We stayed at a water park for the first part of our trip. I guess Adam was listening when I told him that my ideal vacation was to rent a condo or house somewhere near a beach, battlefield or other historic site and just come and go as we please. Dragging the kids out to eat is becoming expensive and a pain- wouldn't it be nice to eat our normal healthy foods at a house while we were on vacation- room to spread out? Beds for everyone?
He listened and delivered! Our villa at a water park was bigger than our first house! We walked in an were in awe! The kids had two queen sized beds in their room with a dresser, nightstand, two closets and plenty of room for a pack and play. Oh and the balconies? THREE! I had a full kitchen, washer and dryer and we were two steps from one of the eight one site water parks. Heaven, I tell you. Our first family vacation!
When we left the park, the kids were disappointed with the hotels! They said they were too small! Hehehe.
We made excellent time. Last year, we stopped every hour and a half to two hours... and Cole screamed most of the time. I joke that he cried 13 hours out of the 11 hour car ride. The sad thing is, I'm not really kidding. This year, he was much happier. I took bubbles with me and blew bubbles to him in the car. He keep laughing and said "Bub-bles!" Go Bear!
On the speaking front, we took the kids to a train museum that had real, formerly live trains you could view, climb on, etc. All the kids loved it. Georgie was esp thrilled. After we rode around the train yard on a real train:
Yes, those were real trains that had been cleaned up and decomissioned!
There were two areas, indoors and outside. We walked around the outside shed, where the trains had not been cleaned up. They were in various states of "original"- dust, cobwebs, broken windows. They were safe to look at but I wouldn't let the kids climb through them. There was one that Georgie and Adam went inside; Adam made him turn around quickly and... I will remember this forever... he stood framed in the doorway, at the top of the stairs. I said, "Georgie, what do you think?" and he said, "It bieeeg."
I did a double take. His jargon voice and his real voice sound totally different! He repeated it for me and I got terribly excited! Two words, together, to describe something and I didn't prompt him! Way to go!
Camille fell in love with all three of her grandparents. I think it helped that Grandma feeds all of us cookies and chips all day long. She was convinced I never ate lunch (I did!) and that I was going to waste away chasing after "all the kids." Since I gained ten pounds under her watchful eye, I think her fears are unfounded- sweet but unfounded.
At the second set of grandparents, we mostly hung around with Adam's uncle and took his dog to the dog park. It was perhaps the nicest dog park ever, and uncle, who is a geologist, pointed out the interesting landforms, named and how they were formed. Joseph hung on his every word, since his latest show addiction is "How the States Got Their Shapes." I kinda like the show too, so it's no skin off my back to watch with him.
All in all, it was a pretty good trip. I can't really complain about the kids behavior and all were wonderful and respectful to their great grandparents. Tomorrow is a full and busy week of VBS... wish us luck as it will be INSANE!
I'm glad you have a good trip!
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