Day 2 CT To NJ To PA

Got up early in the morning on Sunday and headed about two hours through NYC and to Jackson, NJ for the Six Flags Wild Safari.

The kids had a great time as we drove through the safari looking at all the animals. I got a quick video of the giraffe walking down the road in between all the cars. At that point Lexi decided she was done with these large creatures walking towards her, jumped out of the front seat and went back into her car seat and locked herself in.

Here are some pics!





Another two hours down to PA, Olivia saw this wonderful cloud in the sky with rainbow colors, here is the pic I took while driving about 70mph down the highway.



We finally rolled into Lancaster just about 3pm, and checked into the hotel. We are staying at the Fulton Steamboat Inn, which is a replica of an old steamboat. This hotel is really nice and decorated great! At night, the steamboat is all lit up as well. Outside, there is a playground for the kids and a duck pond.




Olivia finally got to meet her pen pal, Juliana and Lexi met her friend Elizabeth. As well as we got to meet Kolleen and her sister Kris.

Here are some pics of the girls playing together in the playground. The field is full of lighting bugs and the girls had a great time chasing them around.





From our hotel window, we can see the Amish driving their buggies down the road. The Lancaster area is full of farms, as far as the eyes can see, with the exception of the two main roads. It is quite fascinating seeing a buggy go down the street and then the next car is a corvette or something like that zooming down the road.




Tomorrow we are off to Dutch Wonderland!

Day 1 Norwalk CT

Sorry it has taken so long to post, we are having trouble connecting to the internet in these "wireless" hotels.

Anyways, we left Reading on Saturday around 8am and travelled to Norwalk, CT, about 3 hours from home. It was a funny weather pattern, with pouring rain, drizzle, sunshine etc the whole road down. As we approached Norwalk, the skies parted, the fog lifted and the sun came out.

The kids did great in the car, we put in a movie, Madagascar and the long ride down went on without a hitch.

Our first stop was the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium in the Sono district. The aquarium is very quaint and very nice for the price. There weren't alot of people there either. As we arrived, we just got there in time for the Penguins on The Loose exhibit, where they let the penguins walk out and interact with the crowd. We didn't get to see much but I got a quick picture of one of the penguins.




During our visit at the aquarium, Olivia and I got to touch the stingrays!!



There were some very funny otters, they would swim back and forth in front of the kids and poke his head as to laugh at them and swim back down. Here is a cute pic of him!



We also visited the shark tank, here is a picture of Olivia swimming in the shark tank (hee-hee)!



After a few hours of the aquarium, we checked into the hotel and ventured down to the pool. Olivia met some friends and had a great time. Lexi hung out on the top step afraid to go into the water. The water was so warm I even went in!


We enjoyed a nice dinner at Bertucci's and then rested up for the rest of our journey down to PA.

Leaving On Our Road Trip

So, I am sitting here at 5:30 am in the living room, waiting for everyone to wake up and wondering if I sneak out now and leave, will they notice? Just kidding! In a few hours we will be leaving to drive 3 hours to Norwalk, CT. I decided to break up the 7 hour trip for the reason that the kids can't take the long ride, or really mom can't take the kids in the car for that long.

Olivia skinned her knee yesterday after Papa and me constantly telling the kids to calm down and take it easy, if you get hurt you need to stay home.

It was kind of funny, we were doing the newspapers. I was parked across the bottom of a driveway, she ran up to the door to drop the newspaper. I looked out the passenger side to see where she was, and heard a thump on the side of the car. A few seconds later she stood up, oohing and aahing about her skinned knee. I guess she was running back to the car, tripped and smacked into the car. Although I love her dearly, she is a clutz! She is such a drama queen walking around the house like her leg was broken, hanging her leg out of the tub, etc, etc. She is fine, nothing a little Neosporin couldn't fix!

Reminds me of a quick little story of another newspaper delivery. It was in winter and the house had a steep front lawn. Olivia decided to run down the snowy hill to the car, rather than the shovelled driveway. Well to her surprise the snow had a sheet of ice on it and instead of running down, she fell on her butt and slid down the hill, bouncing off the bushes and finally stopping in a bush at the bottom of the hill. Lexi and me were in hysterics in the car, when the poor thing finally got up and limped her way back over.

Drama queen is awake, I just asked how her knee felt, she said Oh I need a blanket, since I hurt my knee and it is still hurting. I am sure it hurts, but really there is just a few minor scratches and she can run, walk and jump, so I don't think anything is seriously wrong.

Anyways, back to vacation. Today, we are hoping to walk around the harbor area and go to the Maritime Aquarium.

Pics to come later!

