The Next Installment

Here is what we did next: went to Sesame Place. It's an amusement park almost entirely geared towards kids under eight, with about 60% water rides. It was fantastic! It was in the 80s the whole time, so whenever we got hot we dunked ourselves into a nearby sprinkler.

I was SO EXCITED to meet Cookie Monster. I mean, for Dylan to meet Cookie Monster. Although he turns out to be sort of feral. I had to yank her away because first he was eyeing her hungrily, then tried to squash her with his paw.


This was topical because we have a CM talking stethoscope on the trip that is very sensitive, so if I so much as turn a corner in the minivan we hear "Eat two cookies, and call me in the morning."

Dylan proudly told everyone there about our dog Snuffleupagus.


Dylan is (almost) fearless since Disney and went on just about everything. Although the roller coaster we'll save for "maybe when I'm older."

I am impressed with Dylan for gracefully tolerating a seven-hour day with Kate In An Amusement Park.
I do have to point out that while this picture is cute, it is only because she is incapable of turning off her camera face in front of a camera. What she was saying was MOMMY I CAN DO IT BY MYSELF DON'T TOUCH MY HORSE.

Ollie says CHEESE now too. And is self-packing. He just needs a little ice.
This is clearly Dylan's work.
I only have a third of the pictures to post because I had to buy a waterproof film camera (see: water park) after the first day and my phone ended up in a bag of rice to (successfully!) dry off. I had to do a lot of explaining to Dylan about why we couldn't see the pictures right away. Relatedly, after several days of ipad time in the car Ollie now tries to touch the pages of books as if they were a touch screen.

This definitely fell under the "exorbitant amusement park" portion of the trip. I don't feel like we got a deal, per se, because I am sure that nobody gets a deal at these places, but I do feel like we escaped with as little damage as possible. We brought a cooler in and there was a shuttle from the hotel (parking was $15!) and breakfast was included and maybe I just won't think about it any more. Ollie keeps missing stuff because he needs to sleep to make up for the hours of which we don't speak. Dylan went swimming five times at our current location and Ollie went zero due to this issue.

She and I did the lazy river three times because it was so much fun, although it was quite a different experience, depending on if you were her or me. I could use it as god intended and relax, while Dylan just used the tube as a fancy kickboard and flailed around wildly the entire time. The only downside to really relaxing was the freezing water features that could catch one unawares.

Up tomorrow or when I have time: back in NY, via NJ