We were home long enough to unpack, do laundry and repack again. This time we took a 4 day trip to PA. We started at Sesame Place early Sunday morning then drove to Hershey that night and stayed til Wed. The kids had an awesome time. It was unbelievably hot the whole time. Thankfully Sesame Place is mostly water pools and slides so we stayed relatively cool there. On Monday we went to Hershey Park where we spent 10 hours walking around! We did the zoo in the morning before it got too hot then rode "all" the rides. Lauren seems to have lost some of her fear of rides as she rode just about every kiddie ride in the park. Since Bill doesn't much care for roller coasters, he took Lauren to her rides while i went with Timmy on the bigger ones. Of course Timmy rode every one possible. The more loops and twists the better. Thankfully he was just a hair short for the one I dreaded to go on.
We were so exhausted from all the walking that we took it easy the next day. We started out with the tour of the chocolate factory and a cute 3D movie. Then we took the kids to Indian Echo caverns. Timmy loved it but I'm not too sure Lauren did. She kept asking the tour guide "are you sure nothing is living in here?" At least it was nice and cool in the caves. Afterwards we played a game of miniature golf but it was so hot that by the halfway mark Lauren was done. She doesn't do too well in the heat and dehydrates pretty quickly. Once in the air conditioned car she perked up enough for us to stop at the outlets for some quick shopping then we went back to the hotel and spent the night in the pool. We checked out the next morning and headed home through Lancaster where we stopped at yet another amusement park, Dutch Wonderland. This park is smaller and geared more to little kids but we still managed to spend 6+ hours there. Lauren went on almost everything including her first roller coaster and first flume ride. She was very proud of herself. What a great feeling it was to watch her doing so much and having so much fun doing "normal" things.
Once home we relaxed and took it easy. We spent most afternoon's in our neighbor Betty's pool. Lauren has become quite the little swimmer in the past few weeks. She still uses her swim vest but no more swimmies. Now she jumps off the side and even tries to swim under water.
Timmy had soccer camp last week which he thought was great even though he had broken open blisters on both heals. His cleats hurt so bad by Thursday that the coaches told him to take them off and play in his socks. Last week was also the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show (NJ state fair). We went for "kids day" with Sharon, Sierra, Cheyenne and Kathy, Makenzie & Spencer. Bill met us there at dinnertime and we let the kids do a few rides and games. Lauren loved the petting zoo where she could feed the goats, sheep, ponies etc. On Friday morning Lauren and I went back to the fair to watch Jen & Devon show their cows.
We spent this past weekend down with Grandma & Pop Pop. Not that we haven't done enough rides and games but on Saturday we took Timmy & Lauren to Jenkinson's Boardwalk in Point Pleasant. Of course they rode more rides, played a few games, and went in the fun house twice. Timmy's getting quite good at climbing the rock walls. We walked through Jenkinson's aquarium then took our shoes off and headed for the sand. We didn't have our suits but Lauren has never been in the ocean so we walked back to car by way of the surf. Lauren loved it! She would giggle every time a wave broke on her legs. Since her legs are still weak even the small waves easily knocked her off balance. She made me promise that next time I would bring her suit.
Lauren had her checkup at the Valerie Center before we went on vacation and passed with flying colors. Her weight has stayed pretty much the same but she has grown a little more. Her HAMA test came back negative so we're due back in clinic for Round 12 next Monday (8/19). I'm glad we got to do all these fun things before we had to go back in. School starts up 5 days after we get back.
I have to say a huge thank you to Give Kids the World, Sesame Place, Hershey Park, Dutch Wonderland and Jenkinson's. The reason we were able to go to all these places was because of a "World Passport" that Lauren was given after her wish trip last fall. When we left the village we were given a list of participating places that we could go to within one year. All of the parks gave us complimentary admission tickets for 4. I am so grateful for this as otherwise we would have never been able to do any of this this summer. Thank you all for helping us have a super awesome summer! If anyone visits any of these parks please take a minute to stop by guest services and thank them for participating in this program.
Well I'm going to end here. Boy, I'm tired just reading over all the stuff we did in the last month!
Now, seeing that Timmy & Lauren are still at Grandma & Pop Pop's house where they will be playing til Thursday, Bill & I are going out on a date to the movies :-)
As always, Thanks for checking in on us and for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. It really means a lot to us!
