Spring Break - rv/baseball style

So last month (ok, in April) we went on Spring Break. We took the RV and went on an adventure to see 3 major league ballparks. (when we got the RV we decided we wanted to try and bring the kids to see every MLB ballpark before K graduated from high school). Weft on a very rainy Saturday and headed to Cleveland. The game on Sunday was thankfully not rained out. It was a beautiful, albeit windy and kinda cold, day. And the Indians won. Big Man LOVED all the mascots - especially the racing hot dogs. We also took the kids to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Other than some ok local pizza, that was it for Cleveland.

On Monday we drove to Columbus, dropped off the RV with some friends we would be staying with, and headed for Cincinnati for a Reds game. Only 30 hours later, and what a change. The weather was GORGEOUS - sunny and in the high 70s. We had fun at the game, although the Reds played TERRIBLY. We did like the park - and got to enjoy some Cincinnati Chili, as well as the best hot dog I have ever had - called a "Beef and Swiss". If you ever get to the Reds park (which site right on the river), get one of these. You will not regret it!



We spent the next few days in Columbus. What a fun city! We visited the Columbus Zoo (of Jack Hannah fame), which is amazing. They have polar bears and grizzly bears and lots of cool animals. These bears were fighting inches from us! (several inches thick of plexiglass, but still!) It was very cool. We also went to Spaghetti Warehouse, which was B's favorite, and to Graeter's for some AWESOME ice cream (banana cream pie!). We spent a whole day at COSI, and could have been there for several days. K road a high-wire unicycle, and did the awesome Adventure in to the Valley of the Unknown (a cool scavenger hunt mystery). The other two loved the Oceans exhibit, KidSpace, and the Space exhibit. Very impressive museum!

Rest of the trip in a few days!................

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Fulfilling a life long dream, DH and I finally went to the Baseball Hall of Fame. And it was amazing. There are SOOOOO many artifacts! We could have been there for 6-8 hours easy, but the kids took it happily for about 2 1/2. The museum is great in that is includes a scavenger hunt for kids that keeps them engaged!

We particularly like the multi-media movie presentation, the individual team "lockers" (see Nats above), and many of the fantastic displays like the All American Girls League, baseball in movies, and specific milestones in baseball history. Would have loved to spend more time watching all many short interviews and taped stories. Just means we need to go back again! If you are a baseball fan at all, I highly recommend it!!!

Loving the Foliage! (and apparently beer)

2 weeks ago we went on an RV vacation - this time to New York, specifically Cooperstown. The leaves were in FULL color and just GORGEOUS!

Here in the DC area, we had a bit of a drought, so the leaves are not that great. But up North a few hours - spectacular!

We had a great Fall weekend of not just leaf-peeping, but apple loving too! K especially liked cider press, as she is learning about simple machines in school. We went to several apple mills and enjoyed cider slushies, a cider float (cider, vanilla ice cream and ginger ale!) and lots of cider donuts!!



We also went to 2 local breweries, which had root beer for the kids. Naturally, when Big Man had to tell about his weekend at school he said he went to Yogi Bear Town (it was a jellystone campground) and to breweries. Nevermind the Baseball Hall of Fame, Howe Caverns, Herkimer Diamond Mine, etc. He posts on the weekend summary at PreSchool for a week that we took him to breweries. Gotta love it.

So many vacations

We took several fantastic vacations this summer. I already blogged about our trial RV trip back in July. In August we did our annual beach trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We shared a fantastic house with our friends and their kids (23 in all!) and had a BLAST.The kids (ranging in age from 9-1, with most around 6) are getting to an age where they preferred playing with each other to playing with us - HURRAY!! We had lots of time for adult talk and play! Had great food (and drinks) and just had a wonderful, relaxing week.

Then we came home for 48 hours and headed out for the first vacation in our very own RV! We went to Dutch Wonderland (LOVE it!). Nana was the star - getting them to reopen the Slushy Shack so we could get our refills (that we were told would be open!). We all had so much fun on all the rides, and the campground was GORGEOUS. It backed up onto an Amish Farm - complete with cows and horses. So pretty.
Then, despite Hurricane Earl, we headed for Rehoboth Beach. Had a great few days frolicking in the sand, riding at Funland and playing in the pool with friends we joined there. The campground was a glorified parking lot, but in a good location and perfectly serviceable. WE had our first RV Party with our friends, as we made hamburgers and hotdogs - and of course, SMORES!

It was an amazing summer, and we are sorry to see it go. But we have another RV trip in the works for this fall, so hopefully our fun continues!

WE DID IT!!!!

