Project 52: Week 28

(July 7-13) Finally caught up for the most part.  A busy week and pictures only 4 days.  Oh well, it is what it is.

Water park



Boys at Dutch Wonderland

Handsome man

Sleepin'

Dutch Wonderland

One of the goals that Luke and I have for our family is that we'll go on some little vacation/trip each and every year aside from our regular trips to the beach.  Even if it's just something small we want Gage and his soon to be brother to be able to experience something new every year.  Yes I know, these things cost money, but reasonably speaking, I hope we'll have the chance to at least take little trips.  The 1st year after Gage was born, our trip was to Austin, then last year we took Gage to Wilimington, which we really enjoyed and would love to visit again sometime.  This year we knew we didn't have much time since we'll need our leave at the end of the year so we considered taking Gage to Sesame Place or something of the like for just a few days and we wanted to make sure it was something special he could enjoy since this would be our last time to focus just on him.  I wasn't quite sure Sesame was age appropriate for Gage so I am sooo glad we found an alternative.  I really can't say enough about this place.  I feel like I'm about to do a promotion for them, but that's just how much fun we had.

I 1st heard about Dutch Wonderland from a friend and went on their website to check it out.  It looked cool enough and from the website you could actually see what rides Gage would be allowed on, etc.  I couldn't believe that there were over 20 rides he could ride, since he is so tiny and I was doubtful that at any other amusement park this would be the case.  Plus Dutch Wonderland was $35 a pop and Gage was STILL free....double bonus!  Sesame and Busch Gardens, etc. are all upwards of $50-$60 and I'm pretty sure that you have to pay for any kid 2 and up.  In any case, I started to do some more research and found plenty of  blogs, mommy sites, etc. that compared Sesame and DW.  Dutch Wonderland came out on top every time.  People commented about the cleanliness of the park, the small crowds, all the rides for young kids, etc. and every one of the comments was SPOT ON. 

First off we were taking our chances in going to an amusement park at the end of July at 32 weeks pregnant, especially with how hot it's been lately.  But we agreed to keep looking at the weather and if it was under 90 degrees we would make the trek.  Boy, are we glad we did!  Dutch Wonderland, located in Lancaster, PA was just a 3 hour drive from us and we planned to drive up  Th. night, have all day the next day at the park (hoping Fridays wouldn't have as long of lines), hit up the Strasburg Railroad the next day and come back Sat. evening.  We did just that and although the trip was delayed a bit by a rain storm and we didn't get Gage into bed until late Th. night we were up and ready to go on Friday morning long before DW opened.  Our plan was to get there right when it opened, play for as long as Gage could take it, come home and nap and go back.  We were excited to not see a massive crowd when we got there at 10am and we dove right in!  Gage had no fear (which is not usually the case with him) and we rotated from ride to ride to ride, anything and everything that he was allowed on.  There were plenty of rides he could ride by himself and some in which we had to ride with him, but on all of the rides, there was no line and Gage probably could've/would've rode them over and over again, had we let him.

1st ride was a boat ride, kind of eased us in

This ride cracked me up, if the kid couldn't reach the hand wheel or didn't have the strength to do it himself, you could push him along with  stick!  ha!

Gage wanted to have his picture taken with this princess.

This ride made Daddy sick.



Gage's favorite ride:  The Wonder Whip



The only 'roller coaster' Gage could ride

He's up there, you just can't see him

I wrote half of this post 10 days ago, so it's hard for me to continue my train of thought.  I think I'll just say it was a great trip to a great amusement park and we'll surely go again next summer. 

Gage and Mommy goofing off on the Strasburg Railroad

Time...

Well time has caught up with me again and it's already Thursday.  I was supposed to blog a ton this week about our awesome weekend trip, my new blog name, begin a giveaway post and advertise for my new affiliate.  But by tomorrow night, we'll be off again, this time to the beach and I probably won't have a reliable connection to keep in touch.  I will try to furiously type and organize my ideas so you guys won't be left in the dark;)

For now, I have to get the clothes washed up again, make my packing list and start packing....AGAIN.  We usually don't go to the beach 'til the week before I go back to school, but being that that's 4 weeks before the baby is due we decided that it might be in our best interest to go now, just in case something happens.  I mean, we couldn't possibly miss the beach!  And so far, it's supposed to be mid 80's every day with 2 days of rain, so I can definitley handle that.  Ok on to those more exciting posts, while trying to do laundry and pack before Gage gets up from his nap.

Sometimes you're just ready....

