The Sweetest Place on Earth!

Here we are at Hershey Park!
This year, Emma finally graduated to become a "Hershey bar" which means that she can ride LOTS of roller coasters! And ride she did...all of them...lots of times! No ride was too fast or too scary!

Joey is still a "Reese's cup", but he was daring enough to ride the Super Dooper Looper, and he loved going upside down! The pirate ship is NOT his favorite...he spent the ride clinging to my arm and asking, "is it over, are we done?" This boy's favorite place to be is the water park...he'd stay there all day if he could.

Claire is a "Hershey's kiss", which means she was VERY patient while we took turns riding the bigger rides...but it's only a matter of time, this girl is a dare devil in the making. Her favorite was the log ride, and she threw her hands up on the downhill drop and declared "that was AWESOME"!

It was a fun, loooooooooong day at Hershey Park...and we can't wait to go again next year!

Horse Camp

Does the fun ever end for this kid?!? We went straight from Cape Cod to Girl Scout camp to horse camp....talk about summer excitement! Horses, of course, are Emma's first love....she just can't get enough of them. So when the stable that she takes riding lessons at offered a week long camp, she could barely contain herself! She got to muck stalls (she loved it...who knew?!?), put on her own tack, watch the farrier put on horse shoes, and ride-ride-ride!!! They painted a white horse with rainbow colors (patient horse!), made their own treats to feed the horses, and played lots of games. The BEST part was on the last day they had an actual horse show. Emma is pictured above with her horse show ribbon and her favorite horse...Sarah!

Fun at Camp! (by guest blogger Emma Paci)

Hi! This is Emma. I went to girl scout camp this year at camp El-Wa-Ho. This was my first overnight camp ever! This is a picture of me and Miss Joy, my unit leader.

I had so much fun at camp! We did LOTS of crafts we made little Pinocchio's (I named mine Martha Lee) and we made super cool bracelets. Here is how you make them: take 6 pieces of string, make it twice as long as it would go around your wrist and a little longer for the knots. Then tie a small knot on each end. Then take a nail in the wall (or someone's finger) and put 3 strings on each side. With lots of pressure, twist it and then pinch the middle with 1 hand and bring the bottom knot to the top. Let go of the middle and quickly tie a knot. Open up the bottom, slide the knot through, and viola! you have a bracelet.

It was a fun experience sleeping away from home. We all had jobs for meals. The bunnies (me and Grace) were the cooks. We helped Miss Joy prepare the spaghetti for dinner. The next day for breakfast we were the hosts. We got to help make the centerpiece. To make the centerpiece, we looked for nature to make into a pattern on a plate. We found rocks, moss, leaves, pine needles, and twigs. For dinner that day, we were the cleaners. We had to clean all of the pots and pans. I loved ALL of the jobs.

We did skits, too. Our skit was a song about a beach party. Another skit was about what to do with the camp when it got sold. There was another one about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And there was one about wishing on a star. For the last one, it was like the 12 days of Christmas, but it was the 12 days of camp. The first verse was: One the first day of camp, my leader gave to me, a scrub brush for the latrine!

Next year, I hope that I see all of my new friends again!

It's a Pirate's Life!

How much does a pirate pay to have his ears pierced? A buccaneer!!!
Where is a pirate's favorite place to play? The ar-cade!!!
I could go on, but I'll spare you the rest of the pirate jokes.

Welcome to our Pirate Cruise...the BEST part of our entire trip (at least according to the three little people we had with us!). The voyage began with the whole crew getting some body art...tattoos, facial hair, eye patches, the works! Then we were ready to hit the open sea! Our captain explained to us that there was treasure in Plymouth Harbor, and we were going to find it (with the help of a trusty treasure map). Unfortunately for us, another pirate had already found the loot....unfortunately for HIM, we had water canons!!!! A great battle ensued, and we ended up with the booty!

Once the treasure was secure, the captain pulled up a lobster cage so the kids could see how it worked and what was inside. Luckily, there was one lobster....and a lot of spider crabs! The kids were able to touch and handle the crabs (Emma was the only Paci kid brave enough!) and throw them back to sea.

Just in case this wasn't enough excitement for our crew...the captain pumped up the music and the kids limboed and hokey-pokeyed their way around Plymouth Harbor. Never a dull moment in the life of a pirate!

