Trip to Pennsylvania – Part 2

On Sunday we had our 3rd early wake-up…6am…again. This is why it’s nice having Liam in a crib, in his own room. Because when he wakes up early & realizes he can’t go anywhere, he will generally go back to sleep. But, it was fine for a few days. On Sunday we went to Sesame Place. It’s a Sesame Street theme amusement/water park about 15 minutes from where Josh’s parents live. We got there when they opened & had a great time. They had a little roller coaster that Zachary could ride on. I think he was scared at first, but once he realized he was going to be OK, he loved it. Our next stop was to Count’s Splash Castle. Apparently this is a new attraction for this year, and it was pretty cool. It’s like a big giant playground (multi-story) that sits in about 6 inches of water, but throughout the whole thing there are buckets that fill with water & then randomly dump out, or squirt guns, or random water sprays. They also have several little water slides, as well as just some regular slides that dump you out into the 6 inches of water at the bottom. The major part of this attraction is a giant bucket at the top that is constantly being filled with water. Every 5 minutes or so, Count starts counting backwards from 5, and then the whole bucket turns over, completely soaking anybody standing in the vicinity. I think Liam was a little intimidated by the place. He didn’t cry or anything, but he wasn’t smiling too much (except when he saw Ernie or Elmo) and he wasn’t his usual chatty self. He did like the carousel, and he fell asleep on the lazy river (I was in the tube & he was on top of me). Zachary had a great time, and he even rode the roller coaster 2 more times before we left. We also got photos of them with Elmo & Super Grover. It was a cute place, and I think Josh was also really excited to go there, because it was somewhere he remembered going as a kid. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to their house (around 4:00 or so), and so we went to bed early again.

Monday morning Liam let us sleep in – he decided not to wake us up until about 6:20am. We went to breakfast with Josh’s mom & then a little bit later Josh’s dad took me for a ride around the neighborhood on his motorcycle. It was pretty neat, but we also were not out on the road or anything, so there wasn’t much to be scared of (such as other cars weaving in & out). On our way to the airport we drove by Josh’s high school, which apparently has changed quite a bit in the 15 years since he graduated. We made it to the airport & had some lunch before getting back in line to beg for mercy from the gate agent. This was the flight I was most concerned about, as they had all 3 of us split up. They had assured me that they would not have a 4-year-old sitting by himself, but I was still worried about what if someone snags those seats before we do. The guy said we were separated because our reservations were separate (so I’m back to being confused about why it matters to have your reservations linked, and why they even bother letting you pick a seat, if they are just going to move you around willy nilly anyway…but I’m on the way to getting over all of that…). We did get a row together in the WAY back of the plane. We had promised Zachary he could have the window seat on the way home, but because of our location in the plane, we had a lovely view of the engine out the window. Thankfully Zachary did not really complain about it. I felt bad though. He just did some different activities (and thoroughly enjoyed his OJ & Biscoff) & was really good again. Liam fell asleep once the wheels left the ground and this time he slept the entire flight. Woo hoo! He was awake for most of the ride home though, but I think Zachary’s lack of napping over the weekend had finally caught up to him, as he fell asleep before we had even merged onto 85 after leaving the airport. It was a good trip, but I’m just pooped from it all! We did a lot & saw a lot, but it wore us out. And even though Zachary told Josh’s parents that he “Never ever ever ever ever ever wants to move away from Georgia”, he’s already asking when we can go back to visit Pennsylvania.