We literally said good-bye to our month of Mason on August first and got on a plane the same day to start our end of summer vacation. We figured we started the summer with a trip, we should probably end it that way too.
In 2009 I was reading the Adamson family blog and found out about Hershey, Pennsylvania. I had never heard of Hershey (the city) before and it looked so fun. I knew it would be on my list of places to take Ellie while she is UNDER 12. (UNDER 12: you know that precious time before she knows more than me, before she doesn't like to hang out with just her parents because we are embarrassing, and before she thinks things are way too young for her.)
I regress.
August 1, 2012 1:24 PM - saying goodbye to Mason
August 1, 2012 3:20 PM - taking off in the airplane
Hold on....I digress again from August to tell you a June story that is just so Ellie. I often know the exact time of something from the time stamp on the picture. I was looking at my August pictures and noticed one from the air about an hour into the flight with my camera. Which reminded me of a picture from June on our flight to California, but with my phone. The sunset outside my window over Great Salt Lake was amazing...so I quickly and secretly turned on my phone during take off to hopefully capture it. Ellie was not pleased by that. She did not at all appreciate that I was breaking the rules of my mobile device being on. Every time we go to a movie she asks Kevin and me if we have turned our phones off. Every time we board a plane, she double-checks we have turned everything off. If we go through a mall security gate and we beep she is nervous. She once had an internal sewed in tag on her coat that was still active (yes, we had purchased the coat) and it beeped as we went into a store. I thought she was going to have an anxiety attack. We had to come home and make sure every tag like that was removed. And for several months after that she was hesitant to wear that coat and walk into a store. She is my rule follower. As a parent of this type of child, this is the best possible scenario. I love it and she is amazing. But as a rule-breaker myself, I at times, set a bad example and have to be parented by Ellie.
(My picture....just a little late from June 8, 2012)
Okay, I regress.
I love any vacation, but vacations with just my small family of three are by far my favorite. We have so much fun together. We have been fortunate to travel enough to where we have little traditions. For example, when we fly Southwest Ellie always makes sure Kevin does the dollar origami from the Spirit magazine. Ellie loves the free bags of pretzels and has also become one of the many people that only order and drink ginger-ale while flying. We typically have an agenda, but it is loose and, unlike my non-vacation, life it is okay when it changes and we are pretty breezy (to use another wind term).
For example, we arrived late in Pittsburgh on the first and on the second had plans to get up and drive to Hershey. That was our plan, but we spent some time sleeping in, having a relaxed breakfast and then shopping around for a DVD player for Ellie all before getting on the road. Maybe that is why I enjoy just our family so much, because even though there is a plan, we have no obligation to keep it unless we want to. We are not ruining anyone's plans by sleeping in or arriving later than expected. We can truly relax and enjoy each other and our new surroundings.
We were like kids once we made it to Hershey. We were all so excited to see what it was really like. Our first stop was to the Hershey Gardens. Because we only had a partial day we knew that would take the least amount of time so we headed that way. Something else about my family I love - we totally enjoy and have fun at simple places like gardens. I'm not saying we are perfect and don't have the occasional I'm too tired to walk, or I'm ready to go whine, but overall, we have fun. The Hershey Gardens weren't as grand as the Thanksgiving Point Gardens but they had a butterfly house and a children's garden that were both really fun. In the butterfly house we got to see all stages of gestation in progress and over 20 species. I have been to 4 butterfly houses (Seattle, Salt Lake, Costa Rica, Hershey - Ellie has been to all but Costa Rica) in my life and I think it was my favorite. They had all sorts of educational examples and people willing to discuss them.
This was a Buckeye butterfly - can you see why?!!
Can you find the guy wrapped in the leaf?
These are eggs and a baby caterpillar. Amazing! We watched the butterfly lay these eggs.
In the gardens we also learned about the Mother Tree with unique DNA. Rather than me telling you about it, I'll post the pictures I took, but it was amazing and so fun to learn about.
When we began we paid for a kids garden search and completed that in the children's section. A few parts were harder than we expected and Ellie was worried we weren't getting the answers correct. But in the end we finished it and she got to choose a garden tool to take home. Since we were traveling she had to leave the garden hoe and shovels behind and instead go for the 'safer to travel with' watering can.
We spent the rest of that night doing a quick self tour of the city of Hershey, enjoying some delicious Hershey ice cream and then headed back to our hotel for some swimming in the not so clean pool. It was just surface dirty because I assume the filters needed some work. It was near trees and with the humidity there were also bugs. I could only handle so much before I had to go shower. Kevin and Ellie gave me a head start and then came up after. Needless to say, that was the only night we used the pool.
