9 days of Summer

This is Todd, asleep in the carrier on my back at the end of our first family trip to Kennywood. (Thank you pikkolo carrier, for helping us avoid taking the stroller to the amusement park. ;-)

Last week, R and the kids were home for vacation, and we packed a WHOLE lot of summer into that one week. Todd's expression above is pretty much how I felt when the week was over. Completely and totally exhausted. :-)

The week included camping, hiking, beach time, eating campfire food, a family 4th of July picnic, lake and pool swimming, Cars 2 (Todd's first movie theater experience, Heather's second), the spray park, the zoo, puddle jumping, a day at Kennywood amusement park and a cookout birthday party with bubbles. Whew.

Every indication is that the kids had a great time all week. They got to know some of their cousins better while we were camping and could have spent all of their time at the campground playing at the beach & the lake if we would have let them. It was hard with so many activities to keep up the usual routines and there were lots of car naps, and some bedtime issues. But the kids seemed to deal with the unpredictability well and the only "problem" was some boundary testing near the end of our break. Other than some slow mornings, the return to daycare and our normal routine has not been hard and both kids were eager to join their friends after drop-off this morning.

Our day at Kennywood was a lot of fun. Heather was ready to ride anything that she was tall enough to go on and was enthusiastic in Kiddieland. Todd was a little more hesitant at first, especially on the rides where he was supposed to sit solo. So we switched to the rides where kids and parents can ride together, and by the evening he was enthusiastically going on the kid only rides with Heather.

Heather and Daddy also rode on the Pittsburgh Plunge and the Jack Rabbit together while Todd and I found other ways to entertain himself. We may need to find another adult to take with us next year so that Todd has a riding partner for the rides outside of Kiddieland as well. This mama only rides the spinny rides and not anything that goes up and down. :-)

We look forward to more summer activities, but this past week was the epitomy of summer fun!

******************************************************************
Bedtime stories in the tent:


First walk on the beach:

Playing at the Glendale Lake beach:


In the Mole Rat tunnel climber at the zoo:


Riding the Kiddieland version of The Whip: