Summer Vacation

We’re only a week or so into summer, and we’ve already gone on our summer vacation. Last weekend, we headed to Amish Country/Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. It was so much fun, and I wish we could have stayed longer (although it’s good we didn’t because Fletch got sick on the last day).

We started our trip on Thursday and drove up to PA in the morning. The ride is only about 2.5 hours, although we took our time and stopped for lunch along the way. When we arrived, we went straight to our hotel—the Best Western Eden Resort. I can’t recommend the hotel highly enough. It’s a little pricey, but the rooms are beautiful, and the hotel has excellent amenities (sprayground, great pool, playground, outdoor activities, free ice cream from 1pm-4pm, etc.) We couldn’t check in right away, so we just hung out at the playground and sprayground. 

Once we got into our room, P&F went down for a nap for about 2 hours, which they desperately needed at that point. When they woke up, we headed to Red Robin for dinner, and had a nice, relaxing night. P&F slept great in their Pack n Plays. Here they are having a little fun in their PJs before bed.

We had a suite and set them up in the hallway between the bedroom and the bathroom. Poor Fletch slept in the closet, but it didn’t seem to bother him. Here’s how it looked:

On Friday, we started the day with a quick trip to the supermarket for some milk and snacks.

After that, we headed to the outlets on the other side of town. In one row of stories, they have Carter’s, The Children’s Place, Gymboree, Janie and Jack, Stride Rite, Pottery Barn Kids, and Ann Taylor Loft, so I was pretty much in heaven. On top of that, the outlets have a fenced in playground in the parking lot, making it the perfect place to spend a few hours.

 After the outlets, we tried to go to the Choo Choo Barn and a few other tourist-y places, but P&F fell asleep in the car, which was fine b/c they seemed a bit young for those places. So, instead, we just drove around for a bit checking out the scenery before heading to lunch at the Good and Plenty Restaurant, which Eric declared several times as one of the best restaurant meals he’s ever had. So, even though the babies were a bit cranky while eating, lunch was a success. 

To ward off additional crankiness, we headed back to the hotel for naps, swimming, and then dinner and Friendly’s for dessert.

Saturday, we woke up early and went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel just as we did the others days. The buffet was delicious (I’m still dreaming about the donuts), and they put on a TV with kids programming so Eric and I could have a little semblance of peace for at least one meal a day. I tell ya—P&F are turning more into spider monkeys every day. Once one does something, the other does it too. Or, once one stops doing something, the other starts, and they tag team us. Anyway, after breakfast, we went to the Central Market, which is the oldest farmer’s market in the country. It was great there, and they had so many yummy things. After leaving there, it was onto Dutch Wonderland, which was the original destination for this trip.

Dutch Wonderland is nice, and we had fun, but between it not opening until 10am (when P&F start to get a bit cranky—why don’t more places open at like 7am for when toddlers are in their best moods?), Fletch starting to get sick, and it being mainly for slightly older kids, we didn’t get to fully appreciate it. However, P&F did enjoy the few ride they went on. For those thinking of making this trip, DW is probably more appropriate for kids 3 years of age and older.

After leaving DW, it was back to the hotel for naps, and then went to the Oregon Dairy to play on the playground and check out the animals.

In the evening, we went back to Good and Plenty for dinner. As you may be able to see in the pic below, the only thing Piper would eat was apple butter. Other than that, all she wanted was to get out of her chair. We were "those people" at the restaurant with the crying, tantrum-y kid. I had to walk her around the restaurant while Eric and Fletch finished their meal. 

By the time, we got back to the hotel, there was a bit of time for PJ fun, and then just our usual night time routine of relaxing and watching The Walking Dead after the kids went to bed.

Sunday was our last day, and it came way too quick. We just went to breakfast and then decided to hit the road because it was becoming evident that Fletch wasn’t feeling well. The only pics we got were of the kiddos watching a bit of Bubble Guppies--their new obsession--while Eric and I were packing up. In general, the kids don't watch too much TV, but this was very necessary because Fletch needed to rest as his temp was starting to climb higher and higher.

The ride home was fine, and we were back in Alexandria by noon.

I can’t say enough good things about this trip. It was the family vacation that I’d always dreamed of, and is hopefully just the start of many future family vacations. Piper and Fletch had a great time, and I swear they came back like new kids. While we were away, they both started saying words we didn’t even know they knew—like Piper asked for bacon every morning at breakfast and Fletch requested eggs—and just seemed to start acting older. I can’t wait to see where we go next. And even though the kids still require a good deal of work, it was totally relaxing for Eric and me to have naptime to just lounge around instead of thinking of the ten zillion things that need to get done around the house.

Finally, here is a video summary of our trip. We had to do an hour or two of errands before hitting the road on Thursday, so we stopped at the play area at Tysons to let the kids stretch their legs before getting back in the car. That’s what you see at the start of the video. Enjoy!