Hershey! Oct 2014

On the weekend of Halloween we took a trip to Hershey, PA for the State Girls Tennis Tournament. One of Jared's girls qualified and we thought it would be fun to just all go and make it a fun short trip! We got to stay in a hotel, which was really nice and is always fun. They had a great breakfast for us each morning and a pool which the kids loved. Before we left on the trip, Lucy was talking to I think Jared's parents? I don't remember who exactly but they asked her if she was going on a trip, and she said "yeah, we are going to a hotel with a POOL!" Who needs Hershey, Harrisburg, Lancaster, or the like when you can just swim in the hotel POOL!! Seriously, it was the the most exciting part for her initially.

Anyways, yes we did go swimming, twice, at the hotel. It was really fun. While Jared was at the tennis match I took the kids to the Hershey World place where you can take a "tour" of the factory (it is a mock up of the factory) and you get a free little piece of candy at the end. The tour had singing cows. Lucy LOVED that part and tells everyone about it. I sadly have no pictures because taking three kids to a place like that by yourself doesn't allow for picture taking :)

When we were about to leave, Lucy had to go potty and I needed to get the stroller from the stroller parking zone, so I let her walk into the bathroom and get situated and then ran around the corner (really close, I promise) to get the stroller so Timmy would stop running away. Well, in the three seconds I was gone, Lucy came out of the bathroom looking for me. The security guard saw her and went to help her find me. What a nice lady :) She was really nice and helpful, and they very quickly found me (I was right there basically) and she complimented Lucy on knowing what to do when you can't find your mommy. Haha. She said that because when she asked Lucy if she was lost, Lucy told her "I'm looking for my mom, her name is Meghan. I need help in the potty." I guess she was impressed that Lucy knew my name.

Anyways, this story is slightly embarrassing, obviously, but the best part is that as soon as we got in the car Lucy yelled "Mommy do NOT tell daddy about the police officer!" I asked her a little bit about it, and realized that she was so embarrassed because she thought she was in trouble. We have been talking a lot lately about rules and laws and how police officers pull people over or take them to jail or whatever when someone breaks the law (she has been very curious about police officers lately). Apparently we forgot to tell her that they are there to HELP too!! Poor girl thought she was in big trouble and really didn't want her daddy to find out.

We quickly realized that activities in Hershey are very expensive and it doesn't really have toddler-friendly activities so we spent the first afternoon at a playground by the high school and then headed on out to eat for dinner. I love these pictures of Timmy on the swing. He looks so goofy with that hooded jacket  all stuffed into that swing. Sammy looked hilarious in the swing, like a little ball of fluff. He really loved it though :)

For day two we headed over to Lancaster area and had a blast! If you have younger kids, I highly recommend Lancaster over Harrisburg and Hershey

We got to go to the Turkey Hill Experience which is, once again, just a mock up of the actual ice cream factory. But the cool thing is that kids under 5 are free AND everyone gets unlimited ice cream samples. And when they say samples, they mean like a little styrofoam cup with like almost half a cup of ice cream in it. Lets just say we left having eaten our fair share of ice cream and feeling a tad bit sick because of it. It was designed for kids though which was so fun. The kids LOVED it there. I would seriously go back in heart beat. It was like a children's museum basically.

Another awesome part of Lancaster county is the train ride in Strasburg. It was this beautiful old steam engine and we took a 45 minute ride through Amish country. Just these beautiful farms and hills in the distance. We even saw a huge bald eagle's nest in one of the farmer's trees. It was so cool. It was a little loud and rumbly at first, so Timmy was a bit timid about it, but they all ended up loving it.

The kids didn't get to go trick or treating officially this year, but they went to zoo boo and to trunk or treat at the church, so they are covered in the candy category. This trip was so fun, it was so nice to go somewhere as a family and enjoy some time away doing fun things together. I personally love road trips and talking with Jared on the long car rides, so it's a win-win all round here :)