Yesterday we left our house around 11:00am for Hershey Park. Thus far our kids have only been to one amusement park - Knoebels. Knoebels will still be our favorite, but next summer we want to take them to Dutch Wonderland (in Lancaster) and Sesame Place (near Philly) at least once. Ian slept for the first part of our trip, and Nadia took her nap during the end of our trip. We got there at about 1pm. The last time Paul and I had been to Christmas Candylane (with my nieces), it was like Knoebels in that the admission was free and you paid by the ride. Now you pay a flat rate to enter the park. They have far more rides open than they did with it was pay by the ride. As far as what we'd spend per child, it was about the same cost, especially as Ian was free. However, you spend a lot more as an adult under the new system. The park was open until 9pm, but we left around 5pm to have dinner and try to get home at a reasonable hour. Ian was very specific about what rides he did and did not want to ride. No to the helicopter, and yes to the train. He's not as brave as Nadia was at his age.
Nadia would have loved to ride a rollercoaster, but those weren't running. They both loved the slide. I Nadia sat on my lap, and Ian sat on Paul's lap. They also enjoyed seeing the (real!) reindeer. The temps were in the high 40's. It obviously could have been colder, but we were all a bit chilled. If it had been warmer, we would have stayed a bit longer, but we were ready to be warm. We ended our time in the park by doing the free ride in Chocolate World. Ian loved that ride, and Nadia enjoyed eating the free samples of chocolate they gave us at the end.
We had planned to meet at a Wendy's near the park for dinner, but when we arrived there we discovered it had gone out of business. So we went to Bob Evans instead. I had a yummy cranberry-pecan chicken salad. Nadia ate 1/2 of one cheeseburger slider and a few french fries. She also drank some milk. The reason I'm detailing what she ate is because about an hour later she threw up ALL over the place in her carseat. What a mess! I took off her pants and coat and put my coat on her to keep her warm the rest of the ride home.
This has happened 3 times in the past 2 months. She threw up in her bed a few hours after we had dinner at TGIF last month celebrating Paul's mom's birthday. I thought maybe she ate too much that night, but she really didn't eat much last night. I said something to Paul that maybe she can't eat restaurant food and then be in the car, but he reminded me that she eats happy meals in the car from time to time without incident. The only difference I can think of is that I don't let her drink the milk in the car that comes with the meal (for fear she'll spill it). So the next time we go out to eat, I'm only going to let her drink water to test that theory. Anyone else have a suggestion? I thought maybe it's car sickness, but the other two times it happened she threw up at home (once in the kitchen and the other time in her bed). I'd really like to figure out what the trigger is as it was a very stinky ride home last night even though I washed her clothes out in a sink at a rest stop.
Knoebels definitely has us spoiled. We are not accustomed to waiting in line for a ride. The wait generally wasn't very long although we did wait for a longer time for a few rides such as the spaceship. Also, I think Knoebels has a smarter way of loading the carousel (multiple entrances). Of course Hershey Park is a bigger amusement park (11 rollercoasters!). You can't beat the free parking at Knoebels (compared to $8 at Hershey), and the food at Hershey Park is WAY more expensive. Thankfully we had eaten a really early lunch at home at 10:30 so I didn't buy any food in the park. I'm sure we'll do Christmas Candylane again in the future, but I doubt we'll go to Hershey Park in the summer until the kids are MUCH older.
We inherited another stuffed animal yesterday. A man who won one playing a game offered it to Ian. What a kind gesture on the part of a stranger! Ian loves the little "chocolate man" as we've dubbed him. He was clutching him tightly when I tucked him in his crib this evening. Sometimes I feel we're being deluged with stuffed animals, but both kids really do love their stuffed animals.
I resumed teaching the 3rd-5th grade Sunday School class this morning. The curriculum for this quarter hadn't arrived yet, so I just did my own thing. I'll be teaching this class for the next 3 months. I enjoyed teaching the children this morning, and I enjoyed watching my Steelers have a very decisive win over the Bengals. We need the Ravens to lose one game in order to win the division, but unless we have a total meltdown, we're pretty much guaranteed to be a Wild Card. Paul's team isn't faring as well although they *almost* beat the best team in the NFL today. However a loss is a loss. It doesn't matter if you lost in the last 50 seconds or were creamed the entire game. The Steelers have a short week as our next game is on Thursday night.
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