Pilgrim Settlement

We followed the path from the Wompanoag Village to a recreation of the Pilgrims original settlement. Unfortunately for us, the Pilgrims did not believe in shade. They did, however, believe in dust and steep hills. Thankfully, a nice pilgrim lady took pity on us and broke out her stash of "toys". We hurried to the ONE shady place in the village and the kids tried out stilts and played "nine pin". It was the highlight of our tour.

Overall, the village was pretty interesting. The pilgrim actors were stoic in their roles (they would NOT break character, and since pilgrims apparently were not very friendly, this was slightly irritating.) In the end, we survived, and they kids may have learned something along the way....MAYBE....

Wompanoag Village

The Wompanoag Village was an amazing place! All of the employees are genuine Native Americans. They have recreated how their ancestors would have lived in the 1600's. They were very knowledgeable and proud of their heritage. We learned A LOT & had a lot of fun touring the various buildings and gardens that would have been a part of a Wompanoag Village. And, thankfully, there was shade. We definitely appreciated the shade! Even Joey had to smile about that!

Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation is an experience we will all remember...for better or for worse! First of all, I was very excited to take the kids here, I mean the Pilgrims...the Wompanoags...the first Thanksgiving!!!! What could be more educational!?! It was pretty much the whole reason we came to Plymouth at all. Well, my plan was doomed from the start...first of all, I should have picked a cooler day (or not gone at the HOTTEST time of the day!) Because NO ONE is going to enjoy learning about history in the blazing heat...NO ONE! Except for maybe this girl in the picture...SHE's a trooper!

The Rock

Plymouth Rock is located right next to the Mayflower II. It's a rock. And it has 1620 stamped on it. That's about all there is to say about that.

The Mayflower II

The Mayflower II is an exact replica of the original Mayflower. The ship sailed from England to Plymouth in the 1950's and remains sea worthy today. The kids really enjoyed checking out the inner workings of the ship and the actors on-board were very entertaining (at least for Tio & I, the kids didn't understand a word they said!)

DMB @ Hershey

Check us out...only about 20 people back from the stage! Best tickets we've ever had for a Dave show.

Nope...we're not too old for concerts...not yet anyway. And we'll never be too old for DMB, judging from the aging crowd, that is! Of course, there were some young fans mixed in there, but the majority of the groupies were thirty-somethings like us reliving our carefree college years.

Funny the way it is....

A "Rockin" Pool

The second half of our Cape Cod trip brought us to Plymouth, MA...home of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, & the Rock (Plymouth Rock, to be exact). We stayed at the John Carver Inn solely because their web-site boasted of a unique pool complete with a Mayflower shaped water slide & a Plymouth Rock hot tub. THIS we had to see. Well, the pool lived up to the hype...it was spectacular!

The kids would have been happy to spend our entire time there and forgo seeing the rest of the Plymouth scene, but we were able to tear them away to tour the Mayflower II and Plimoth Plantation...

Chowdah=Love

So, Emma and I made it our mission to try the clam chowder at EVERY restaurant we ate at in Massachusettes. Gosh I love this girl! We had different opinions on which was best...she likes it a little thinner than I do...but we both agreed that there is nothing better than CLAM CHOWDER!!!!

Joe on the other hand, wouldn't go near the stuff...that little lobster!!!

Cape Cod...here we come!!!!

Our much awaited trip to Cape Cod has come and gone...and what a great trip it was! Tio masterfully packed up the van Clark Griswold style, including camping supplies & 5 bikes...no small feat (see picture below).

We hit the road at 4am (yes, you heard me correctly). Tio thinks that leaving at 4am is the BEST idea ever, and I have to admit...this time he was right. We rolled onto the Cape at about 1pm & had the rest of the day to enjoy. We set up camp at Nickerson State Park (probably the prettiest place we have ever camped) grabbed our bikes and headed out on the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

Joe's new Hulk bike brings out the beast in him...and he was able to muscle through over 12 miles of riding!

The trail ran right through the entrance to the park, how convenient! The next day we drove up the cape to the Cape Cod National Sea Shore. We had plans to bike right to the beach, but the bridge that connects the bike trail to the shore was undergoing repairs, so we had to take a tram for part of the way instead. The beach was amazing...I think everything on Cape Cod is beautiful.


Look at this face! Pure excitement. Everything is so much more fun with kids!!!
The beach wiped us out, but the kids were still able to bike the 2 mile trail back to the car.
Of course, we stopped for seafood on the way back to our camp. I think the BEST part of Cape Cod is the food!

The kids had fun checking out this "little" guy at the fish market next to our restaurant...needless to say, they didn't order lobster!