Home Sweet Home

On Thursday we had a brief swim in the morning (cut short because of a thunderstorm outside, which I didn't think would effect us swimming indoors, but it did), and then we headed to the Crayola Factory and joined one million kids who were there on a field trip. Well it felt like a million kids anyhow. Thankfully the crowd thinned out during our time there. Paul met us there after he finished his office hours. The kids had a blast, which is good because that place is not cheap! The very next day Nadia and Ian asked if we could go back again. We will probably return there some year in the future, but we aren't going two days in a row! After the kids went to bed, Paul and my dad played three games of pool.

My parents started their drive home around 9:30am on Friday as Paul and I were headed to the swimming pool with the kids. Up until that day, there seemed to be very few people at the resort, but that really changed on Friday. Many guests came in for the Memorial Day weekend. On Friday we took the kids for a little hike in the woods and also introduced them to the game of shuffleboard. They also enjoyed playing in the arcade room even though we didn't actually put any money into any of the machines. We took them to Dunkin Donuts for lunch and Dough Boys (pizza place in Delaware Water Gap) for dinner.

On Saturday morning we took them to a theater to see a production of Pinocchio. The kids really enjoyed it! Then we went to the Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm's Farm Animal Frolic. We spent three hours there, and it was my favorite part of the trip. I definitely want to return to this place. They have different kinds of programs at different points in the year. The hay jump was one of Nadia's favorite parts. She was bummed that we didn't stay long enough for her to participate in the tug of war, but the boys were beyond ready to leave. Ian's favorite part was petting the goats. I got one picture of Nadia with a funny expression when a baby goat was nibbling on her jacket. A reporter from WBRE (tv station) videoed her when the mama goat was nibbling on Nadia's hair, and then he interviewed me for a few minutes. We might have been on tv! 

Nadia and Paul went for one final swim before we left. They opened the outdoor pool that day so they could have gone in that pool for the first time, but Paul opted to stick with the indoor pool. Ian wasn't interested in swimming again so I took the boys into the arcade room and also the playground again. We arrived home around 7:15pm last night, and Ian in particular was VERY glad that we were home. It was the longest time the kids had ever been away from our home (9 nights away from home). Coming home from a vacation is always a bit exhausting due to the need to unpack, do a few loads of laundry, go to the grocery store, mow the lawn, etc., but we are all glad to be home sweet home. Nadia sang with the King's Kids in church this morning. Ian made an attempt at joining the choir, which he didn't do last month. Progress. The choir is actually supposed to be for kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade, so he is on the young side. It was smaller than usual due to people traveling for the holiday weekend. I would admit that going on vacation only 90 minutes from our house wouldn't normally  have been something I would have opted to do, but I have to say we had a really nice week. There was a really nice variety of things to do up there! Now tomorrow we'll get back in the routine of doing schoolwork and chores around the house and taking trips to our playground. I took a boatload of pictures yesterday. I will post more later this week!