Lame!

That title should be read as "Lame!" and not the fabric "Lame'!" although I wish it were shiny and exciting like that.

I normally don't look at my blog traffic because face it, really, who cares - but I did just now, and today I had 3 hits.  One was me.  I'm pretty sure one was Lurker Girl and the other probably Salty D or Kate the Peon, and I thank you for checking in.

So, I'm lame with telling stories lately.

But, before lameness set in, a few days ago, Kristin and her sons visited me for part of their vacation adventure.  Her sons are 3 and 5 years old and I love them. But her sons are 3 and 5 years old and have energy to spare. OMG. So much energy. It was stiflingly hot which gave us the perfect excuse to walk to the ice cream shop then throw water balloons at each other.

While they were here for a few days we went to....

The Crayola Factory : what kid doesn't dream of a place like this?  Adults, too. You can play with hot molten crayons and scribble on glass windows.  Plus the store is reasonably priced and a great place to stock up. You have to stock up because what kid can stop at buying only one or two things here?

The National Canal Museum : okay, I know this seems not very thrilling but it's attached to the Crayola Factory, but it's cooler than it sounds. The kids learned about locks. Then we saw a real canal and real lock. Ooooooh...aaaaaaah.... I grew up watching boats go through canal locks so it never ceases to fascinate me.

America on Wheels Museum: we were the only visitors. You can sit in a Mack truck and pretend to drive. Plus...cars that look like Lightning McQueen. I like their muscle cars.

The Lehigh Valley Zoo : Kristin and I went here as kids when the biggest attraction was petting the llamas and then seeing the molting buffalo roaming. Now they have cool penguins and some pretty bird that you can feed nectar to.  Anyway, perfect size zoo for little kids to get pretty close to aminals even if there aren't that many aminals. Also, you get to drive across a stream. A ford. Ford every stream.  Kids love this shit. I sure did.

Also, we got lost (I love when I get lost in my hometown) because there were special directions for a detour, so we pulled into a state park office and I said, "We can't find the zoo. We got too excited about crossing a covered bridge (a.k.a. "barn bridges")and lost our way. Now the kids are all, 'when are we gonna see the zebra?!' so can you help?" and the very nice man got in his pick-up truck and escorted us to the zoo which was good because it would've taken us another hour to find it.  See how nice it can be out there in the wild?

5 playgrounds: yaaaay more slides!

3 parks : "Mommy where's the playground at this place?"

Toy Story 3 : "WOODY!!!"  I would recommend it especially if you have a drive-in theater, it's perfect drive-in fare, no matter how old you are.

When they left my house for Pennsylvania Dutch Country adventures, I was first relieved that I didn't have to pay close attention to anything or anyone.  Then I was bummed that I had to return to work.  Then I was weirded out by how quiet the house was.

 

Comments

[Lurker Girl]

Yep, 'twas me lurking.

Your last paragraph pretty much described how I feel when the girls are with their father. At first relieved, "Yea! I can just deal with myself and do what I want to do." followed by "Shit, it's quiet in here." followed by "Shit, it's quiet in here AND I can do what I want to do."

When the girls come home, it's simply "Shit."

I kid!

But it's amazing how much space (literally and figuratively) kids take up -- you don't even notice until they're gone. It's also amazing how loud kids can sound to people who aren't used to having them around. When my now-husband first met the girls, he'd need a little breather every now and then. Now? He can tune them out with the best of them. We can tell if someone'e bleeding . . . we don't hear the rest.

Also: love the zoo ford! When I used to have a minivan, I'd opened the side door so the girls could see the water rushing under the van . . . always a hit. Now I just pretend I've lost control of the car and am heading into river: "OMG, girls, hang on! Hope you can swim!"

Could this post make me seem like a worse mother?! : )

[Tom Guarriello]

The pictures of your adventure with that 5 and 3 year old were cute!

That quiet house stuff does grow on you!

[blaugra]

LG, LOL at pretending to lose control of the car in the river. Love it. Will have to remember that.

We have some sharp corners in our house and I kept imagining them puncturing a 3-year-old's eyeball but the kids navigated everything well and my worry was for naught. They're pretty smart. I thought it was funny how a flight of stairs could entertain them for about an hour. "Look! I'm laying on a step!" Okaaaaay.

[Kristin]

I can't wait to do it all over again! The stair laying was funny, but they were in the middle of all the action so why not? Ben still wants bubble gum ice cream...