Great Wolf Lodge

On Thursday we told our kids there was a two-hour delay. We had a leisurely breakfast and around 9 we gathered the kids and asked, "how about instead of going to school today, we go to...Great Wolf Lodge?!?!?!" They were thrilled! They jumped up and down and squealed and raced to get their car bags packed. We threw our suitcases in the van and headed off (discussing on the way the difference between a lie and a surprise).

We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and checked in. Our room was ready, so we quickly dropped off our bags, changed and went to the water park. The other surprise for the kids was that several of our neighbors were joining us. Jack was thrilled when he saw Kolten, who lives across the street from us. He is only in PreK, but he and Jack love to have lightsaber battles and rough-house. Unfortunately, none of their school-aged friends joined us (one family was supposed to, but their son got stitches a few days before departure and was told he couldn't get them wet for 10 days). They enjoyed playing with the other kids. We rode all the slides and even took Luke on the family water raft. Unfortunately, he did not like it. He actually grew more timid as our time there went on. He loves the slides attached to the giant kid structure, but hated the water bucket dropping on him. They also have a water feature that lets people drop a trough of water on you on your way to the slides. I don't know why people thought it was funny to scare a 2-year old, but they did. So, Luke eventually decided it wasn't worth the risk and gave up all slides except the ones in the baby pool.

The birthday kids

All the kids!

Back to Thursday, for dinner we went to Cracker Barrel, which was good. Then, we stopped at Walmart to pick up food for Friday's breakfast and lunch. When we returned to GWL, we met up with our friends and did the trick-or-treat trail (really short, but good candy), and looked for all the hidden peeps. Then, we saw the clock tower show in the lobby, followed by the bedtime story. Luke took one look at the clock tower and decided he wasn't interested, so Thomas put him to bed and I stayed with the older three. Finally, it was time for bed.

With a few of our friends.

Friday, we went back to the water park in the morning. Then, we decided to visit the Virginia Air and Space Museum. It was really cool. It had lots of interactive exhibits that were fun for all of us, including an AirTran DC-9 that you could climb around in and attempt to "fly". The kids loved the children's area, where they could design and build a rocket, see video of the sun, dress-up in astronaut suits and experience lots of other exhibits. We had a great time. In fact, they were working on a new exhibit that had lots of fun looking "games" and the kids all want to go back when it opens.

Flying the DC-9

Kara drew out her plan on paper and then executed this design.

Cutouts!

We drove to the Yankee Candle Flagship store, a must-visit place anytime we go to Williamsburg. Then, it was Olive Garden for dinner and back to GWL for some more pool time. We put the kids to bed around 8:30. Thomas stayed with the kids and I went and relaxed in the hottub with one of my friends until the park closed, then we met up with our other friends and chatted for an hour or so. It was really nice.

Santa was hanging out in the Christmas area at Yankee Candle. The kids had to write down if they were naughty, nice or in-between. J & K put "nice" and A wrote her name in the "in-between" column.

Saturday, we went to the waterpark in the morning and then headed to Jack's favorite place--Yorktown. First, we had lunch at one of our favorite places--The Carrot Tree. Although, it no longer has the historic atmosphere since it switched locations, it now has an outdoor eating area that makes it easy to take the kids. Luckily, they were having a children's festival in the town area, so the kids got to make crafts while we waited for our food. We walked around the festival a bit more after lunch and everyone had a good time.

It was a beautiful day!

Then, it was off to the battlefield. We watched the orientation film (one of the better ones we've seen, so we enjoy watching it when we visit) and then looked around the visitor's center and gift shop. It was getting late, so we decided to forgo walking the battlefield. We were there on October 16th and the famous storming of the redoubts took place on the evening of October 15th, so it was fun to see everything how it would have looked when we won that very important battle (thanks France!).

This picture represents from our car forward. In just this one half of one row, 14 different states were represented! We love it when others love history:)

I will conclude with one last picture of a sweet, sleeping Jack:

Jack and Anna turn 9!

On Monday, October 3, Anna and Jack celebrated their ninth birthday. We work hard to make birthdays special around here, so of course, there was no exception for our resident twins. Naturally, we lead up to the big day with lots of discussions about their birth story and clicking through hundreds of baby pictures on Shutterfly.

The actual day began with a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and sausage. They donned their birthday buttons and I drove them to school. Thomas came home so that we could surprise them together for lunch. They knew I would be there, but they weren't expecting their dad. He's the fun one (who pretends to be a snooty waiter when we have lunch with them, so they and their tablemates were thrilled). They handed out small cupcakes to their classmates and proclaimed that they were having a great day so far.

