Cape May, NJ: 6/17 - 6/18

Our little family took a quick family vacation to Cape May, NJ - voted one of the top 10 beach destinations in the USA by Trip Advisor.

I'm not a beach person and am no expert on this subject, but we were willing to give it a go since it's only 2.5 hours from our place!

Cape May was everything a beach vacation should be. Not much to do, cute things to look at, and a lot of laying around on the beach!

There were lots of Victorian houses to look at! Here's a quick smattering:

Love the colors in this one:

Took all my effort not to just go through this gate and make myself at home here:

Tell me you thought, "Wedgewood," when you saw this house too:

And this is someone's porch. Does it look like Southern Living to you too?

We arrived by noon on Friday 6/17 and luckily no storms as the weather was predicting. It was sunny, partly cloudy, high of 81 with some winds. So while it was pleasant, it really wasn't swimmin' weather. We tried at the pool and gave up.

Got dressed and went to play putt putt, which was right outside of our MOTEL. Yes, motel, but it really wasn't bad! It wasn't fancy, but it was plenty spacious! We had a living area, a dining area, a kitchenette with stove/fridge/microwave/sink, and a separate bedroom! So it was plenty of room and right across the street from the beach.

After putt putt - we played Ticket to Ride, Brian's Father's Day gift which I did not hide very well (or at all for that matter) so he saw it before our trip!

One thing I love about America? You can bring nonsensical things, like this game, with you on vacations. We would have NEVER brought that on a European vacation because it would have taken up too much space and we didn't want to schlep it all over creation!

Walked the promenade. Dinner at a Mexican place. It was ok. We're not huge Mexican food fans.

Put Michael to bed and Brian and I stayed up playing Bohnanza and Ticket to Ride in our "dining room." I am all about multi rooms when traveling with kids! LOVE America!

Next day, we walked around, took pictures of houses, ate a cafe breakfast and just sat at the beach all day. Brian rented us an umbrella so we had some reprieve from the sun. I read a ton of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while Brian and Michael played in the surf.

Skipped lunch. Had dinner at Louisa's - great fresh fish grilled. And delicious desserts! We ordered 3! They had panna cotta, which we love!

After a huge dinner, we headed back to our country in the PA. We always love coming home.

P

Parenting Splurp

Read this in my weekly events for families newsletter that I get and I just loved it:

This mom will always have time to kiss a boo-boo. Otherwise, things tend to fall to the wayside. Things like car maintenance; phone surveys; organizing that rabbit-prolific pile of paper on my counter; finding my keys; setting the DVR; staying on top of what's really going on in Libya. Ditto for most of the other countries in the world. Things like remembering to buy vanilla; returning phone calls from my very best friends unless I'm behind the wheel; but I can never find my hands-free wire so there goes that. Things like sending cards on time; sending thank-you notes like, ever; and waiting for things to go on sale. Things like making it to the Lilly warehouse sale or the Boden warehouse sale or actually getting on line and buying things I like catalogues before they are out of stock in my preferred color and size. Things like who the Kardashians are and why they are newsworthy in the first place. Things like who is replacing Regis. Boo-boos, however, are another story. Boo-boos and bedtime stories are my specialty. And I have to believe that there are plenty of other moms like me out there. Thank goodness. My only discrepancy is that I DO wait for things to go on sale. :)

Jellystone Park: Quarryvile, PA

We drove 30 minutes away, deep into Amish country, to "camp" in Jellystone Park in Quarryville, PA. Here's the website. Check it out. It's pretty sweet:

http://www.jellystonepa.com/

"Camp" belongs in parenthesis because it's not REAL camping where you are in the wilderness with no facilities. We used to camp this way when Brian was in grad school.

This was like a mini Splashtown with camping sites/cabins surrounding it. We could have opted for an air conditioned cabin with a flat screen TV, DVD player, refrigerator, and microwave.

But Brian told me, "We're not weak. Get the campsite for the tent."

We made hobo pies and camped Friday night. We probably had the minimalist's campsite. All we had up was a tent and 3 camping chairs.

It was pretty hot but we slept fine in our tents. Michael, LOVED it. Of course. In the morning, we were woken up at 6:00am by rain. After it finished 5 minutes later, we made breakfast and then played Ticket to Ride with the Irwins in their cabin.

After this, we played on the Jumping Pillow (chk out the website for pictures!). It's like a HUGE blow up pillow that is basically a trampoline. It had a sign, "Play at your Own Risk." Makes an anxious mother like myself a bit nervous!

But Michael played and had a great time!

Then, waterpark time. I.LOVE.WATERPARKS.

And this one had really fun slides, water guns, and water canons. It was awesome!

Mini golf, then lunch, then more waterpark time, and then dinner with the 2 homegroups we went with.

After dinner, we got set up go watch Yogi Bear on their outdoor movie screen, but lightning and thunder were starting to set in so that got cancelled.

Brian and I looked at each other and decided to quit while we were ahead. Packed up our tent and 3 camping chairs in the dark and went home! We paid for that last night's stay, but lightening storms really freak me out. Glad we did because it POURED when we got home!

Would you have packed up and stayed the last night because you paid for it? Or would you have high tailed it out of there?!?!

Then went to church and were glad we made it Pentecost Sunday! Ran into the Chans and Abbey came over for lunch and a round of the Bean game (Bohnanza!)

Busy weekend - but super fun.

Love,

P

Freezer Cooking

Money Saving Mom likes to make a lot of meals all at once and freeze them for later. She does it efficiently so that she can make 3-4 meals worth of food in 1-2 hours and then freeze it.

I'm not such a big fan of freezing things because sometimes, it DOES taste a LITTLE different. But honestly, I'm always willing to try new things.

She posted about this woman who made 46 meals in 4 hours and froze it all. Incredible and ridiculous all at the same time. My kind of insanity:

http://aturtleslifeforme.blogspot.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html

Michael's being INCREDIBLE today. He's listening when I am asking him to, patient with me when I need to get things done and no whining. He's getting 30 minutes of Zelda today as a reward! And he told me, "I'm going to take a long nap!"

O.M.G.

It's like the baby lottery (when they sleep for much longer than you expect for about a week). Except this is the preschoolers lottery and it might only last a day.

Strasburg

We've been getting a lot of heat about visiting Strasburg, PA - what with its old trains and all:
And Amish and all:

First up, we rode the old Strasburg train - it's no TGV/ICE, but Michael liked it:

It was fun for like 15 minutes. But after 15 minutes of going 10 mph - we were wondering when the ride was going to be over. :)

In the mean time, I took some pictures, of course:

Michael is a HUGE fan of these self-powered trains:
Then, we popped over to the #2 attraction in Strasburg, according to tripadvisor. The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum:
Lots of trains indoors - some of which we could look in, some of which we could not. I'm not sure it was such a hit with us, but we can now say we saw it.

Michael was really interested in the miniature train display they had. So in reality, we should have taken him to the #4 attraction in Strasburg, the Choo Choo Barn. It's got LOTS of miniature train displays and I suggested taking Michael there next.

But Brian looked at me and said, "I think that sounds like a nice MOMMY and Michael activity." OK. It's right by the outlet mall. :)

Michael enjoyed Putt Putt golf the most in Strasburg, PA:

SO we could have just stayed nearby us and played putt putt. :)

That was what we did on Sunday during Memorial Day Weekend. We spent Saturday and Monday working around the house. It takes a lot of work to maintain our yard and Brian's garden!

What did you guys do for Memorial Day Weekend?