Dave and I took a drive on Saturday. It’s something we hadn’t done in YEARS — as the kids get older they don’t really have the patience to just sit in the car and enjoy the scenery. We got into the Mustang, put the top down and headed eastward!
Much of what I had written about Florida recently has been in areas around Pensacola and Destin. Unfortunately, there is so much congestion in Destin, we rarely get to go east.
Since Debby is keeping her distance from northwest Florida, I can safely resume my blogging about our road trip.
After visiting with Dave’s side of the family in Pennsylvania, we said our goodbyes — especially to Jacob, who is visiting with Dave’s parents for a couple weeks — and headed 2 hours back down I-81 to my parents in Martinsburg.
Our visit with my parents was similarly short, and we enjoyed trips to Costco and Kohl’s with my parents. Costco was awesome since we’re no longer members so my parents bought our stuff and we paid them back. We could stock up on batteries, “Mexi-Coke“, and I also got a nifty clothes-dryer rack. I’m seeing how many days I can go without using my dryer! If you count our vacation, I’m at 12 days so far!
Dave and I drove home on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and Timmy stayed in West Virginia. Both boys will be home after July 4th.
I don’t have pictures from when Dave and I were there, but my parents and sister have been sending great pictures of Timmy enjoying the local water park and batting cages. Last weekend my parents took Timmy and my sister’s family to DelGrosso’s Park in Tipton, PA.
Enjoy some pictures my sister took of the day he had at the park! She has a fantastic camera by the way…
Jacob’s having a wonderful time in NY, also. We speak to both boys every other day.
Timmy and his cousins at DelGrosso’s, a small amusement park in central Pennsylvania.
As I’ve mentioned in 2008, 2009, and 2011, our family makes a trip to Pennsylvania every year for Dave’s family reunion in Lancaster County. I didn’t go in 2010 — Dave flew to PA with the boys while I did some reserve work — so I didn’t write about it. To be honest, I haven’t written much detail about the reunions themselves. I guess I just say “We’re going” and that’s about it. It’s mainly hanging out drinking some Yuengling, eating Hammond’s Pretzels, catching up with the others from Dave’s Dad’s side of the family. The folks are all wonderful and it’s especially fun to see how grown up the younger family members become year after year. This year, some of the youngest family members when I first went to a Vollmer reunion in 1994 are about to become seniors in college!!!! Wow!
We also pay a visit with several loved ones from Dave’s Mom’s side of the family. Some of them drive in from Philadelphia to Lancaster County to visit with Dave’s parents and our foursome and we’re always flattered and humbled by their efforts. Each year Jacob seems to top himself with how much he can eat: this year it was a foot-long chicken parmesan sub sandwich!
Enjoy some pictures from the first couple days of our adventures. We try to spend a day at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the Strasburg Railroad, and this year we even adjusted our travel time so we could keep a day ahead of the Strasburg Railroad’s “Day Out With Thomas” event that is always over Father’s Day weekend. It’s usually a nightmare of toddlers and preschoolers, with families coming from as far away as Connecticut and Massachusetts for the chance to ride behind a REAL engine made up to look like Thomas (and not non-operational Thomas that’s actually pushed by another locomotive, which is what we experienced in Nebraska in 2009 — don’t get me wrong, the Fremont, Nebraska experience is the best-ever Thomas ride we’d ever had out of 5 venues and about a dozen rides!)
We took a detour on the drive northward and took in some of Skyline Drive in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. Check out that stunning view! We only drove the southernmost 40 miles, from mileposts 105 to 65 or so.
The kids are definitely enjoying their summer vacation so far! Apparently Jacob was working extra-hard this school year because I hadn’t seen him this happy in a long time. School and baseball just wore him out, I guess. They’re enjoying sleeping late, staying up late at night and not having to get dressed until lunchtime. Oh, the summer life!
Since school ended last Thursday, the kids have been doing little else besides playing games, riding their bikes and playing catch in the backyard.
While under our virtual house-arrest, the boys got along GREAT and Dave and I could catch up on several household tasks. We had visited Target on Friday and let the kids choose one video game and one board/card game each. We enjoyed all of that and then some: Uno, Phase-10, Rummikub, chess, Monopoly, Guitar Hero and even our new “Go” board game.
I also helped out with this week’s Cub Scout Day Camp. Even though my boys can’t go (because of our upcoming Road Trip), I had received a request to help out with some craft preparations. I offered my assistance and I received a task that was PERFECT for this past rainy weekend: FiMo clay Star Wars action figures. You press the clay into the molds, then bake a pan full of them at 230F for 30 minutes to harder. They are to be used in snow globes (Hoth?) that will be made with baby food jars.
Here is a picture of what I was working on. Cute, aren’t they? They weren’t easy but with the rainy weather, we had all the time in the world! I had to make 150 of these.
Of the dozen-or-so characters to choose from, there are the only ones that will fit through the mouth of a classic baby food jar. These were among the best of the batch. Most of the Yodas looks more like Gizmo from "Gremlins", and most of the Obi Wans and Chewies had no discernable faces. The molds for these were made by "Kenner" years ago. I tried to find a link to the mold product but can't find any.
We had a wonderful afternoon on a dolphin cruise. The weather couldn't have been more cooperative!
I guess it’s been a while since I wrote one of these “Discoveries” posts, isn’t it? It doesn’t mean we didn’t do anything — in fact, I’m reminded that I should relabel my USS Alabama, Mardi Gras and Santa Train posts “Alabama Discoveries”…we do seem to spend a lot of time there, don’t we?
Maybe while I’m at it I’ll rename our Atlanta road trips “Georgia Discoveries” 🙂
Thanks to a Groupon I purchased several months ago, we were able to take advantage of a dolphin cruise around Destin Harbor and the Gulf of Mexico this past weekend. The Groupon benefits expired on April 30th, so in typical Major Mom fashion, we took the trip on April 29th.
We took a 30 minute narrated tour of Destin Harbor and then traveled through the East Pass into the Gulf and got up close and personal with three separate pods of dolphins. As you might have read or heard, dolphins are indeed very social and friendly. The younger ones enjoyed showing off for us — trying to get as much air as possible when jumping!
The USS Alabama trip is truly one of the highlights of the scout year for my boys’ pack. I was the coordinator for the trip this year, even though females aren’t allowed to remain on the ship if it’s a male-booking. Everything went surprisingly well; the kids and male chaperones seemed to have a great time!
One of the things I’m guilty of is trying to balance visiting friends with every trip we take back to the Northeast. You know who you are! There are many of you I haven’t been able to see in YEARS because we’re trying to see other friends. Now that I’m a GeekMom, there are a … Read more
This picture was taken minutes before we headed to our truck and started our drive home. After hooking up the lawn mower to our truck in WV, we headed back down I-81 and U.S. 29 towards my sister’s house in central North Carolina. I blew through her place — stopping overnight in each direction — … Read more
Last week was the kids’ Spring Break. The family headed up to West Virginia to visit my parents, thanks to their offer for us to take their riding lawn mower. My Dad bought it 1-2 years ago, but they don’t use it much. I guess they felt sorry for us with our larger-than-necessary lawn…which I … Read more
Today’s post will be about AquaDuck, a 765-foot water slide that will only be found on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy (when the Fantasy is commissioned later this month). They’re the only cruise ships in the world with complete water slides on board. I had to wait until my waterproof camera pictures were developed to do … Read more