Can you find Kevin and Ellie?
Our third day we went to what I thought would be the main attraction on our trip - the big amusement park, Hershey Park. But if you were to talk to Ellie today, it was likely her least favorite day. She was not excited about big rides and she was not thrilled about the lines or the heat and humidity while we waited in them. I can't really blame her, I don't care for lines or humidity either, but I am a fan of huge rides. A few more years I assume she will be too, but for this trip we spent a lot of the day convincing Ellie to try a ride or two.
Love this face....it's just a small glimpse into years after UNDER 12.
She was happy while shopping, eating, and when the rides shut down for the rain and we did carnival-type games and the zoo instead. She won the ball toss two times in a row! It was pretty exciting considering she was the only one of the three of us who could win it.
At the zoo during the rain.
So I HATE snakes. Kevin and Ellie stepped up to learn about this snake and I stepped away. Ellie now thinks it's funny to find a fake snake and then say, "Mom, come see what I found!" - cracks her up, creeps me out.
The rain finally stopped, but we took the afternoon a bit slower and didn't ride many rides.
Mapping out the rest of our day.
Ellie is 100% like me in that she likes to buy things. She is happy shopping for her things and loves to buy stuff. I'm typically happy to buy her things and I think it's pretty obvious that she doesn't go without, but there are also lessons there I need her to learn. I also need her to be thankful for what she does have and focus on that rather than focusing on what she doesn't have. A motherly line often said at our house is just that. That night at the park she was tired and whining about wanting something else. So instead of buying it or letting her play the game to win it, I made her walk around the park and look for kids that didn't have any stuffed animals and give them hers. I told her she could keep only one. I also didn't let her pick which she was going to keep. I told her the children she found got to keep the one they wanted and she could have the remaining item.
This was a harder task than I thought. Not the willingness on Ellie's part, but finding a child that either didn't already have something or who wanted something. The first one was priceless. It was a child crying on a bench because she wasn't old enough to go on the ride her brother was on so she was sad and waiting for him. It was fun to see her light up with the new toy. The last one was just as priceless - on our way out of the park we found a girl with her mom. She was empty-handed and on her way out also. She was thrilled at the offer! I understand it's a bit odd to ask someone if they want your toys, but the experience for our family was amazing. It was fun for Ellie's focus to be watching for kids that looked like they needed a toy rather than focusing on which toy she thought she needed. I agree with Ellie that the park wasn't our favorite event in Hershey, but the hour or so we gave away toys was by far my favorite part in the day. She ended up with her least favorite stuffed animal, but she was sure thankful for it. In fact, just the other day when we were cleaning out her room a bit before the new holiday purchases were to arrive, she wouldn't let me donate that one stuffed animal because it was her lone survivor from that day.
I digress to tell you another June story, but this one is about me and from June of 1990. I preface the story with the information that I was past the UNDER 12 stage and at the prime teenage year of 14. My mom took my brother Levi and me to Hawaii to attend our cousin's BYU-Hawaii graduation. We attended the graduation but we also did every possible tourist attraction while we were there. I know now as an adult that it was a pretty big sacrifice for my family financially for the three of us to be able to go. I also remember being grumpy a good portion of a day or two because my mom wouldn't buy me something I wanted. And yet, she had taken me on this amazing trip, HAD bought me things, just not EVERY thing I wanted and I chose to focus on that. I don't have a lot of memories from my childhood, but this one of my poor behavior is pretty fresh. I try to use it to help Ellie and hopefully mold her to be appreciative and understand the value in the time spent and not the things purchased. Maybe this is just an adult lesson, but I try my hardest to teach it now. And mom, I'm sorry I was a brat at times on that trip. I know you sacrificed so much for us and did everything you knew how to be an amazing mom. Sorry if I didn't or don't tell you that enough. And now...back to August 2012.
The final day in Hershey (before we made our way to Gettysburg and Pittsburgh) was probably our favorite there. Each day we drove into Hershey I tried to get a picture from the road of the Hershey sign and it was the final day that I was successful!
We spent most of the day in well air-conditioned locations doing more hands-on activities. We started the morning by sleeping in and having fun together in the hotel room. And by having fun, I might mean making fun of Kevin's awesome hair.
And then he decided to show us just how awesome it COULD look!
We then made our way to the Hershey Story Museum and signed up for a class in the Chocolate Lab. The Lab was awesome! We got on our clean suits and learned about chocolate from the tree to the package. We then took white, dark and milk chocolate and created chocolate art. After creating our fine art in the Chocolate Lab we toured the museum.
Kevin- eating the supplies!
