costs. So, Thomas put him to bed while we were gone.

Friday morning, we had donuts, cinnamon rolls and bananas for breakfast and were at the door to the waterpark when it opened at 9. One of Kara's best friends from school was there too! Her parents had texted us to let us know that they were coming up after the girls had mentioned it to each other at school. It was a complete coincidence, and the kids were thrilled. They raced around together all morning. At some point, some of the kids discovered that they went faster on the tornado if they had grown-ups with them, so they would occasionally come find us to ask us to ride. But, mostly it was a repeat of Thursday.

We left at lunchtime so that we could visit the Yorktown Victory Center (which is now called the American Revolutionary War Museum or something). I volunteered to stay in the car with Luke while he napped, and Thomas and three older kids went in. Luke ended up napping for the entire visit. I didn't mind the quiet time and figure we'll make it back there at some point soon. Thomas said the museum was really good. The interior had a good combination of artifacts and text-based information. There were lots of interactive multi-media displays. Additionally, there was a very large outdoor area with an encampment and a colonial farm. There was artillery and demonstrations and lots of reenactors. Everyone enjoyed it. In fact, Thomas and the kids upgraded to an annual pass, knowing that they want to explore more. It is about 2.5 hours away, so it would be a long, but doable day trip. The pass is also good for Jamestown, which everyone enjoys.

We ate dinner at the hotel and had a surprise waiting for us when we got back to the room. One of our friends (who went anonymous, but I'm pretty confident I know who it is) sent the kids a birthday package. There were 6 whoopie pies (delicious!) assorted milks, two t-shirts for the birthday kids, cups, pens, and ice cream coupons. They were thrilled! It was really thoughtful and very appreciated. After that, went back to the water park for a couple of hours. None of our friends were there, so Thomas and I were once again in demand as ride partners.

After we put the kids to bed, I hung out with the ladies for about an hour to celebrate my neighbor Kayce's birthday. There was wine and chocolate and fun conversation. We had a good time chatting and it was a nice way to end the day (as a side-note, I was amazed at how many little kids were still wandering around after 10pm).

Saturday morning, the kids were okay with skipping the waterpark. Instead, we packed everything up and headed to the awesome Air and Space Museum in Hampton. The kids had a great time last year and were anxious to repeat the experience. Fortunately, it did not disappoint. Luke loved the luggage exhibit and the girls enjoyed the giant airplane. Jack and Thomas spent a long time in the NASA simulators, which were new since last year. I tried driving a rover on Mars, but it was hard! We stayed for about 3 hours. Unfortunately, the drive home was long! We were starting at a deficit, since Hampton is about 30 minutes further than Williamsburg, and there was an accident on the freeway, so we took an alternate route with lots of lights and traffic.

After about 30 minutes, we decided to stop at the first fast food restaurant on our side of the road. It ended up being Taco Bell. We hadn't eaten there in years and then wound up twice in a weekend. Then, Luke need a potty break about an hour after that. After that, we had to stop for gas and a bathroom break for the older kids. The final time drain was bridge construction. They had it down to one lane and it took us 1.5 hours to get through. The drive ended up taking close to 5 hours. But, Luke slept for part of it and the kids were good. Still, it was a relief to get home.

I was very remiss in my picture taking, but here are a couple:

Luke spent a long time at the museum playing with this. You got to move the planets around and see how their orbits changed.

School Starting (and Philadelphia Wrap-Up)

Our drive home from Philadelphia was uneventful. We got gas station food, which seems to be everyone's favorite part of a road-trip. I forgot to mention that on Day 4, Anna's watch went off at a later place on the road and everyone was disappointed that we hadn't timed it to coincide. Overall it was a good trip. There were definitely some moments of frustration, but generally speaking the kids were well-behaved and cooperative.

When I asked everyone their favorite part of the trip, this is what they said:
Anna: when we walked around the city and heard the stories.
Jack: visiting the Museum of the American Revolution
Luke: hearing stories
Kara: Six Flags
Thomas: Independence Hall
Kori: Six Flags

I like when we get a variety of favorites, so it was a nice outcome.

