Hershey Park

Michelle invited the kids over to help decorate their Christmas tree last week.

Lilly helped get the lights out of the box:

And Aunt Michelle string them around the tree:

And she felt she was doing a great job:

Remember you need ornaments to decorate the tree – Lilly’s on it:

Josiah, meanwhile, hung out at the table looking on:

 

 

Earlier this week, we went up to Beth’s parents to celebrate Emily’s birthday.

 

Shortly after we got there, Lilly had an important phone call:

 

Josiah got to share some of Pop’s cake:

Count the utensils on this one:

(Pop’s spoon to eat with, a fork in one hand, and two spoons in the other)

 

Lilly got her fair share of Aunt Emily’s cake:

 

Lilly was taking ornaments from the tree to show us:

but then she was interrupted with another call:

After a while, she had to sit down on Pop’s leg because her calls just did not end:

Most importantly, she was having fun:

 

 

Today, we went to Hershey Park’s Christmas Candylane.  Our morning started off with a trip to the doctor for Josiah – Lilly had an infection back in August and Josiah has the same thing now.  Fortunately we knew what it was and were able to get him in to the doctor.  They called in a prescription and suggested we start it right away. 

To kill time, we went to the storage unit to get the stroller, then back to the pharmacy.  It shouldn’t have been a surprise when we get there an hour later and they have no record of the prescription.  Chaos!!!  We’ve had repeated trouble like this – I don’t know if it is the pediatrician’s office or the pharmacy, but COME ON!  Why can’t the doctor enter the prescription on the computer and have it sent electronically to the pharmacy?  Want to know how they send it over?  They call a special number and leave a VOICEMAIL!  The pharmacists then listen to all of the voicemails every “half hour” and enter them in the computer.  Oh well.

So we gave up on the pharmacy for the morning and headed out to Hershey.  The kids were quickly asleep and Beth and I got an hour of conversation where none of the following words were used: poop, Elmo, Nemo, stuck, or banana.

We stopped off at Wendy’s since waiting until we were in the park would have put the kids way past lunchtime.  From there, we drove over to the park and found out exactly how cold 38 degrees felt.

Quick tangent – we love our Bob Duallie stroller.  The neoprene wrap on the handlebar was starting to crumble in places so we purchased gel-filled bicycle handlebar tape (Amazon) that other people had used for addressing the same problem.  It worked out great! (though it would have been better to not do it in the freezing cold!)

So we tucked the kids in the stroller with their blankets and headed off to catch the tram.  Beth sat with the kids and I was seated in the handicapped area with the stroller.

We hopped off the tram and headed into the park.  In case we didn’t get another chance (which we never did), we got a picture of the kids all tucked in:

Notice that both kids are studying the maps!

Beth and the kids:

Josiah and I scoping out some rides:

We started out with the “Ladybug” ride:

The kids are in the “Hershey’s Miniatures” height category:

Lilly was extremely sad when Josiah and I left to get in line.  She kept an eye on us the whole time:

Josiah was NOT a fan of the line/queue concept:

 

After the Ladybug, which Josiah loved, we looked around for the next ride.  Lilly was in tears from our having not taken her (Beth couldn’t go on the ride pregnant and there was no way I could keep a close eye on both Lilly and Josiah) and she didn’t settle down.  The more upset she was, she wouldn’t keep her hat on, wouldn’t stay under her blanket, and got freezing cold! 

Beth took Josiah to go on the monorail while Lilly and I were going to check out some other rides.  Lilly didn’t give me the chance to get in line but was crushed that Beth was gone.  We waited while they rode the “choo choo”.  When their train came back to the platform, Lilly and I walked up to meet them as they were coming down the exit.  Immediately afterwards, we ducked in the arcade to let them warm up and settle down.

As you can imagine, we could have left the two of them here and come back hours later – they would have fallen asleep at the wheel:

After warming back up and working up the courage, we went out to take another shot at finding some good rides for them.  With a carefully assembled plan, we went directly to the truck train ride and Lilly was excited to go – I opted to take both of them:

We were checking out the monorail as it went around:

Lilly peeked out at Beth while we were in the line:

Josiah ran ahead while we were waiting in line.  The line, meant for small kids, was too tight for me to squeeze through to get him.  I had to ask some kids/dads ahead of us to send him back.

We didn’t get to go on with the group in front of us so we were first in line for the next ride.  Josiah again was infuriated at waiting around.  He laid on the floor and tried to slide under the railings to get out to the ride.  It felt like an hour waiting for them to come back and let us onto the next ride!

So the kids go in the front of the truck and adults/bigger kids get to ride on the back.  All along, I was checking with Lilly to be sure she was up for it.  After sitting her and Josiah in the front, she started crying.  Cries of “Nooooooo” and “All done, all done!” made it clear – she wasn’t having it:

 

Josiah had a blast on the trucks but was crushed when we had to get off.  “More, more, more, more!” 

They were both very upset and extremely cold so we opted to try to go to Chocolate World to be inside and warm up.  When we got them inside, they were still too worked up and couldn’t settle down.  We were sad to call it a day but we packed up and headed back to the car.

It was discouraging to have spent 2 hours getting there, having a 2 hour drive ahead of us, and the kids to have not had the fun we wished for them.  We felt bad for not having planned better for their clothes to keep them warm.  We were sad that they sat in the car (and had more to do) and the day, to them, was uncomfortable and upsetting.

We got home at 7:30 (went to the pharmacy and were glad they had his prescription ready!) and got the kids ready for bed.  We read a book we got for them – “Duck and Goose, It’s time for Christmas” which they enjoyed, then took them back to bed.  I covered Josiah up and talked with him for a few minutes:

“Josiah, do you know it’s almost Christmas?  ‘It isn’t time for catching snowflakes, Goose!’” (from the book)

“Hehehehehehehe”

“It isn’t time for making forts, Goose!”

“Hehehehehehehe”

“What did you do today?”

“Choo choo”

“You rode the train?  Was that fun?”

[shakes his head yes] “Uh huh!, truck”

“Oh, you rode the trucks too, didn’t you?”

“Uh huh, vrooom vrooom”

“Wow, do you remember the Ladybug ride when we went up and down?”

[smiles] “More, more”

Glad to have had that conversation – makes the day look very different!  (He went on to tell me about how he had a dirty diaper when we got home, how mom changed him and used a wipe, and how it was yucky.)

Goodnight!