This is a cocoa pod. It takes all the beans from one of these to make one Hershey bar!
As I age, I find museum's more and more interesting so we spent quite a bit of time there, took a break for lunch in the cafe, took the Maya Chocolate adventure (where Kevin spilled the cocoa beans) and then finished out with a bit more of the museum. I don't think that Ellie enjoyed the museum as much as we did, but she still enjoyed it. They had several hands-on items that she was able to do and she seemed to like some of the historical facts and objects they had on display.
This was Ellie's favorite artifact, can't same I blame her!
The Maya Adventure
Can you see Kevin's spill?
Afterwards, we found out there was a free shuttle that took us over to Chocolate World, so we boarded it and Kevin talked sports with the driver. We actually took our first peek into Chocolate World the morning we went to Hershey Park. We stopped in to take the free tour and check out the huge store. (These first pictures are from our first visit.)
When we went back the second time we took the free tour again and then again and then one more time. It's a cute tour that talks about why Hershey is where it is and how the chocolate is made. While we were there we also saw the Hershey Really Big 3D show, created our own candy bar, and Ellie went through the Hershey Kisses packaging. She actually went through twice. Once for her and then once for me so I could try to get video of demonstration. She wasn't very happy about going through the second time because she thought it was breaking the rules to do it twice, but we finally convinced her it was okay and bought her kisses she packaged the second time through.
I did not have one of these - and for the life of me, I can't figure out why not?
Us on the free tour. It's our only family picture - super blurry.
She is such a good sport about all of the pictures I take! In fact, a few years back she lost a deal we had and has to be happy about the rest of my pictures the rest of her life. She does an awesome job holding up to her side of the deal!
And one more quick run back to the amusement park stores for that essential lip-gloss purchase!
On the fifth we left Hershey, made a stop in Harrisburg to see the Capitol building (and a few occupy leftovers) and then went on to Gettysburg.
Gettysburg is so cute. We found a quaint little spot to have a snack before we took a mystery adventure through the town. For some reason I started calling Mason 'Ma-sonic' back in July and we found the Masonic temple so we had to immediately text her a picture. Of course I fell in love with the town clock in brick pavers!
Ellie made up this story about her and her "dad" listening to Abe. I love how she looks genuinely interested, on her toes and everything!
At the Hershey Garden's we had learned about Birch Beer, similar to Root Beer. We saw a bottle and tried it with our snack. We weren't too impressed. We will stick with Root Beer, thanks.
Our mystery group, waiting to cross the road to find our next clue!
The mystery adventure was a fun way to walk through the town. We had to stop in several places to pick up clues and coincidentally ended up solving the mystery at the little quaint breakfast spot we had found on our own that morning!
We had booked a horseback tour through the battlefield and were all really excited about it until it started to rain and didn't happen. So instead we took our own little tour through the town, finding landmarks we had seen earlier in the day and creating our own experience. We ate Chinese food at the restaurant we had stopped at on our mystery adventure and went to take the full tour of the Schriver House Museum (another spot we had found on our mystery adventure). We went to the Soldiers' National Cemetery and saw where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. We also stepped into the house he stayed the night before. We had a pretty great day just being together and taking in some of the historical sites.
This was our tour guide at the Schriver House Museum and she was explaining all the layers of women's clothing to Ellie.
Ellie found a Buckeye - what?
Do Kevin and Ellie measure up to Ab?
We left Gettysburg to travel back to to Pittsburgh that night and there were multiple routes we could take. We started on one of the smaller highways and I was having my second regret of the day. I wished we had left a couple hours earlier so it would have been light on the drive. It was beautiful and I would have loved to see more of it in the light. But primarily the road had the greatest small town feel to it. There were little one-of-a-kind stores every few miles. I wanted to stop in every one. I wanted to see more of that life. I mention it because I wonder what Ellie will think of places and drives like that when she is older. Will she just pass them up and not care to stop in? Will she take the faster freeway? Or will she want to experience that culture and want to visit them as much as I did. I'm pretty sure I got the back-road slow-ride desire from my dad. That was for sure his thing. He always wanted to take the more scenic route. He was a slow paced man and I would have loved to have taken that journey with him as an adult. Since that isn't going to happen, I guess I just have to go back for that drive for myself and I'll take that horseback tour too. Okay....on to Pittsburgh we go.
August 6th now - and the sixth day of our Pennsylvania trip. This day was spent in Pittsburgh. The City of Bridges, something like 446. This is a view of the city from the top of the Duquesne Incline.
We took the Duquesne Incline up and then back down. We deposited our quarters so we could take the self tour. It was pretty amazing to see the way it worked. I guess there used to be several in the city, and this is one of the last remaining. They were used for cargo first up and down this steep mount and then later carried passengers.