To get home from a vacation that is. I was looking forward to coming to the beach so badly and the weather was beautiful, so we cant complain there. But sometimes when we're out of town, I'm just ready to get back to our life and our home, you know?

Especially since its the beginning of my summer. Gage and I have lots planned but he has one more week of school before our summer is in full swing! So I'll enjoy my last week of hanging out before staring another tenure of being a SAHM for the summer. Hope to get back to regular blogging as well! See you then!

No WW for me in weeks, I know, because I am always forgetting to take pictures with my phone and uploading photos here (OBX) is just not an option. Until next week....

Oh and the Os, they will be back!

The beach...

There's not much that's better than spending a few hours at the beach, then curling up with a good book in 70 degree weather while your toddler sleeps the afternoon away. Complete with a night out at a nice restaurant that costs a small fortune. Life is good when you're at the beach!

I needed some time...

Although my blogging skills have been less than weak lately, I had good reason. I was studying and the end of the school year was coming to a close. For any of you teachers, you know next to September it's the busiest time of the year. On top of all that, of course being pregnant and tired most of the time doesn't help matters. In any case, last weekend I took the dreaded Praxis test AGAIN and to make matters worse felt worse about it this time around than the 1st. Oh well, I bit the bullet and knew if I didn't take it now, I would have to put it on the back burner for a while w/ 2 small kids. I won't get into the details of the test in this post, but will say that I'm glad it's over and we even got a babysitter and went out to dinner to celebrate a no studying summer!

So I needed a week to decompress and now I'm back and ready to make up for the last 4-5 months of crappy blogging. I'm hoping to have more time on my hands so lets see what I can come up with. We are at the beach 'til Th so won't promise much until the weekend but here's to another great summer w/ my little man!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Stay Tuned....

I had a couple of good posts already written when our computer decided to once again overheat and freak out. I was really going to be on a roll and be able to leave you guys with posts while we were out of town, but of course it didn't work out. We're at the beach and will be until Wednesday, so we'll see you then! You should have some decent posts from us this weekend as well as a baby update! Have a great week!


Oh and I had nothing for April Fool's Day for you guys, anybody get tricked really good?

Nana and Grandiddy's house

The newest edition of Pillow Pets

Sea turtle nursery

Va Beach Aquarium

Scary Komodo Dragon

Outer Banks- August 2011

Nana and Gage

Sportin' his Cap'n Franks shirt

Gage's best touchdown pose

I'm watching YOU!

A Wrap Up...

Sorry guys, I have been waaaayyy busy with the start of the new school year.  I know, I know we got home on Friday from our crazy vacation and I haven't posted any pictures or anything.  I think I just needed some down time.  As  I mentioned it was a vacation for the books and I spent the weekend relaxing.  We spent more than a week away from home and that's exhausting in itself.  Not to mention....an excessive amount of vomit, a busted lip, an earthquake, an almost really bad accident that resulted in an Urgent Care visit, an electrical current through a pool, a bad reaction to medicine AND a hurricane evacuation....it's definitley enough to wear you out.  So....as I said, I have been regrouping and preparing for another crazy school year.  We didn't get as many pictures as I had wished, but I will post some in the next few days.

A few more things to wrap up....my Carmex giveaway ends on Friday.  Please enter if you haven't.

Also, aside from birthdays and my monthly letter to Gage, I will refrain from posting anything other than pictures for the month of September.  Last year, I took a 'September Break' in order to get a little more organized at the beginning of the year and to spend some time with my family, now that I seem to have less of it.  I enjoyed it and will do the same this year.  I'm pretty sure October will be here before I know it and I'll be back in the saddle.  Until then, I will still read blogs when I get the chance, but am really going to try to limit my screen time (computer) and spend more time with myself and my family.  Plus, it's football season so I'l have plenty to do! Talk with you soon!  And don't worry, I'll still post pictures of Gage!

Also had to get rid of the rainbow, I felt this background said 'Fall' a little better.  Now I gotta get working on a new banner as well.

And we're off again....

This time to visit with Nana and Grandiddy in my hometown of Chesapeake, Virginia, then off to the Outer Banks again to enjoy some more beach time before reality sets in and I'm back to work.  See next weekend.....

Some birthdays while we're gone....

Today is Malisa, my matron of honor's middle child's 2nd birthday.  That was a mouthful!  Happy Birthday Theo!

Tomorrow is Kelly, my best friend from high school's birthday!

Then on Thursday, my niece, Ianna turns 7 and Malisa (see above) celebrates her birthday as well!

