Trip Pics

We built dinosaurs (think Build-a-Bear) and ate at a fantastic themed restaurant. My daughter wasn't too sure about the roaring life-sized animatronic dinosaurs eating with us.

Digging for dinosaur bones in the archeology pit. My son quickly moved onto the interactive games, but our little one stayed for almost an hour - interrupted - and dug.

The rare shot of our son smiling. It was H.O.T at the baseball game, but we managed to move into some shaded seats, and left in the 5th when they were up by 6.

Our daughter was perfectly content as long as she was stuffing her face with food. This was a funnel cake. She also had a sno-cone, pizza and a frozen (decaf) coffee drink! For all you baseball officianados who can't afford a pro-game with kiddos, minor league games are 1/4 of the price and just as fun!

If you ask the kids what we did on our trip, they'll tell you "we swam at the hotel!". We could have stayed in the pool all day and they would have been happy. The jumped, dove, bobbed, squirted water guns and played marco polo until they were literally blue in the face!

Here are some highlights, in words:

• It's wonderful to have a potty trained 2 year old. However, a three hour trip can take WAY LONGER when she tells you she has to pee every 30 minutes. And she's telling the truth.
• Having one bathroom in a hotel room is just not cutting it anymore. Anytime my husband and I were in it, one of the kids had to "go real bad."
• Vacations in hotel rooms are meant for kids...there is no grow up alone time. Now I know why my parents got so crabby towards the end of our family vacations.
• Children are most content doing nothing on vacation. We all sometimes over-stimulate and over plan our trips. But the most fun we had was when we'd spontaneously do something - see a movie, go bowling, grab an ice cream cone. No schedule, no plan, just fun.
• Remember $1 hot dogs at baseball games? They still exist at minor leagues!
• My husband can not bowl. In 11 years, we've never gone bowling together - not sure why. Well, now I am. Our 2 yo kicked his rear. Think single digits, people. But he was a good sport. It was after all, "for the kids."
• Flip-down tvs/dvd players in cars are a GOD-send. We debated whether to spend the extra money when we bought our car, but ultimately went with it. Wow, am I glad. Three hours is one Disney movie and one Spider-Man game of contentment.
• Family-time away from home - even if for three days - is so necessary. We saw so many fun sides of our children away from the hustle and bustle of our daily grind. It was a very good thing.