How I spent my summer vacation

Back in July, my husband and I took our two offspring on a week long vacation. Among the highlights of our trip were my child turning into a fish who cannot live outside the water. We went swimming nearly every day and it still wasn't enough for her. Here she is happily floating:

And here she is fearlessly diving off the diving board:

She's pretty much life vest/floatie/safety device of any kind-free in the water these days. Makes her an easy kid to travel with. Her three year old brother, not so much. Sadly I let my husband convince me we didn't need to pack a life vest for him. Which may explain how he ended up playing on the side of the pool:

We're never leaving home without a life vest again. If that kid has to wear it on the plane and go traipsing through the airport in it, so be it. Not because I live a paranoid existence fretting that he'll surely drown without one. Although, quite frankly, that may or may not be a true statement because I'm pretty paranoid gal. But my main life vest fixation stems from wanting to be able to swim to the other side of the pool by myself occasionally. If my three year old's not in a life vest, I feel obligated to stay within arm's reach regardless of the fact that he barely has one toe dangling in the water. On the other hand, if my three year old has a life vest on, he'll survive the next great flood while I tread water hoping to find a broken door to float on until the life boats come. I appreciate knowing that.

Don't feel bad for the kid with no life vest though. What he lacked in freedom in the pool he more than made up for in slurpees:

I know. It doesn't get more summer than a slurpee on a hot day. Sigh.

Just to be sure we clocked enough time in our swimsuits on our trip, we also hit an amusement park with water rides. I'd make fun of it and tell you it sucked except it didn't. We did Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA and I highly recommend it. We even stayed at a hotel across the street and went for two full days. I think that's the most leisurely pace my husband has ever allowed me to set on a vacation. He's the same man convinced we can do Disney World in one day. I know. He's nuts. So are my babies. Here they are thumbing us a ride in front of our hotel:

Sesame Place was really nice. It's a whole theme park geared just for smaller kids. My five year old seemed to be the perfect age for it. Old enough to enjoy all of the rides but still young enough to be awed when she saw Abby Cadabby. Here she is participating in the Elmo's World show:

She's the one looking right towards the camera looking quite proud of herself. I love that finding us in the crowd increases that look of pride exponentially. I also love that she's still unquestionably, imperfectly five years old. For example, still capable of crying over the great injustice that is her life in the middle of my picture on the steps of 123 Sesame Place:

I'm pretty sure the great injustice of the moment was having to sit on a step. The horror.

They have lots of rides at Sesame Place. A roller coaster that manages to delight even adults without scaring small children. Things that go up. Things to climb. Things that splash water on you. Here I am squished into an Elmo angel fish:

Just to be sure we dropped a sufficient amount of cash while we were there, we did lunch with Big Bird and his friends. I made fun of how much we were paying for chicken nuggets and a cupcake when I made the reservation. Except then when we went I realized it was all you can eat, you don't have to find an empty table and all the characters come to your table so you can get a picture without waiting in line or having to stalk them all over the park. It was definitely an Oprah "A-ha" moment for me. And if all that's not enough, just imagine all the fun you'll have watching your three year old try to pretend he doesn't see the giant fuzzy orange girl at your table:

Late the second day it started raining. Here are my babies shivering under an umbrella while we wait for their father to go to the bathroom:

Since we were pretty much done by then anyway, my husband and I just laughed. It rained on us briefly at Niagara Falls last year, too. My husband thinks that's just our luck. I think it's just part of our charm. We even hit a show in the middle of the monsoon. Because that's how we roll. Here's the torrential downpour coming through the ceiling during the show:

There were giant puddles on either side of the stage and at one point the rain was hitting the roof so hard the audience could barely hear. I can't begin to tell you how hard we laughed at the ridiculousness of the moment.

There are no photos of our three year old's meltdown at the bottom of the water slide. There also aren't any photos of how exhausted I was on our early morning plane ride home. But it's all good. Because there also aren't any photos of us singing in the car on the long car rides or family snuggles in the hotel beds with the lights off telling each of our children about the day they were born. I'm pretty sure I'll remember those moments just fine despite that. They made every nickel we spent on that trip worth it.

And that's how I spent my summer vacation. I hope I spend them all like that. Happy just to be there with them.