Aren't they cute? Luke was a bit jealous of the attention (and tried insisting it was his birthday, hence his sort of inclusion in this photo).

After school, we made sure to have their current favorite snack on hand--soft pretzels. We also let them open their birthday gifts. Their main gift is a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (stay tuned, they don't know when we are going...) We let them skip homework and go straight out to play. Finally, it was 5:30 and the Darrows came over. It was our month to host dinner, so we invited them to join us for the kids' birthday dinner. Jack wanted pizza and Anna wanted cheese fondue. Cheese fondue seemed difficult to finagle with so many people, so we had Jack's dinner with Anna's cake. For her cake, she wanted a "fall theme with at least one animal." I made some chocolate trees and bought some candy bears to stick on. It was not my best cake, Anna said she liked it, but it was not her favorite, which was a fair assessment.

I totally forgot to get a picture! Here is a half-eaten tree (just picture longer branches) on the last piece of cake.

We had dinner, the kids played, then we had our cake. It was a very pleasant day. The kids were appreciative of our efforts and both of them (separately and unprovoked) thanked us for making the day so special for them!

On Saturday, we had Anna's meal and Jack's cake. As mentioned, Anna wanted a cheese fondue. Jack tried really hard to talk her out of it, insisting we should only have cheese fondue on New Year's Eve to keep it special. But, she was immovable, and obviously Thomas and I had no objection. So, we had our cheese fondue, followed by Jack's Civil War themed cake. We followed it up with a family movie night and concluded the second birthday celebration. And, because we love to drraaaaaggggg birthdays out, we still have Great Wolf Lodge to come.

No Wilson cheese fondue is complete without at least 4 different kinds of bread.

Jack LOVED his cake, he even proclaimed it his favorite one ever! I felt like it was cheating because it had inedible parts. But, it was really fun to make.

Philadelphia Trip, Day 3

Everyone was awake early again on Sunday morning. We had our hotel breakfast and then headed to our first destination--Monmouth Battlefield. The land was bought by the State of New Jersey and it was our first time visiting a Revolutionary Battlefield that was a state park and not a National Park. However, it was extremely well-preserved and very beautiful. We walked around the visitor's center, saw a short film and then explored outside for a little bit. While exploring we walked down a huge hill, across a bridge, through a bit of a corn field and then back over another bridge. While walking this path, we came across an area with thousands of grasshoppers. It was the strangest thing, they were just bouncing off our legs as we walked. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture, but it was very weird.

Can you find something that doesn't quite belong in this picture???

Another beautiful battle site, almost seems wrong that all these places are so pretty.

Then, it was off to Six Flags Great Adventure. Our season passes are good at all Six Flags, so it seemed like a good way to spend part of our last day. Since it was off-season and a Sunday, we did not expect it to be crowded. However, by our standards it certainly was! We got into the park shortly after they opened at 11 (it was only a few minutes from Monmouth) and headed straight for the Safari. They have one of the largest drive-through Safaris outside of Africa. The tour actually lasted 45-minutes, which was much more than we expected. We saw some amazing animals, including the world's most adorable baby giraffe--only two weeks old!! It was a good time of year to visit, because there were several baby animals, but the giraffe was everyone's favorite.

After the tour, Kara decided she wanted to try out a small roller coaster, unfortunately, she hated it. Jack and Anna (and Thomas and I) love roller coasters, but Kara hates "big hills." This roller coaster (I use the term loosely) didn't have any big drops, but it was fast and loud. We rode a few kid rides, as Luke was about to mutiny, and then had our lunch. Then, we went on a ride that was actually fun for everyone, the Parachute Training Center.  It lifts you 250 feet into the air and then you slowly come back down. 250' is really high! I sat with Jack and Luke and was really nervous for Luke (and kept a tight grip on him!), but he did fine. It was our first family ride that had a bit of a thrill.

Anna is a little nervous about heights, but she decided she wanted to give it a try anyway.

On the trick-or-treat trail. They actually got some good candy.

Luke did not like this ride. He was very scared and we felt terrible! He's extremely daring, but usually he has a big sibling or parent next to him.

The lines were long for the major attractions, so Thomas and I had to skip the big rides. They actually have the fastest and tallest coaster in North America and Thomas really wanted to ride. Next time! He and Jack did ride one stand-up roller coaster, which reinjured Thomas' head. It was his first day headache free and the bumpy coaster ruined that for him. We should have known better when there was no wait for that particular coaster (they have something like 13 roller coasters). In contrast, the one we had heard was really good had an hour wait.

