Thankful Thursday

1. We had a safe trip out here to Massachusetts on Saturday and Oliver didn't cry for very long (just one bad tantrum).

2. The kids enjoyed playing soccer outside at their homeschool gym class last Friday.

3. We enjoyed visiting Mystic Seaport (CT) on Saturday and listening to a book on CD from the library during our drive.

4. The indoor (heated) swimming pool has been enjoyable. In hindsight we should have brought a pool noodle for Oliver and tennis rackets and tennis balls for Nadia, Ian, Paul, and I. The resort has outdoor and indoor tennis courts. The kids also played on the playground at the resort and enjoyed a little shuffleboard.

5. We enjoyed visiting Plimoth Plantation, Boston Children's Museum, Museum of Science, Tea Party Ships Museum, Plimoth Grist Mill, Plymouth rock, Mayflower II, and the Cape Cod Children's Museum.

6. It was delightful to spend time at two beaches and enjoy the sand, ocean, flying a kite, collecting shells, eating salt water taffy, and seeing a variety of fish and crabs at the beach.

7. We had a fabulous day at Edaville today, which is an amusement park featuring Thomas the Train. We arrived a little after 10:00, and at 11:00 we were enjoying a 20 minute ride (courtesy of Thomas) around the park. The weather this week has been gorgeous, but it was a little cooler today. In the morning we were wishing we had brought our jackets, but thankfully once it warmed up a little we were comfortable without them. I was very glad we weren't at the beach today! The park had a very low attendance today, which meant no lines for the rides. The kids could stay on a ride as many times as they wanted to ride it. Nadia and Ian rode one spinning lady bug roller coaster at least 13 times. Nadia also rode the tilt-a-whirl many times. The last time the operator asked me how long she was allowed to ride because he could make the ride either 2, 5, or 10 minutes long

I was surprised because Oliver loved the dinosaur area of the park. He was terrified of the animatronic dinosaurs at Reptiland a few months ago, and today he asked to go through it a second time! The ride I thought was the most creative was one in which the riders were squirting water (to put out a "fire") while riding on fire engines (and they were going up because they were on the ladder). One of Ian's favorites was a drop ride (which we think of as a "Frogger") called Cranky. Oliver loved a roller coaster in Thomas Land. There were only two rides Oliver couldn't ride - Cranky and the Scrambler. There was only one ride Ian couldn't ride - the Scrambler. Nadia could ride everything by herself except for the Scrambler, which she had to ride with an adult. Oliver had to have an adult for many rides, and the same was true for Ian although there were fewer that he needed an adult. They were generous with Oliver's measurements because he's 41 inches tall. His sandals made him a little taller than 41 inches, but all the ride operators let him ride the rides that you had to be 42 inches tall to ride.

It still amazes me how drastically different height requirements are from one amusement park to the next. Knoebels and Del Grossos are definitely the most generous of the parks we've been to. Six Flags is the worst for those under 48 inches. I was pleased that here at Edaville even Oliver could ride a bumper car with an adult. Ian can't even ride a bumper car at some amuseument parks (even with an adult).

8. We found a fast food restaurant for dinner tonight! There are a MILLION Dunkin Donuts around here. I wish we had actually counted. It's mind boggling how many there are. There are also Subway restaurants, but until today that's all we've seen in terms of fast food. Today we actually drove through a town that had McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, etc. It was nice to have dinner at McD's tonight because we only spent about $15. The pizza is more expensive around here. $15 seems to be about the average price for a large cheese pizza. Last night we ended up with a better deal than expected because we bought an XL pizza and they were having a special that if you got one of those then you also got a large pizza for free which meant we got 2 pizzas for less than $20.

9. We finally went miniature golfing tonight! We happened to pass one (and it was open) on our way home from Edaville. It was a bit pricey, but considering we only go miniature golfing on average once a year, we decided to splurge. That's one more thing off the bucket list. Now we just need to go bowling as we haven't gone bowling yet in 2016, which means Paul has yet to use the bowling shoes I got him for his birthday in January.

10. It has worked out well for Nadia to sleep in the second bedroom in Paul's parents' unit. She'll be spending the night with us tomorrow night.

11. They had free pie (apple or blueberry) at the resort tonight. Yum!

12. I was able to run yesterday morning. I am planning to do so again tomorrow morning.

13. Thankful for our ASTC membership. It has saved us hundreds of dollars so far, and we only got it in May. I think we'll be maintaining this for years to come.

14. The Steelers and Giants both won their first games of the season, and I was able to watch my game on Monday night without staying up later than usual.

15. I like Nadia's new haircut!

16. We've been together as a family for six days thus far. Paul has been with us at meals, etc. Oliver is still very clingy towards his Daddy and shows favoritism toward him which he never did before. I don't take it personally. I know it's just because of him not seeing Paul very much over the past four months.

17. Ian's soccer game was cancelled tonight which means he only missed one game and one practice. Oliver and Nadia both missed two games and two practices.

18. I'm very thankful we could go on this vacation. I am not sure if we will be able to afford any vacation next year, but we were able to afford one this year thanks to Paul's double income for four months and the fact that this vacation has cost us 50% less than our vacations in Florida cost us the past two years. Hopefully I will be able to get a job in the future (at least part-time) so we can continue to be able to afford to go on vacations.

19. I am very glad I am participating in the Bible study on Hosea even though the homework is taking a LONG time for me to complete. Hopefully I will have it done by Tuesday night.

20. I'm still very thankful for my camera. I treasure pictures of my kiddos. That honestly is the high point for me at an amusement park these days - taking a picture I really love.

