The Jersey Shore

 Brian, his dad, and his brothers like to spend time playing golf whenever they are together.  This year Brian's dad and brother Brandon were preparing for a tournament, so the boys hit the course a few times in the week that we were visiting.  As awesome as I'm sure golf is, it holds little interest for us girls (and Owen).  Barb had the idea for us to take a ride on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry and visit the shore of southern New Jersey while the boys were doing their thing.  I thought this was a great idea.  The kids had never been on a ferry before, and I thought that they would enjoy that.  So, we drove to Lewes, Delaware and boarded the ferry to Cape May, New Jersey.  The journey over was neat.  It was another chilly and windy day, so we got a snack and the snack bar and set by the window for most of the 85 minute trip over.

Once we reached New Jersey, we decided to have lunch and check out the town of Wildwoods.  This is apparently the "place to be" during the summer, and you could definitely tell that it gets lots of visitors.  There were not many people there when we visited, however.  This was probably due to the chilly weather and to the fact that school was still in session up there.

 I could not get over the width of the beach.  There was an enormous amount of sand between the boardwalk and the ocean.  It took us what seemed like forever to get too the water.  I think it would be a hassle to have to lug all of your gear down to the water here.

 We walked along the boardwalk.  There were numerous shops and attractions to be seen.  There were full-scale amusement parks built on to piers  here.  I have never seen anything like it.   A lot of these places were not yet opened for the season, but it was still neat to see them.

I had packed the kids' swimsuits so that they could play in the ocean.  It was so chilly, though, that I decided that the kids should not get wet.  I left there suits in the car and told them that they could just "dip their toes" in the water.  This was a poor decision.  Of course, they couldn't stay away from the ocean or sand.  They ended up getting both dirty and wet, and the only dry clothing that I had to change them into was- a bathing suit.  

And that is why they wore bathing suits and jackets on the return trip.  We made our second trip on the ferry as the sun was going down.  We sat in a lounge with forward-facing glass windows and enjoyed the view.

Sesame Place

After visiting Dutch Wonderland for two years in a row, we decided to try out a new park this year.  We drove to Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA.  This was a really nice park that had a lot of water attractions.  Unfortunately for us, we visited on a day that was quite cool and breezy- so we didn't spend a whole lot of time in the water.

The first thing that we did upon entering the park was to ride the lone roller coaster.  Both kids met the height requirement, so there was no drama about one having to sit out while the other rode.

We were excited to get to meet various characters from Sesame Street.  I think I might have been the most excited of all.  When we were growing up, we didn't have cable- only PBS.  The only "kids" show that we really got was Sesame Street, so these characters made up a large part of my entertainment.  

The vast maze of cargo nets was one of the favorite attractions.  I tried to follow the kids on the nets at first- but that got ugly real fast.  It got even uglier when they went through the cargo-net tunnel.  I gave up after that and resigned to stay on the ground and just keep an eye on them from below.

Despite the chilly weather, the kids did enjoy several of the water attractions.  The family-sized raft waterslide was a favorite.

And here are the kids on Sesame Street.  The last thing that we did before leaving was to watch the parade.  We were able to see all of the characters this way.  At one point, the parade stopped in front of us and some kids were recruited to come out and join the parade.  The kids were given hula hoops.  Owen doesn't hula hoop well, so he decided not to participate.  Olivia, on the other hand, was glad to show off her skills (see video).  Overall, we had a great day at Sesame Place.  This is a nice place for young children.

Where a Kid Can Be a Kid

 Dear Chuck E. Cheese,
 You are an evil genius.  Not only do you advertise frequently on the Disney Channel, but it also appears that you sponsor every single show on public broadcasting.  We cannot escape you. Even when I insist that my kids watch the educational shows, there you are- sponsoring them.  We don't even have a Chuck E. Cheese within 100 miles of our town, yet my kids instantly recognize your restaurant whenever they happen upon one.  Last week, for example, we were visiting my in-laws in Delaware.  They saw the sign and the large mouse and begged me to take them inside.  I caved.  Now I must admit, we all had a good time.  The kids especially enjoyed playing the hands-on games like skee-ball and whack-a-mole.  And they liked getting to pick a prize with the tickets that they won.  Overall the experience was nice- except the food.  It was pretty bad.  Nevertheless, I feel that you need to tone down the advertising a bit.  Upon leaving your establishment, my kids immediately began asking me if I'd bring them back the next day.  I said something like "Don't you want to do something else?  Why would you want to go back to the same place two days in a row?"  To which my five-year-old replied "Mom, but this is where a kid can be a kid".  Really?  He's quoting your tagline?  Well played, Chuck.  Well played.