Kitty and Ellie at the top!
We then headed to Carson street. We didn't spent much time, but did find a few gems. Ellie loves tomatoes!
Sadly, we both had to use the restroom while on the street so Ellie took a trip into a REAL meat market. She was disgusted and the smell was horrible. I'm actually surprised she is smiling in this picture. Probably just happy we found a decent public restroom.
Kevin's friend from work had been to Pittsburgh a few weeks before us and told us we HAD to eat a Primanti Brother's sandwich. Since we love local food of course we had no doubt we would go. On our way to eat in Pittsburgh Ellie asked, "Does this place have 4 stars?" We must have been looking at Yelp or Google reviews and she picked up on it. It made us giggle. When we first got our sandwiches Ellie was in shock, "There are fries in my sandwich!". After we ate there, Ellie and I gave it one star. We did not care for the famous Pittsburgh sandwich with coleslaw and fries. Ick.
That night we took in a Pittsburgh Pirates game at the PNC park. Nine innings is a little long for Ellie so she spent some time on Kevin's phone. Ellie had given us some Olympic facts earlier in the week and we were all surprised to see the same fact pop up on one of the apps on Kevin's phone. (ESPN of course!)
Our last day in Pennsylvania and the last day of our vacation was also spent in Pittsburgh. We wanted to make sure we had seen the highlights of the city so we took the Just Ducky Tour through the city and the water and got a pretty good overview of the city and buildings. Thinking back on the trip it was all so amazing, but the best part was just being together. We had so much fun and are currently planning our next little family vacation for Spring of 2013!
This is a brick press. We were pretty excited about it considering my family history in brick!
From the Ducky boat!
And finally, in the airport....headed home.
Once we got home from Pennsylvania Ellie had exactly 12 days left of summer to cram in everything she hadn't yet done. All she could come up with was:
- Relax and be lazy
- Read a book
- Finally play with the neighbors (The Gaskins took her one day to Thanksgiving Point Gardens and then another to the water-park. Surprisingly, Ellie rode some water-slides. I'm sorry I missed it!)
We also only had 12 days to get school stuff and get ready for a new year. I forced her to do three necessary evils in preparation for school:
- Visit the dentist
- Trim her hair (We have both been growing our hair long, and she hates the trim!)
- Join me for a pedicure (Ellie is still not a fan of the pedicure. I assume I should see this as a money saver, but I just don't get it!)
On August 17th we went to Challenger for Meet the Teacher. I couldn't have been more excited about the teacher she got. I literally went into the classroom doing my happy dance (no wonder kids think we are embarrassing) and pretty much interrupted the other parent in the room with my energy. I thought Ellie was going to get this teacher last year, but they moved her to 4th grade....to my surprise she went from 2nd to 4th and now to 3rd and we finally scored her! When I asked Ellie if she was excited she said something like..."Well, not as much as you...and not enough to do a happy dance."
August 20th Ellie was back to school. I am about to get real honest here. Despite the excitement about the great upcoming teacher - there wasn't a single one of us ready for summer to end. In fact, I'm pretty sure we all had a literal and likely diagnose-able case of depression. I did my best to be excited about the new school year and get Ellie excited, but I wasn't fooling anyone.
It took us all pretty much the rest of August to get adjusted. Ellie would come home from school and try to get as much play in as possible.
We also enjoyed being outside as much as possible and started to really enjoy the harvest of our garden.
In fact, I made this entire salad from our garden!
Yet, I think the one saving grace for us to help in our adjustment was our new fall activity...soccer!
In the Spring Ellie had wanted to play soccer but we were too late to get on a team. We were almost too late this fall but after some team switching and late registration we were able to get in and get Ellie and Taj on the same team. Leea and I were so proud of ourselves and thought Ellie would be ecstatic about it. When we told her she wasn't excited. In fact, she said she didn't even really want to play anymore. Leea and I got a good laugh out of that. Luckily that changed for Ellie as she realized she would see Taj every week for practice and games and that it was okay to be new to a team if you had a friend. She got even more excited after we made a trip to the store to get her all geared up. I mean who wouldn't be excited about Nike cleats with a pink accents? Especially when you look this cute for your first practice! I think they were having fun, don't you?
Our last night in August we purchased dinner at 7-11(I'm pretty sure 7-11 has 4 stars, right?) and went home to pop some corn and have a family movie night. We watched Flushed Away and tried to flush and eat our summer blues away. If nothing else we made ourselves sick with junk food and had a fun night together. It was a great month and fun to focus on our little family.
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