21. Paul is very thankful the price of gas is dropping. We saw it as low as $1.99 a gallon today.

Cape Cod Day #2

Today was the second day we spent the whole day here in Cape Cod. Paul's parents opted to rest in their unit today. My day started with a three mile run on a sidewalk path. We also had to visit housekeeping to get new sheets for Oliver because he wet the bed this morning. His timing was good (albeit I wish it hadn't happened at all) because there is one day a week for exchanging sheets (two days for exchanging towels), and today was that day. At 9:30 we started with a little shuffleboard here at the resort and then visited the Cape Cod Children's Museum which is located about five minutes from the resort. If I could go back in time, I would have purchased a membership to the museum instead of buying four passes on Groupon because #1 the kids could have spent a little time here on multiple days of our vacation and #2 we would then be able to get into other children's museums for free for the next year. Anyhow, the kids enjoyed the museum. Paul was impressed with the submarine, and Nadia loved delivering "mail" to adults throughout the museum. We ate lunch in the van on our way to Wood Neck Beach.

This beach was smaller in terms of the soft sand portion (compared to Old Silver Beach), but it had a natural "lazy river," as well as many sand bars and tide pools. Other people found starfish, eels, etc. there. We saw many fish, hermit crabs (collected over 40 of them and then dumped them back in the
water before we left), and fiddler crabs. Nadia said she liked this beach better because of the marine life and wide variety of shells. It was a windier day, but Paul had a very hard time keeping the kite up in the air. He and Oliver were the only two who worked on the sand castle. The other two were too busy enjoying their collections of hermit crabs. Oliver was very upset as we left that we weren't taking our sand castle with us, ha ha! I had selected another miniature golf course for us to visit today since the other one was closed, but they had turned off the water at the showers at this beach (the showers were still working at the other beach on Monday). This meant we needed to come right back to our resort to get cleaned up rather than the original plan of having dinner and going miniature golfing in Falmouth. We are 0-2 with mini golf this week, but otherwise we are having a very nice vacation. We got some carryout pizza for dinner and ate it at the resort. Afterward we played Clue and Uno. I was able to read some of Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics to the kids at dinner. We haven't been reading at breakfast because Nadia is over with her grandparents in the mornings as she has been sleeping in their second bedroom. The weather has been just perfect. It has only rained in the evenings (after dark).

Pilgrims and Wampanoags

Today we spent about six hours in Plymouth. Our first stop was Plimoth Plantation where we visited the Wampanoag homesite, 17th century Pilgrim village, Craft House, and Barn. One of the highlights for the kids was collecting eggs from two hen houses in the Pilgrim's village. I learned that the Pilgrims and Native Americans were not very fond of eating lobster, but the Native Americans did consider skunk to be a delicacy. We keep seeing references (both at museums in Boston and in Plymouth) to the town where we are staying here on Cape Cod (Mashpee) because there are almost 3,000 Wampanoags in Mashpee. After touring Plimoth Plantation for about three hours, we ate our lunch at a picnic table and then drove to the Plimoth Grist Mill. Ian loved pouring water over a small waterwheel, Nadia loved sifting the corn meal, and Oliver enjoyed pounding the corn. Nadia, Ian, and I walked to the Plymouth Rock and Mayflower II whereas the others rode in the van. After a stranger helped us repair Nadia's sandal which broke during our walk, we toured the Mayflower II and looked at the rock.

On the way home we stopped at Friendly's for dinner, and after we got back to our resort Paul and I took the kids swimming in the indoor (heated) pool. We wish we had brought a pool noodle for Oliver because the only place he can stand in the pool is on the steps. Hopefully next summer he'll learn how to swim.  On our walk back to our unit after we swam, Ian pointed and said "I see our deparment!" He meant apartment (although I would say it's actually a town house). Those little things the kids say that aren't quite right usually put a big smile on my face. Oliver still sings the song "He made my TNA" instead of DNA. I'll be so bummed when Oliver switches from "pollipop" to "lollipop."

Tomorrow we are going to stay on Cape Cod, and because we are not going to leave as early in the morning, I am going to go for a run. The weather has been really pretty here on Cape Cod this week.

Fun at the Beach!

Although the air temperature was a lot cooler than it was the last time we were at the beach (May 2015 in Florida), we had a really nice day at Old Silver Beach on Cape Cod today. Paul's parents opted to stay at the resort, but the five of us spent five hours at a beach about 15 minutes from our resort. We could have gone to a beach that was closer, but we heard this was a nice one for children, and it certainly was. During the summer it costs $20 to park at the beach, but since this is off-season we didn't have to pay anything to park or use the beach. The kids enjoyed flying a kite, building sandcastles, writing messages to each other in the sand (Nadia, Ian, and I), collecting seashells and rocks, swimming in what Oliver called "the pool" (aka the ocean), and having a picnic. The water temperature was warmer than what I was expecting for September in Massachusetts. We had a great time and checked off four things off our summer bucket list today even though we were unable to go miniature golfing as planned this evening because it was closed (miniature golfing was also on our list as we haven't done that since last year in Florida). Paul, Nadia, and Oliver went swimming in the indoor pool at the resort after we had dinner at a Panera located about 5 minutes from our resort. Ian and I were watching television so we could
cheer for the Steelers. Usually I don't like it when my team plays on Monday night because it means staying up past my bedtime if I want to see the whole game, but I was fine with a Monday night game today because #1 this guaranteed I could see my game even though we're not in Pennsylvania and #2 the game started at 7:10 (earlier than usual) which means it's not keeping me up late tonight. Paul wasn't able to see his game yesterday due to our trip to Boston, but his team did beat the Cowboys, which pleased him greatly. He was also happy that the Steelers beat the Redskins (one of his division opponents).