Summer Fun!

Summer is in full force with this record setting heat wave! Somehow June seemed to slip by us so quickly and we didn't want the same thing to happen to July so we took a mini-vacation to Lancaster County, PA from July 1 -2.

Lancaster County, PA is pretty much an hour up the road from us so we could easily do it as a day trip, but we decided that we wanted a leisurly pace so we booked a hotel room for the night. The first day we visited the Strasburg Railroad and booked passage on an Open Air ride. We thought it would be a fun activity for the girls, but we were not prepared for the SHEER JOY that emanated from Emma for the entire ride. Julia loved the ride and brought her doll along for the experience and Emma was beside herself with excitement and we had a hard time holding her in one spot and wound up shuffling her around for the ride so she could see everything at all angles. I think we'll have to take another trip on the RR in the Fall since the girls loved it so much and the ride will be gorgeous when the leaves change colors.

After the RR, we stopped at the outlets and I popped into Pottery Barn to look around while Chris and the girls played in the playground right outside the store. Since we are trying to sell our house and are trying to minimize our "stuff" I didn't want to do much shopping but I do love to look around that store and think about what might look nice in whatever house we buy. Then we moved onto the hotel where we met up with the Nitka's. We were lucky to have Mary, my niece, join us for a few days of fun. We all went for a swim in the hotel pool and then went to Dutch Wonderland to buy tickets for the following day and spent about an hour in the park as a courtesy preview. The girls had a blast on a few rides and planned out what rides they wanted to go on the following day.

We spent all day Friday at the amusement park and the girls went on nearly every ride! We knew Julia and Mary would be great ride partners and were happy to see that Emma loved the rides just as much as they did. True to form, Emma had no fear of the rides and even enjoyed the roller coaster! This meant that Chris and I went on many of the rides as Emma's partner and she squealed with delight on all of them. Emma was given a wristband to allow her (and us, too!) to enter all the rides at the Exit without waiting in the Enter line. Boy, was that a great thing! It really saved our backs since it meant we didn't have to hold Emma to wait in the lines since you can't bring wheelchairs or strollers in the standard lines. Plus, we could go on a ride twice in a row without getting off and the girls really enjoyed that! We were thankful that the weather was a bit cooler that day - a rare day in the 80s instead of the 100s we are in now! - but we still hit the water park and had the most fun going down the waterslide tubes. Overall, Dutch Wonderland was a huge hit again this year and Julia is already planning our next visit.