We bought a travel trailer. And what a trailer it is! It is 35 feet long (think - towing a small condo!) and so cute. It has a Queen bed for me and DH and a bunk bed room that sleeps 5+ for the kids. We don't have possession yet, and will post pictures as soon as we pick it up - hopefully next week. We are very excited. Here is a preview:



DH would kill me if I didn't also mention we bought a truck (to haul the behemoth) - a used Ford F250. It is big and mighty and DH says he will kill me if I cover it with butterfly magnets (like our other cars). We will only use it for towing and it will live at my generous MIL's house.

Now we need to start planning all our adventures!!!

RV vacation - continued

So after dragging the kids away from the amazing fun at Luray, we headed across the state to Williamsburg. Here we stayed at a KOA, which was very nice. I did not have nearly the amenities of the Jellystone, but was still lots of fun. The kids enjoyed the pool, the bouncing pillow, and activities like Tie-Dye (again). They also LOVED LOVED LOVED the pedal karts you could sign out for free.

It was interesting that this campground was more expensive (despite being more rustic) - clearly because it was near lots of stuff (Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, Water Country, Yorktown/Jamestown, etc). We also learned here that we definately want to get an RV that is towed by a car. Not having a car was a drag. We have good friends in the area and in order to go out with them we either had to unhook and look for places to park the RV, or they came and picked us up.

But we had fun walking around Williamsburg, attending a Pirate festival in Hampton Roads, and having ice cream and amazing snow cones (with options of dozens and dozens of flavors!!).

But for the big news. How was the trip overall? Did we like it enough to think about buying our own rv? YES!!! We are now RV shopping. We definately want a Travel Trailer (which also means purchasing a big honkin' SUV to pull the sucker), and want something with 2 bedrooms (a Q and a bunkbed room) so we have more free living space when it is just the 5 of us (or more sleeping space when it is more).

So I am sure there will be more coming up, but for now we are doing research, asking questions, and window shopping!!

We Did It!

Last week we went on our first RV trip as a family and....had a blast!!! We rented a Class-C travel trailer. For those not "in the know", that is the kind of RV you drive that looks like a truck in the front. We decided to go not too far away, so we planned for campgrounds just a few hours away.

We picked up the RV on Saturday and had the day to pack it, as we couldn't get in the campground we wanted until Sunday. Which actually worked out great, in that the kids had a chance to get accustomed to the RV and we could spend some time getting everything in there.

We woke up on Sunday and jumped in the RV. The kids were very excited for the drive, and we made our first stop at Luray Caverns. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and the rest of the family had never been there. Despite it being the busiest day of the year, we had a great time. They have an audio tour for both adults and kids, which is a nice touch. I would highly recommend visiting it if you are in the area. The tour is about 1 hour and does involve a bit of walking (about 1 1/4 miles), but is really intersting and just cool to look at.


Then we hit the first campground - Jellystone Camping at Luray. This place was amazing - like a resort more than anything. It had 2 pools, a huge water slide, laser tag, miniature golf, paddle boats, and a jumping pillow. It also had many activities - like you were on a cruise ship. And the setting was beautiful!


It was really so much fun. The kids were amazed at every little thing. Jiffy pop on the grill (we can't have it on our ceramic cooktop), breadsticks on - sticks, pizzas on the grill, etc. The kids did tie-dye, candy bar bingo, and we made a bunch of friendship bracelets.

And campground people were really nice. Friendly, helpful, etc. It felt like a community.

On Thursday I'll post more about our adventures at stop #2 - Williamsburg KOA.

And the question everyone is asking - how did DH feel about it, and is he sold on getting one of our very own????

Beautiful in Pittsburgh - who knew?

Last week I went to Pittsburgh for work. I had never been to Pittsburgh and always thought Pittsburgh was kind of a industry, dirty hole. I could not have been more wrong.

Pittsburgh is GORGEOUS!!! REALLY! I know! I was so shocked. The waterfront (3 rivers) is beautiful! The skyline is awesome! You know how a lot of cities have just a bunch of tall buildings with little interest? Pittsburgh has a great mix of old and modern architecture making up a really pretty skyline. The baseball stadium is AWESOME and open right to the river. I was in shock. (and don't get me started on the housing prices - people around here pay more for cars!)

I didn't get a chance to spend time in the city (although the nice folks there did drive me though downtown and by the ballpark), but I really want to go back. They have these cool funiculars (they call them inclines) that go from the city (in the valley) to the top of the bluffs. My kids would LOVE that. There is also a cool Andy Warhol museum, a science museum on the river, a children's museum, lots of river cruises, and of course, the awesome ballpark.

We will be back to Pittsburgh, seriously one of the prettiest cities I've seen in a while. Who knew??!!