The kids rode several more rides, we had dinner and left around 6. The haunt people were starting to arrive, which meant it was time for us to depart. The drive home was (thankfully) uneventful and everyone was in their own bed by 10. The park is a lot bigger than our usual Six Flags, but it was also much more crowded. Their "light" day was comparable to a fairly busy day at the Maryland park. There were more (and better) rides and better food selections in New Jersey, but our park is just right for our family, although, I do hope to visit the New Jersey park again to ride some of the coasters that we missed on this visit.

Overall, it was a great trip. It wasn't fun that Thomas spent so much of it in pain, but he is a trooper and pushed through with nary a complaint. With a few exceptions, the kids were great and got along well. I can't wait to go back!

Philadelphia Trip, Day 2

Everyone was awake nice and early on Saturday morning. We enjoyed our free hotel breakfast and then headed back into Philadelphia. Our plan for the day consisted of one thing: the Franklin Institute. Some friends of ours had recently done a Philadelphia trip and after hearing about how much they enjoyed the Franklin Institute, we changed some plans around to give it its own complete day (originally, we were going to go to The Constitution Center and Franklin Institute on Friday and the rest of the historical stuff on Saturday). We got there shortly after it opened and bought our passes.

The kids loved it all! We had to drag them out almost every exhibit. Luke was funny, he found something in each area that he liked and just didn't budge. It was pretty cute. My favorite thing was a little paper airplane making station with some wind lift (you had to try and fly them into a recycling bin). I also loved the planetarium. Thomas liked the electricity room, Anna liked the giant heart, Jack loved climbing around the brain and Kara's favorite was the sports area where she and Anna raced repeatedly. Luke also enjoyed the racing, he had a whole pattern, he would race down the track, then into the basketball area where he would interrupt someone who was seeing how high they could jump by racing through their court. Every. Time. We tried to stop him, really, we did.

Early morning wake-up!

Playing with electricity

Flying planes

Luke made us set up these dominoes over and over and over and over

Climbing around the brain, watch out for those synapses!

Choo choo! This area had a really fun activity where you had to look at clues to determine whose fault it was that a train crashed.

Designing their Mars rovers.

On your mark...get set...GO!

We had lunch at the Institute and basically stayed all day. After the museum, we drove around Philadelphia, trying to get more of a feel for the city, before heading back to our hotel. We stopped off for groceries so we could have dinner in our room; one of the definite benefits of staying at a Residence Inn is the kitchen area. By the time we got back and made dinner it was well after 6. Nobody had slept well the night before, so we were anxious for everyone to get a good night's sleep. We had everyone in bed by 7:45 and I think all the kids were asleep by 8:30, with Thomas and I only slightly behind them.

And that concludes Day 2.

Philadelphia Trip, Day 1

I have been wanting to visit Philadelphia for a couple of years. Last weekend, we finally made it happen! The kids always get a Friday off in September for the local fair. We generally use that as an excuse to visit somewhere. The past few years we have gone to Williamsburg, but this year we decided to change it up.

We left around 7 on Friday morning and rolled into Philadelphia shortly after 10. We picked up our tickets for Independence Hall and walked to Reading Terminal Market for lunch. We enjoyed some New York style pizza and sandwiches and walking around to see the amazing offerings. Luke was funny, he didn't like how flopsy the pizza was, and he made me feed it to him. To be more accurate, I should say that he didn't like holding it, because he definitely liked eating it!

From there, we went to the President's House and saw the Liberty Bell. Then, we did our tour of Independence Hall. We had a great, enthusiastic guide and it was fantastic! We got to see the Rising Sun chair that George Washington sat in while he presided over the Constitutional Convention. It was pretty cool to think about all the amazing people who have been in that room. Unfortunately, Thomas had had a cluster headache the night before and he was still in pain. He decided to sit out the tour with Luke, while I took the bigger kids through. I felt really bad for him. After the tour, we debated heading to the hotel, but Thomas' little break served him well and he wanted to push on. We finished up at the visitor's center where the girls completed their Junior Ranger Books and collected their prizes.

With the Liberty Bell

Making notes in their Junior Ranger books about the inkstand that was used to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (how cool is that???)

Standing where President Lincoln stood

Taking their Junior Ranger oaths

Fun picture from the lawn of the National Constitution Center

After the gift shop, we had just enough time to see the Constitution Center. They had a really good show that everyone enjoyed, but the rest of the museum was just okay (at least for the price).

One cool thing was a life-sized gallery of the signers of the Constitution. Luke insisted on having his picture taken with Alexander Hamilton, although Luke said he was "Luke". Luke didn't even know there was a bandwagon to jump on, yet here he is singling out the star of the hit musical.

