Staycation 2017

Before I write more about the bad stuff, I’d like to relive some of the good stuff. Last week I took an entire week off of work for the first time since I-don’t-know-when. Definitely not since the kids have been with me! Not to say I haven’t taken time here and there, but usually only a long weekend away, not an entire week off of work. I mean, sure I was home with Love Bug when he was brand new but you can’t really call spending two weeks with a newborn a vacation! So, it was over-due and much anticipated. Primero requested a few days without the kids so they went into respite for the first time since my sister got married last July. I didn’t really plan for us to go away anywhere, we just did little staycation activities, visiting local attractions and whatnot. So, here is a recap of our staycation 2017.

 

Sunday – I took Love Bug and Chica Marie to a train festival. Ever since we took my college roommate to the train station, Love Bug has been obsessed with choo-choo trains. At the festival we were able to board some of the trains (they were on dead tracks, so we weren’t going anywhere), see a large model train, ride small hand-peddle trains (the kids did this, I did not), hear and watch them start a large train engine, and visit the train museum with more model trains and finally a toy train track the kids could touch! Love Bug was in his element, so much so that he didn’t want to leave. He expressed his displeasure at leaving my scratching my arm red as I tried carrying him from the event.

 

We went home and ate a quick dinner before heading out to the park to play because it was such a nice day. We played until it started getting dark and then went home to watch Moana and eat popcorn. This was clearly Love Bug’s favorite day because he kept telling me about seeing the train, going to the park and eating popcorn.

 

Monday – We went to visit Lake Tobias Wildlife Reserve. It was a bit of a drive, just under 2 hours away and the day was cloudy and threatening rain. Primero went along, begrudgingly because teenagers. I was excited to take the kids, having had a great experience previously with a different foster child. So, we bought the tickets for the safari and walked the wilderness path, past a few cages of golden pheasants (they are gorgeous!) to reach the safari station. I knew the kids would want to feed the animals and as we waited in line to purchase a cup of carrots, Love Bug spotted the popcorn, which was also an animal treat option. So, we ended up with a large bag of popcorn and a cup of baby carrots. The kids snacked on the animal treats while we waited to board the bus. We chose the last seats on the bus, me sharing with Love Bug and Chica Marie and Primero snagging a seat to himself. A wandering emu sauntered over to the bus much to Chica Marie’s delight. She called it a “pietro” for inexplicable reasons and tossed a few kernels of popcorn his way before the bus pulled out of the station and our safari began. The clouds cleared up a bit and there were peaks of sunshine as we moseyed around the pastures viewing and feeding bison, various deer, water buffalo, cattle and elk. Chica Marie complained most of the trip and declared it boring when she ran out of carrots. Primero wanted to leave after the safari ride but we talked him into seeing the lions and tigers and bears (oh my! – yes, we did this A LOT while we were there). We walked to the reptile building and the kids got to pet a snake (I forget what kind) and small alligator. When we went back outside it was raining and Primero was definitely ready to go. So ready, that he offered to fetch the van on the other side of the reserve while I waited with the kids under the roof of the reptile barn. The rain let up a bit and the kids wandered over to pet the miniature ponies and feed them and the donkeys who came ambling by for some snacks.

 

Tuesday – Primero needed the van to go to an appointment with the young adult program where I work. He wanted to go to the bank first to withdrawal some money from his account. Somehow, instead of going to the appointment he ended up joyriding around after going to the bank and he missed the appointment. I was annoyed because I had planned to take the kids to see Lost River Caverns and could have left earlier if he had planned on not attending the meeting. I did end up taking the kids and we had a nice time visiting the quirky cave. The kids were a little hard to manage and Love Bug did not understand the no-touching rule (eek! Cave damage!) The cave was on the smaller side so the tour didn’t last too long – I’d say it was just about right for the kids attention span. They were most excited to get the pretty swirly lollypops I promised them after the tour.

 

Wednesday – I took the kids to the respite home in the morning and drove back home. The plans were for Primero and I to go down the shore but those plans changed when his sister and friend both decided to crash at our place. Instead, we went to the pool. It was a perfect pool day and we had a lot of fun swimming and diving together. After the pool we went home to shower and then went to see a horror movie – Annabelle Creation. I was scared and the kids thought that was loads of fun. We went home and played a crazy funny video game together called That’s You – basically you answer questions about a person and if someone else agrees with you, you get a token. The person with the most tokens wins the game. It was hilarious and we laughed a great deal.

 

Thursday – The big kids decided they wanted to go a local recreation center with has a restaurant and arcade plus go-carts and a huge trampoline area. We drove the go-carts first and I did a terrible job thanks to my many years as a responsible, careful driver. Still, it was lots of fun. Then we went to jump on the X-treme trampolines and flop into the foam pits which were really hard to get out of! I was the only mom jumping and not sitting, watching my kids. Oh well! Their loss!

 

Friday – We picked up the kids and the rental car that morning. I wanted to get an earlier start to the day because we were driving to Philly for the Adventure Aquarium. Initially I had wanted to take the train, but it would have been too expensive for all of us, plus I wasn’t sure how we’d get to Penn’s Landing. So, we drove and somehow the GPS was taking us a REALLY long way and we got there so late that, after riding the ferry across the Delaware River, we only had about 45 minutes in the Adventure Aquarium. We made the most of it and pet some sting rays (they are more mushy and slimy than I thought they would be!) and we saw the hippos before heading to the shark tank. There’s a tube you can walk through to see the sharks and fish swimming above and around you and there is also a cargo-net bridge where you can walk over top of the tank, just feet above the swimming sharks. I was pretty amazing and worth it even if we didn’t get time to do much else. Love Bug was so, so crabby and uncooperative that day. It was so bad I don’t even want to write about it, let alone remember it! Chalk it up to being in respite, not getting a good enough (long enough) nap, and not having snacks whilst on our sojourn. It was a long, long day!

 

Saturday – Still dealing with a crabby threenager, we made our way to Penn’s Cave, which was just over a two hour drive into the more mountainous region of the state. I liked the second half of the drive, it was rather scenic. But, I’ve pretty much ruled-out any lengthy car travel for my crew, given how grumpy the lot of them became after only a short stint in the car. The cave we visited is permanently flooded, so the entire tour is done by boat. We walked a short distance from the gift shop, down a steep flight of stairs and onto the much cooler waiting dock, where I tried desperately to distract a very scared Love Bug by feeding the largemouth bass fish. Love Bug pitched a fit about getting on the boat, but he did eventually join us and we set off into the depths of the cave. It was an amazing tour and this is a cave I would see again. The cave river flows into a small pond before spilling into a local creek. So, along with our cave tour we saw elk, ducks, and a groundhog drinking water perched on a rock. It was spectacular and I only wish Love Bug had been more calm to enjoy it.

 

Sunday – We crashed back into reality with issues on the van’s breaks that necessitated a visit to the farm, which of course ended in s’mores.