Sesame Place take 4!

On Monday we went to Sesame Place. It was our third theme park owned by Sea World that we attended within about two weeks as Aquatica is also owned by Sea World and our fourth ever visit to the park. It wasn't crowded, which was good, but it also wasn't really warm enough outside to fully enjoy the park. There was a new rollercoaster which the kids really enjoyed. There are only two roller coasters. I rode each of them three times on Monday. Some of the water slides were closed; I'm assuming it was because of the cool air temperature. The water temperature was much colder than it was at Aquatica or Legoland. I didn't even wear a bathing suit. Paul's parents did wear them, but they never got wet. Paul and the kids were the only ones who braved the cold water and did some water slides and the lazy river. We also saw two shows "Elmo the Musical" and "The Magic of Art" as well as the parade. The kids also had their picture taken with several different characters. Ian was bummed we missed Bert and Ernie, but I think otherwise we did meet the characters they wanted to meet. I was exhausted by the end of the day. It's supposed to be a little less than 3 hours away, but we hit some traffic in both directions. Both times we hit the traffic a little before we reached our destination. We listened to most of a book on cd  The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry and the kids also watched a Despicable Me dvd during our 6+ hours in the van. We had eaten an early breakfast before we left, packed a lunch, and ate dinner in the park because the group ticket we had purchased through the babysitter included one meal and one drink. Sesame Place really is a very nice amusement park for young children. I'm guessing this was our last hurrah there given Nadia and Ian's ages. I took over 100 pictures. I haven't even looked at all of them yet, but a few are in this post.

We've done a variety of other things over the past several days aside from Sesame Place including....

1. a pond critters program at Montour Preserve on Saturday,

2. attending the (free) Kids' Café lunch in our town park on Friday and Tuesday,

3. the kids attended VBS at the church where they go to AWANA on Sunday night and Tuesday night,

4. the van got new front brake pads and rotors on Tuesday morning,

5. and the kids all had their first tennis lesson of the summer on Tuesday evening. It was Oliver's first lesson ever as he was too young to take lessons last year. The downside of where they are taking lessons this summer is the drive (in Bloomsburg so it's farther away). The upside is the lessons are free, and all three kids can take their lessons at the same time (although Oliver is in a different group than Nadia and Ian are).

Today the kids and I will meet Paul's parents and Paul at Sight and Sound in Lancaster to see their new production about the life of Jesus. After that the kids and I will drive down to Maryland where we'll be celebrating Andrew's 13th birthday, going ice skating, visiting Fort McHenry and Port Discovery, and attending a colonial program at Fort Frederick before driving back home on Saturday evening. I had planned to take the kids to Lake Tobias on the way to Lancaster. We've been to Lake Tobias three times before (twice in Oliver's case), but the last time we went was 2014 so I'm certain Oliver has no memory of the place. We have had plans the last two years to go there that have been scratched, and that's what happened again today because I am exhausted. I have been exhausted for more than a month. Many times while we were in San Diego I just wished I could be in bed rather than at Disneyland or Sea World or whatever. This morning I just can't seem to force myself to get out the door at 8:15 as originally planned. There are so many things to do in the Lancaster area or in Harrisburg (which is on the way there) that I like to do something else in conjunction with a show at Sight and Sound to make the drive more worthwhile. In the past we've done things like the Turkey Hill ice cream tour or toured the replica of the tabernacle, but I'm just too tired today.