Washington D.C.

While we were in Delaware last week we made a day trip to Washington D.C.  The reason for our visit was to pick up Brian's brother, and to meet his fianceé (who is awesome- by the way).  As we weren't set to meet up with them until the afternoon, we decided to spend some time in D.C. checking out the various sites.  My cousin Pam is currently deployed in D.C., so she was able to meet up with us as well.  I am amazed with the number to things to see and do in our nation's capital.  We could probably spend a week there and not see it all.  Last year we saw the National Zoo and the Natural History Museum.  This year we focused on seeing the various monuments.  We also visited the Freer Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  We had a very busy day.

One of the Kindergarten history standards is that students recognize major monuments and sites.  Olivia aced the quiz over that standard last year.  According to her she knew all of the answers because she had visited / seen many of the monuments the summer before when we had visited D.C.  So, we made sure to take pictures of Owen in front of the places on the quiz so that we can use them as flash cards next year.

















Pam visited the Air and Space Museum with us.  It was fun to see all of the air and spacecraft.  Some of my favorite things were the Spirit of St. Louis plane, the Wright Brothers plane, and the "things that went into space" exhibit.  The kids liked checking out the airplanes as well.  They seemed to enjoy watching the simulation of planes taking off / landing from an aircraft carrier.

 As we were making the LONG trek back to our car, Olivia made an all-too-familiar statement.  Of course I'm talking about the common refrain of  "I have to potty".  The nearest public building was the American History Museum.  We ran in just to use the restroom, but soon realized that one very special artifact was just around the corner.  So, we got to see the ruby slippers.  Olivia was thrilled.  The brief glimpse that I caught of the American History Museum looked awesome.  I'm going to have to put it on the itinerary for the next visit.

Delaware

 I'm a little behind on my blogging.  I can't believe how busy my summer has been so far.  We left for Delaware on my first day of summer break, and I have been busy with corn, errands, and VBS ever since then.  I am going to try to catch up with the blogging in the next day or two- beginning with our annual trek to Delaware.  As usual, our trip to see Brian's family was a great success.  The journey up was not bad.  We took the "long" way so that the kids could experience the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel.  They really liked that.  We also found a nice Italian restaurant on the northern coast of Virginia that we really liked.  We will likely be returning there in future trips.  The kids were so happy to see their Nana, Poppy, and Uncle Brandon.  They were equally as happy to see the "kids"- Bear, Penny No-Tail, and Duke (the dogs).  Olivia and Owen spent a large part of their time "taking care" of the dogs.  They liked to help walk, feed, and play with them.  As always, we enjoyed spending time with the Sanders family.  We really wish that we lived closer so that we could see them more often.

We were excited to get to see some of our other favorite people while we were in Delaware- Uncle Mike and Aunt Connie.  Aunt Connie had some of her die cut crafts out, and the kids loved playing with that.  We also took a return trip to Byler's for ice cream.  I've said it before and I'll say it again- that place is the bomb.  I'm glad that the Qs introduced us to it.  We did do a few other things while we were up north- details to follow in future posts.

Picnic at Laura Walker

It has been a tradition for the kids and I to have a summer kick-off picnic (usually during Memorial day weekend).  It is always so nice to get out and enjoy time outside before it gets too far into summer (and unbearably hot).  This year the Murray girls and Quincy joined us for our picnic.  The menu consisted of PB&J sandwiches, chips, bananas, and granola bars.  We took a table by the playground.  It was so nice to be able to sit back and just watch as the kids played.  They are getting to an age now where this is a possibility.  The only one we had to really keep an eye on was Baby J.  There were several other families at the park enjoying the day.  Some were skiiing, jetskiing, or swimming in the lake.  I had never noticed the roped-off swimming area before, but others were using it.  The kids wanted to go check it out, so we took them down to the lake and let them put their feet in.  The big girls all did this, but Owen did not.  He took one look at the brown-tinged lake water and said "no thank-you".    

 Before leaving the park we decided to take a hike on the Laura Walker Lake Trail (1.5 miles round-trip).  The trial was nice, shaded, and ran parallel to the lake.  At the end of the trail we were rewarded with a platform that offered a view of the far (undeveloped) end of the lake.  The kids really liked hiking.  Ava kept talking about how "free" she felt to be out in the woods.  That tickled me- she's definitely going to be a little nature girl.  There is another trail in the park that is a little longer.  We may have to give that one a go next year.