We got home late on Sunday and had one day to relax before school started. I arranged to go in late to work so that I could see the kids off on their first day. Everyone was nervous. Because of our trip to Philadelphia, they hadn't been able to meet their teachers. Not everyone was sure where their classroom was and aside from a few friends who I could text, they didn't know who their classmates would be.

Speaking of which, I was pretty annoyed when the teacher list came out. We have had 3 out of 4 of the 3rd grade teachers and I expected that we would get one of them for Kara. It is just easier when you know the teacher and already have a good relationship established. Plus, we liked them all. The 4th option was a wildcard for us. We also had an expectation of who Jack would get. When the list came out, it defaults to the oldest kid. Anna had the teacher we thought Jack would get. Jack had a different teacher, and Kara had the wildcard. Ugh! We had talked to a few people and it was universally accepted that personality-wise Anna and Jack would be better off switched. I was most upset about Kara. Seriously, we had a 75% chance and she got the only one we didn't want.

I contemplated calling the school to complain, err politely request a change. But, I didn't want to be that parent and gave up on the thought almost as quickly as I had it. And, it's a good thing I did, because everyone is VERY happy. Jack got a teacher who has a passion for history, Anna loves her teacher, and Kara said her teacher is super nice AND her two best friends are in the same class! So, I am glad we trusted in the process, with only a few misplaced complaints.

Without further ado, the pictures:

Our sweet little Luke is very happy so far at his new school.

Hard to believe our little Kara is an upper elementary classman. ;)

Fourth grade Anna

And, her handsome twin.

Almost hard to believe it is the same kid. I am not sure where her K picture is, I'll have to dig it up at some point.

Jack has really sprouted up in the past few months.

Little Kara-bear.

Four years, lots of changes.

Philadelphia, Days 3 & 4

For our third day, we decided to check out Valley Forge and the second largest mall in the country, which happen to be just minutes apart. The forecast called for rain in the morning and clear skies in the afternoon. Everyone was up around the same time and again, we had our free hotel breakfast.

We loaded up the car and had a sense of deja vu when Anna's watch started beeping and Thomas turned to tell her to turn it off. We were at the exact same point on the road as the day before! It was our own little Groundhog Day moment.

We got to the mall just as it was opening. It was enormous. From what I could tell, they joined together two malls to make a supermall. The joining walkway was full of high end stores (Hermes, Tiffany's, Jimmy Choo, DVF, etc). It was fun to walk through and see all the stuff we will never buy ;)

The kids had a great time walking around and going up and down the many escalators. Some parts of the mall were three stories, others were two. It was an odd layout. We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory, which the kids love. We got 3 cheesecakes to share for dessert and everyone was stuffed for the rest of the day. We spent about 3 hours there, including our lunch. I think we saw most, if not all, of the mall. 

Unfortunately, the forecast had changed and it was now rain for the remainder of the day. We still went to Valley Forge, but limited our time to the visitor's center, including the movie. Jack was happy to see some of it, but sad that we weren't able to walk around where his hero lived and breathed. He definitely takes after his dad and his love of history. While on the trip, he made it his mission to memorize all the Presidents in order. I think he is up to 39 (Jimmy Carter). It is so awesome to live so close to so much American History.

Cut out at Valley Forge

Our last day was Sunday. Our plan was to visit the Museum of the American Revolution. Jack and Thomas were really excited about it. But, Luke isn't really great at places like that. So, we decided I would take him to a kid's museum and Thomas would take the interested kids to the MAR. The girls decided to stay with me. My first plan was to take them to the Please Touch Museum, but they were having a member's only event. So, we decided to just walk around the city. We went back to the Liberty Bell, then headed to Reading Terminal Market. We walked the whole market and picked out some treats. 

Carpenter's Hall, where delegates to the Continental Congress met to resolve grievances with Britain.

Nice shot of Independence Hall

A picture with the crack visible!