(i took the pic at the top, but didn't have a good skyline one, stole this from a random site)

Key West - TAKE ME AWAY

Oh yeah. This weekend I am off to Key West. Even better? I am going with my girlfriends. No kids, no hubbies (sorry dear). I CANNOT wait. I soooooo need this vacation. Work has been crazy, the girls have had lice on and off for months, and Big Man is going through a mommy-only phase. I cannot wait to get out of town with my 7 best girl friends. Will be thinking of you all while sipping mango margaritas and looking at the sunset over Mallory Square.



or maybe not

Enjoying the Flakes

This past weekend we went to Wisp with two other families (total of 6 adults and 7 kids). We had a blast. We went snow tubing on Saturday - played it easy on Sunday (expected bad weather arrived), skiing on Monday (first time for me and the kids) and home today (tried to snow tube, but not open until the evening on a Tues!). Also tried out their mountain coaster - which was fun, albeit expensive ($15 per ride!!!). The amazing thing is we have no broken or sprained bones. I even went down a few green trails (ok, only one successfully multiple times, the others may have involved some crawling and scooting on my butt.) AND - we all had lots of fun. The kids had ski school/camp for a day - and all three made it up to the bunny hill. I was very impressed. DH and I took a group beginner lesson, were released to the bunny hill after about an hour, and after lunch we did some greens.. It was really fun. I was VERY sore last night, but am ok today. Note to self: next time -take drugs before, during and after!

Highlight for me (other than the fact that I actually skiied and didn't break anything nor injure anyone else!) was tubing with Big Man. He went down the first time and said, "Lets do it again!". The second time, he forgot to scream and terrified himself. I am a big believer in the scream - it works for this and for roller coasters and the like. If you get afraid - scream bloody murder and it pushes all the fear out!). So then next time I told him we should scream something crazy (to make him remember to scream). He didn't do it so much, but me yelling it (we were linked together) made him laugh, so he forgot to be scared. Here is a video I love. Notice the crazy woman in the background yelling.

Aloha!

Last week DH and I were in Hawaii - without the kids. I knoW!!!! Thanks to Nana, Auntie Ronnie, and some amazing friends, we actually escaped for a week in paradise!

We had a fantabulous time (although I think we could have been in Toledo for a week without the kids and had a great time).

Hawaii was amazing. We had been to Maui and Kaua'i on our honeymoon. This trip was for a conference (read - mostly free for me!) in Waikiki. We went early and spent 3 days on the Big Island. The most amazing thing about the whole trip had to be hiking down on old lava to see the lava flow into the ocean. SOOOOO cool. As my Dad said it is like seeing CREATION. The lava is literally making the island bigger. We spent much of a day at Volcanoes Natl Park. The Big Island also has lots of waterfalls and black sand beaches.

In Oahu we probably had the best time on our sunset catamaran sail (read - booze cruise) and snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.

All and all a HUGE success. Here are some pics to drool over.

Hawaii- bound!

So DH and I are going to Hawaii for a week soon!!! Without the kids!!!! (thank God for Nanas) We cannot wait. Honeymooned there 13 years ago and have wanted to go back. I have a conference in Waikiki (read: work paying!) and we used frequent flier miles for DH's ticket.

We are going to the Big Island for 2/3 days (mostly Hilo). We cannot wait to see the volcano. We have already booked a bi-plane ride over the volcano. Staying at an awesome looking B&B, and will have a rental car.

We will be in Honolulu for 4/5 days, staying at my conference hotel in Waikiki. We have booked a catamaran sunset cruise there.

Any other must -dos? Food recommendations?? We know we want to snorkel. Any other things to see/do (We have seen the wreck of the Arizona and Pearl Harbor before).

Would love any tips.

The Big Apple in a Whirl

This weekend Grampa treated me and the girls to a weekend in NYC. I took the girls up by bus on Friday (lots of fun - it was raining and B got sick watching a movie - good times!), and we got there around 9pm. The girls were suitably impressed by the big buildings and all the lights. We were staying right in Times Square, so it was great to get out of a cab there and let them soak it all in. The next morning we were like a freight train - breakfast, Rockefeller Center, stroll down 5th Ave, Trump Tower, Central Park, HOrse and Buggy Ride, Museum of Natural History (to look for stuff from Night at the Museum!) - all before lunch! Lunch was all elegence at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. The girls LOVED all the colors. Then we went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. K got SOOOO excited when we surprised them in the lobby of the show. She was jumping up and down. We had tickets in the 4th row! The girls LOVED it. B (being 5) is so literal. She had to tell me every part of the musical that was different than the movie.

After the show it was the 3-story Toys R Us, more Time Square gawking, and dinner. After dinner - M&M world and collapse into bed. On Sunday morning we did a quick breakfast, then to the top of the Empire State Building, and walked through Herald Square and around the Macys. We followed it up with a Circle Line Cruise to the Statue of Liberty.

By that time the girls were kinda wiped. We headed back to the hotel, grabbed our stuff and a quick lunch. We caught an early bus back(nobody got sick - YAY!).

It was a quick, fun-filled weekend. It was great to see them so excited. Check back tomorrow for a great tip on keeping kids memories!