Safe travels for us!

Two More Days Until Vacation!

So, we are finally two days away from our road trip to Dutch Country, PA. We are all very excited to meet Kolleen, Julianna and Elizabeth. Julianna and Olivia became pen pals, while waiting for their little sisters from China. Lexi has been saying "Lizabet" see me and be my friend. How cute!

Here is our itinerary as of today.

Saturday: Leave and drive 3 hours to Norwalk, CT
Planning on visiting Maritime Aquarium and walk around that area

Sunday: Leave CT, drive 2 hours to Six Flags Safari in NJ
We did this safari before when Olivia was Lexi's age and the kids loved it!

Drive from NJ to Lancaster, PA (2 hours) where we meet up with our friends

Monday: Dutch Wonderland

Tuesday: Explore Dutch Country (hoping for a buggy ride and farm visit)

Wednesday: Drive to Hershey and explore Chocolate World. The kids can't wait
for this!

Drive to Whitehall, PA (1.5 hours) and stay overnight.

Thursday: Trek home! (5 hours)

I was originally thinking about stoping at the Statue of Liberty on the way home, until I heard they get 16,000 visitors a day. Don't quite think my kids are up for that yet.

We are also hoping to meet up with the Gong family from Olivia's travel group. They have two little girls as well and live in Central NJ, so we are trying to mesh their schedule with ours.

I am going to try to update the blog from our vacation, so stay tuned.

A little update around the house. Olivia got bit by a bug and her elbow area swelled up like a balloon. Luckily, only for two days! Doctors weren't worried about it and said it is happening to all the kids, just watch for infection.

Lexi is potty training, she is doing pretty good. I had to hide all the pull ups from her, as she could change herself and was attached to her diapers. She now runs in and poops pretty regularly on the toilet, we have few pee accidents. But, unfortunately, due to our long road trip, she will need to wear her pull ups again, as I won't have a lot of extra clothes with me.

Lexi carries on many conversations now, but I brought up a concern we heard about with another child to the doctors. It is called tongue tied, when the childs tongue is actually attached near the tip underneathe, rather than half way back on her tongue. This could be holding back some of her pronunciation, so if needed we will get it fixed. She doesn't go until August 10th to get it checked.

Olivia is playing summer soccer and loves it, although she keeps getting hit by the ball and boy does it hurt. Just ask me! Who was hit square across the face with it.
Olivia saved $400 from her newspaper money for her vacation, so that was a big help for mommy!

And for me four closings coming up, R/E has been pretty busy, would like it to be busier, but hanging in there. I love selling real estate and am hoping it gets more lucrative for me.

Mom and I were addicted to watching Harpers Island, the best series on tv ever. We need another series like that! I knew it was Henry all along!

Also in our thoughts are our friends Aleisa, Patrick and Maya Dunn who in just a few short weeks are leaving their home in Florida to move to China to teach for two years. We hope they have safe travels and this ends up being a great experience for all of them.

Well that's an update, more soon from our road trip this weekend!

Celebrating The 4th of July!

What a great weekend and we couldn't have had better weather. We enjoyed a quiet family lunch barbeque on Saturday and later on Dad, Lexi,Olivia, Fawn, Skylar and me all went to watch the parade in Wakefield. What a great parade and it lasts one hour! Afterwards, enjoyed some hot dogs and Olivia and me went to watch the fireworks. The fireworks were great and lasted 30 mins!

On Sunday, we were joined with a bunch of people at the wading pool. Barbara, Mary, Leslie, Aniah, Nicki, and Delilah, as well as Krystal, Debbie, Jason, Brina, John, Courtney, Thomas, Travis and two week old Taylor were there! The kids have a great time playing in the pool and it is just the right size for the little ones.

Now home relaxing, cooking some steak tips on the grill and settling in for the night.

Two weeks until we leave for our PA vacation and we can't wait!

Hope everyone had a nice and safe weekend.

First Day at The Wading Pool

Today was one of the only sunny days in the entire month of June, so I decided to venture to the wading pool today with the kids and our friend Aniah. The weather was a little cloudy with breaks of sun. The kids had a great time. Lexi got a little brave and was playing around in the deep end (2 ft) and fell under. She knows she is suppose to stand up,she tried, but fell back down again, stood up again, fell and stood up again and fell. I ran to get her at the same time as the life guard. She was fine, just a little shooken up. After a few moments with mom, she was back in. In the shallowest end that is!

Pebble Beach

On Sunday, the weather was so good that I took the girls to Pebble Beach for about an hour. The girls loved playing on the beach and making a sand castle. Here are a few pics from the beach.