Then, we headed to the park at Franklin Square. The park wasn't great, especially because the playground surface was really wet and the kids kept falling. We saw a story telling bench and decided to sit for a story. The story was awesome! It was about Ben Franklin and his pet squirrel, Mungo. We were all mesmerized. The storyteller was super engaging. He gave the kids a flag and told them there were 13 different benches throughout the city and they could get a sticker at each one to put on their flag. I had seen the benches in a few places, but we hadn't stopped. I told the girls we would do one more on our way back to meet Thomas and Jack. We stopped at a bench and the woman was kind enough to tell us three more. We heard about our nation's first bank robbery, the early celebrations for 4th of July in Philadelphia, and the history of the carousel. They were all great stories. I wish we had stopped sooner and been able to hear all 13. But, everyone was content with 4. 

Our second story teller. So entertaining!

In the meantime, Jack and Thomas were having an awesome time at the MAR. They got to sit in a replica chair of George Washington's Rising sun chair. They watched some good movies and saw interesting artifacts from the war. I'll let Thomas add in more here if he wants.

With the uniforms worn by the actors in Turn (we love that show!)

Battle Flag from the Battle of Monmouth, carried by the Regiment from Philadelphia

Sad and poignant quote

Jack sitting in the Rising Sun replica chair.

Thomas is the same height and probably a similar build to George Washington.

We met up about 3 hours after we split and everyone was very pleased with their choice for the day. We really lucked out that we couldn't do another kid's museum, because it was such a fun way to spend the morning. Next time, we will have to budget in time to just walk the city and sit at all the storytelling benches.

Philadelphia Day 2

The hotel we stayed at last trip was either booked or super expensive (I can't remember which it was), so we moved down the road to a Towne Place Suites. It had two bedrooms and a living/kitchen area, but was very small. However, it was clean and the beds were comfortable. The first night was really rough, there were people above us who were up until around midnight and I could hear them walking around. There was also some weird techno music blaring away. I have no idea where that was coming from. I was very tired, but did not get much sleep. Fortunately, these issues did not bother anyone else and the kids and Thomas all got a good night's sleep. Everyone was up around 7:45 and we planned our day. Originally, we were going to go to the Franklin Institute, but since it looked like rain the next two days, we decided we needed to make sure we saw Independence Hall. We had our free hotel breakfast and headed out.

At 9:02, just as we left the hotel, Anna's watch alarm went off. Thomas yelled to the backseat for her to turn it off (there is a point to this, but it won't be clear until I write about Day 3). We had no trouble getting into downtown and picking up tickets for the tour. First, we stopped off to see the Liberty Bell. 

There were other people waiting to take pictures, so we couldn't pose everyone. Of course, Jack stood right in front of the iconic crack. 

Kara and Luke weren't enthusiastic about doing the Independence Hall tour, but Kara decided to be a good sport when she realized it was important to Thomas and me and I gave my Luke my phone and he was content. The tour was good and we enjoyed seeing the spot where our Founding Fathers met. 

From there, we did a tour of Congress Hall, which is where the Senate and House of Representatives met for ten years while Federal City was being built (which later became Washington D.C). It was very informative and in the Senate Chambers, almost all of the furniture was the original. When they moved south, they decided to order themselves new furniture and left everything behind. It was very cool to see the rooms in their original state and to think of the precedents that began right there. 

Probably just like it looked in the 1700s, original furniture and all.

Where our first Vice President, John Adams, sat.

We walked around the visitor's center and had our lunch. Then we set off for the Franklin Institute. However, what we didn't know was that the city was setting up for a giant music festival that was set to begin the next day at Franklin Square, right next to the Franklin Institute! We got caught in road closures and a major traffic jam. Thomas finally let me and the kids out and waited alone to get through the mess. We got inside, got our tickets and enjoyed a few rooms before he was able to join us. 

They had virtual reality! Anna and Kara got to explore a shipwreck...

Complete with a giant blue whale!

This was still a favorite.

We only stayed about 3 hours, which was not long enough for the kids, but Thomas and I were anxious about all the traffic. Unfortunately, it was not to be avoided. Thanks to road closures and regular weekday traffic, it took us about an hour to drive the two miles out of the city. The kids and I entertained ourselves by making up commercials for the random items in the car. Once we got over the bridge, the traffic to our New Jersey hotel was light. We stopped at a Target and got food for dinner and ate in the comfort of our hotel room. 

It was a nice quiet night and everyone slept well.