Kara liked Mr. Wilson from Pennsylvania, for obvious reasons (could be a relative...)

Anna chose Mr. Livingston of New Jersey

When we left, everyone decided to take advantage of the giant frame (check out Luke in each photo, that kid moves fast!)

When they closed, we went to our hotel (which was across the bridge in New Jersey and then to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. It was an incredibly full day!

Labor Day Weekend & Luke's "School"

We were blessed with great weather for Labor Day weekend. There was potential for a tropical storm, but fortunately, it stayed far away, so we were able to enjoy the nice temperatures and finally get outside!

Saturday, we went to Mount Vernon. We got to see Washington's 16-sided barn in action! Every visit, we've seen the barn and heard about how it was one of Washington's inventions. I knew the purpose was to more effectively separate grain from straw. But, I never quite understood how it worked. It was not what I envisioned. Basically, they would put the wheat down on the inside perimeter of the barn and 2-6 horses would run over it and the grain would fall through the slats and be collected below. They let us sit in the barn and brought in two horses to demonstrate.

The horses in action

The "horses" were actually some type of pony, they were super friendly.

Choppy water, thanks to the tropical storm churning somewhere out at sea 

We walked around outside, had lunch and then decide to check out the grist mill and distillery--another place we hadn't been. Unfortunately, Kara (and Anna to a lessor extent) was in rare form, so Thomas stayed outside with Luke and the girls, while Jack and I did the tour. It was impressive! Washington sold his pure flour as far away as Europe and we got to see how the process worked. I was hoping that Thomas could do a tour after me and Jack, but the girls spirits (and behavior) hadn't improved, so we headed home by way of Krispy Kreme.

It's kind of hard to see, but here's Jack with the giant grist mill wheel.

Sunday we went to Fort McHenry. Thomas had been wanting to go back for a while and we decided to take advantage of the nice weather. We left shortly after breakfast. I packed a bag of treats that got lost between the kitchen and the car (and still has not been found). So, we stopped at a gas station on the way and let the kids pick out snacks, probably the highlight of their day. Actually, we all had a good time at Fort McHenry. It was our second time there, but I don't think we saw the movie the first time. At the end, they raise the screen and the blinds and you see Old Glory flying while our National Anthem plays. It was surprisingly effective at evoking some of the feelings Francis Scott Key may have felt. Of course, we toured the fort and everyone had a good time running around and exploring.

Making plans with Major Armistead

Jack guarding Kara

Quite the view!

From there, we went to Six Flags to activate our new season passes. They had an awesome Labor Day weekend renewal deal that we just could not pass up.  I still miss Kings Dominion, but Six Flags has been good to us. It is cheaper, closer and still fun for the kids. I am comfortable taking the kids up during the week while Thomas works in the summer, something I wouldn't want to do with Kings Dominion (just too far and over the scary bridge). Also, I am looking forward to their Christmas event. So,we renewed. We even convinced a few friends to join with us, so I hoping for even more fun in 2017. Anyway, it was on our way home and Luke had been begging to "ride the choo choo," so we braved the crowds, but did not stay long.

Kara was sick Sunday night, so we stayed home on Monday. Some obnoxious stomach bug has been making the rounds through our house. It has not made anyone terribly sick, but it is long-lasting and does make its victims uncomfortable. I think we may finally all be over it (about a month after it started). In other health news, I was convinced Kara had impetigo on Tuesday morning. I made her stay home from school and scheduled a visit with the doctor only to find out it was poison ivy! You'd think with as much poison ivy this family has had, I would learn to recognize the rash. At least I can recognize the plant, although that apparently didn't help this time. Since we were outside all weekend, there is no telling where she got it, but we suspect in the woods near one of her friend's houses. The worst part about it was I got stuck in awful bridge traffic...twice. Yup, twice. I am not smart enough to avoid the same mistake, apparently. I just assumed it would've been cleared up in time for our return trip home. Nope. Somehow a 300-pound manhole cover disappeared and brought traffic in our area to a screeching halt for over 8 hours as a new one was specially made.

It was a lot redder than it looks in this picture. 

In final news, Luke has his first day of pre, pre, pre-K today. I feel guilty about enrolling my two-year old in "school," but I think it will be good for both of us. I used my first 2.5 hours of freedom to go to the gym, take a shower (all by myself, with no interruptions!) and do a quick Target trip. It is only a few hours a week, but I am excited. Luke enjoyed his first day. When I picked him up, his teacher said she wished she had "10 just like him," he was just so "easygoing and happy."