Happy Birthdays all around!  Enjoy the last remaining moments of the summer!

**Also I'm featured this week over at Friendly Friday sponsored by Frugal Novice, Thanks, Mail Carrier and Healthy Home blog.

Whew....

What a week! And what a bad blogger I am!  I have seriously been slacking in my blogging lately, partly due to my being busy and partly due to Blogger having some 'issues'.  In any case, I'm back and hopefully will be regularly.

So way back a week ago I started my Spring Break. We took Gage to the circus last Saturday which was a great way to spend a rainy day. He enjoyed it for the most part and did really well, lasting just about 2 hours before he was completely done with it. The trapeze artists were his favorite and he liked the elephants and music. Of course, he spotted EVERY American flag in there and pointed and jovially yelled 'guys' each time. (Have I told you about my child's unnatural attraction to American flags? hmm...no? Another post, then?)

We were disappointed- Gage was overall uninterested in the kitties



My personal favorite.



Following our trip to the circus, Sunday morning we packed up and headed down to Wilmington, North Carolina.  We had been looking forward to this for a while and were only dreading the car ride.  Gage did wonderfully on the way down and slept for 2.5 hours.  We decided to drive as far as we could and made it all the way to Carolina before we had to stop for lunch. Stopping for lunch in a little town called Roanoke Rapids, almost elicits a post of its own, but I won't bore or disgust you.  In any case, we arrived in Wilmington around dinner time and Gage did pretty awesome the whole way there, thanks, in part to a new car toy Grandma purchased him.

Arriving so late Sunday night we didn't do much.  Gage, however, ate a wonderful dinner of mac and cheese at McAllister's Deli and was as happy as a clam. 

Monday morning we started at the Fort Fisher aquarium. Gage has always been a big fan of the aquarium in Nags Head so we thought it would be a hit. Mommy was silly and left the camera in the car, so we didn't get any pictures. Although, Daddy did buy Gage a gift that he has been eyeing even before Gage was born. AND he LOVED it. We'll have to try and catch him on video playing the clams!

Gage wasn't overly impressed with the aquarium and we took him home for a nice LONG nap.  He decided that while we were on vacation he would nap an hour early and not eat lunch until around 230pm...silly boy.  Monday evening we took a stroll in Downtown Wilmington as I tried to sneak a peek at Dawson and Joey:).  Gage also discovered his favorite part about our house in Wilmington.

check out the mid-drool shot.

Tuesday morning we visited Wilmington's Children's Museum.  We hadn't yet taken Gage to one and although it was probably geared a little towards older kids, he had a pretty great time.

He was especially fond of the train table.

...and the spinning boat.

Gage is pretty obssessed with numbers/letters these days, too.

Finally, Tuesday afternoon, what we had all been waiting for- the beach! The beach in Wilmington was amazing compared to the one we're used to, it felt like it was miles to the water. This was Gage's 1st time walking on the beach so he was definitely a little clumsy! The weather was perfect though and he enjoyed digging in the sand and making new friends but his favorite activity was collecting seashells, Grandma, you'd be proud!

I love this one!

Wednesday morning meant it was time to go home and I wish we could've had one more day there just to do a few more things.  I begged Luke, but unfortunately, the answer was no.  He did offer to rent a car and come home alone so that we could stay an extra day, but that seemed pretty silly to me.  Before we left on Wednesday though, we got to check out Wilmington's Railroad Museum, which  might have been Gage's favorite part of the whole trip.  He LOVED the model trains and kept signing 'more, more' after the trains would cut off.  He loved to push the buttons to watch them 'go'.  Unforunately, there's not any kind of model train displays around where we live, because he sure did love it.  There was also a lot of history to the museum, but Gage and I skipped that part over and checked out the real caboose and locomotives you could climb in.

Gage is now in love with trains and always wants to see 'choo-choos'.  Now that we have room in our basement (pool table sold) we might consider getting a train table.  Mommy and Daddy thought they were pretty cool, too!

As you can see, we had a great time in Wilmington and would love to visit again sometime.  A big thank you to Grandma and Granddiddy's friends who let us borrow their house for a few days!  The ride home was not as fun as the ride there (they never are) and I think we stopped close to 8 times!  Ah well, we're home safe and that's all that matters.

I see now, this post could have easily been broken down into a few since it has such a large quantity of pictures, but nevertheless there was our trip.  I have tons of other things to blog about if I ever get the chance.  Will be making a list this time since I always seem to forget.  Wow, tomorrow is already Saturday and only 2 more days 'til I have to head back to work.