Philadelphia Day 1

We had our second annual Philadelphia trip this week. With the kids not starting school until after Labor Day, it seemed like a good time to take advantage of a long weekend. I already had Friday off from work and took Thursday as well (nothing like asking for time off five weeks into a job, but we had planned this trip before I even had a start date and my boss was fine with it). We left just before 6am Thursday morning and drove straight to our first destination--Six Flags Great Adventure.

Unfortunately, our navigation took us on some weird route right through Downtown Baltimore. Not convenient at all at 730 on a weekday morning! But, we survived and were able to make up some time, thanks to light traffic, on the rest of the drive. We had hoped to arrive at 1000, to make it through security in order to be in line for passholder early admission at 1015. Instead, we managed to walk into the park right at 1030. Fortunately, the crowds were light and we were able to ride everything we wanted to ride. Unfortunately, Thomas had a terrible headache and wasn't able to ride anything until well into the evening .  There were two roller coasters I really wanted to try. Last time we were there, one was broken and the other had a really long line all day, so that was my wish list for the day.

Our first stop was the parachute ride. It lifts you 250 feet into the air and then slowly lowers you. Everyone but Thomas rode. The height requirement is only 36", and it is a pretty big thrill ride for a 3-year old, so Luke was very happy. Then, we moved on to our first coaster--El Toro. El Toro is a massive wooden roller coaster. Me, Jack and Anna decided to brave it. Anna was super nervous. In fact, as we started up the big hill, she started sobbing. I tried to reach out to hold her hand and she screamed (literally screamed) at me to get my hand off of her! She later told me it was because she wanted me to hold on so I didn't fall off the ride. But, after the first big drop, she was fine. In fact, since there was no line, we stayed on and rode a second time. It was pretty amazing. Definitely among the best roller coasters I've ever ridden.

Anna and El Toro

We did some little kid rides next and the log flume and had our lunch. Kara tried some of the smaller roller coasters and was happy to find she enjoyed them. We made our way to the other side of the park to try the next big coaster on my list--Nitro. This time, Anna opted to stay and ride the smaller rides with Luke, so it was just me and Jack. It was amazing! Probably my favorite of all time. It was smooth and fun and just awesome. We rode twice. Jack wanted to keep going, but I was ready to rejoin the family. Next we headed to their newest ride. I wasn't expecting a lot, but it was pretty awesome too! It was a shooting, virtual reality type ride, similar to Men in Black at Universal or Buzz Lightyear at Magic Kingdom. Honestly, it was on caliber with those rides, which surprised me.

If my camera didn't darken everything, this could have been a great shot.

In line for Escape from Metropolis

Me, Jack and Kara then tried the two dark rides. One was a mouse coaster, which I hated, but the kids liked. The second one, Skull Mountain is an indoor dark coaster, and it was pretty good, although the people behind us screamed hysterically the entire ride. Kara really liked it and got Anna to go back and ride with her a second time. She has become such a thrill seeker this year! Luke loved all the little kid rides. There was one he rode last year that terrified him. It is a tiny drop tower. When I say tiny, it is designed for little kids. It lifts them probably 15 feet up and drops them in little short bursts. Last year, he was fine when it lifted him, but started crying inconsolably when the drops started. They had to stop the ride and take him off. This year, he loved it! He put his hands in the air and smiled. It was such a great contrast.

Our brace little boy :)

We had dinner, then Thomas decided he was ready to try a couple of things. First, he did the shooting ride. He wasn't as impressed as I was, but enjoyed it. Since that didn't bother his head, he decided he needed to ride Kingda Ka, which is the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the United States (until recently, it was #1 in the world). I was definitely not interested in trying that! But, Jack decided he needed to go along. Me and the girls tried to talk them out of it, but they persisted. I was almost afraid to watch, fearing I would see someone fly right out of their seat. But, somehow they survived and, they even enjoyed it. We bought Jack a shirt to celebrate his ride on the country's tallest, fastest coaster, which, he intends to wear on the first day of school. Next time, they want to try the world's tallest drop tower. Yikes!

This picture doesn't do the 486 foot drop justice...

By now, it was after 7 and had been a very long day. We decided to call it good and head to our hotel. We had walked over 20,000 steps and 8+ miles. It was a very fun day.