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Summer is a season where I value speed and ease over nutrition and taste, so I’m afraid our kids have consumed more chicken nuggets than chicken breasts for a few months. However, there was at least one day where I know that every one of us ate our recommended daily servings of fruit – blueberry picking day! It was a gorgeous day at a gorgeous farm, and the blueberries were perfect. I wish I could go back and harvest them all over again!
Well, our family doesn’t do lazy-day summers, so almost as soon as we returned from Hershey, Jan and I took the kids to Hyde Park, NY to visit a few historical mansions. The history buffs among us were quite tickled to see the Vanderbilt Mansion and the Roosevelt homestead, and even the non-history buffs thought it was cool to see such huge homes! All of us really enjoyed the day trip. Now we need to go back and explore the walkway over the Hudson and see even more historical sites around there. Can’t wait until next summer!
The kids loved posing with the characters:
Look – even Jan and I were there! 🙂
Then we hit the 3-D show:
And we followed it up with the chocolate “tasting experience” where you are walked through how to fully appreciate and savor the different flavors and undertones in chocolate. I am most definitely a dark chocolate girl!
Here we are ogling the bake shop (Jan bought some cupcakes to bring home, and she said they were VERY good!): Lastly, we donned our hair nets for the best part of all – making our own candy bar! We used kiosks to customize our candy bar mix-ins and wrapper, and then watched as they actually constructed the candy bar in front of us: The anticipation was killing us!
Finally, we each had our own candy bar in hand!
We exercised great self-control and didn’t eat them until we got home. They were unbelievably delicious! I may or may not have eaten most of mine in one sitting after the kids went to bed! 😉
After we finished touring the farm and visited some cute shops, we went to Red Robin for dinner and then our hotel. I’m including this picture of us at Red Robin because it makes me laugh, and illustrates how quickly our gang can demolish a dessert! Better be fast!
The next morning, the kids were thrilled with the hotel breakfast buffet (always my favorite part of a hotel experience too!): Then we were off to see Hershey Chocolate World! First up, the ride through the “factory” (the actual factory is off-site and no longer open for tours, so they fashioned a slow-moving ride through a simulated factory that teaches visitors about the chocolate making process). We loved it so much we went through twice!
We spent plenty of time in the Hershey store – and yes, those are actual edible candy bars! Susie was delighted with all the Reese’s products. This girl loves her some peanut butter! More to come! The kids and I had never visited Hershey, Pennsylvania, and since Becky did a 4th grade STEM report on chocolate this past school year, I figured it would be a perfect time to check out the chocolate factory! So my mother-in-law and I packed up all the kids for a road trip to Hershey. But before we arrived at our hotel, we took in some of the gorgeous countryside in Lancaster and visited a working Amish farm. It was really a highlight of the trip! Our tour guide was a sweet Amish teenage girl who showed us all the ins and outs of life on the farm. The kids were amazed – and I was just amazed that this girl and her siblings did all their farm chores cheerfully barefoot! Their work ethic was impressive.
The kids LOVED getting to feed a bottle to the hungry calves: Tazie thought it was adorable that a little kitten was snuggling up to an enormous pig: And we all loved holding the baby chicks: Danny was very proud that he was the only one that managed to successfully milk the cow: We fed the chickens their feed (Tazie was very generous): And then were invited to run through their soybean crops: We finished up with a visit to their goats: And a terrific hayride where all the kids got to take turns holding the reins: I hope we can go back sometime soon and see even more of the Lancaster area. I loved it! Between our busy day trips, the kids spent plenty of time playing at our house and Bubba and Pappy’s house. Here’s one of their many fort creations in the playroom:
It was dubbed “Fort Cousin”!
Here’s an interior shot – pretty roomy! And of course, there were more games in the pool: And dirtbike and go-kart rides around the yard: And twilight basketball games with Daddy: Stay tuned for pics from our next road trip! One of the activities that my kids desperately wanted to do this summer was to visit the same indoor ropes/zipline course that we did last year. It was just as fun (and high off the ground!) as we remembered!
Since the kids knew what they were doing this year, I opted to stay on the ground and do some window shopping at the attached furniture store. It was more my speed! Once the kids were back on the ground and we finished looking around the store, we gobbled down pizzas at the restaurant. It never ceases to amaze me how much food seven kids can consume! What a great outing it was!
On the way home, we stopped at our favorite farm-fresh ice cream shop. Yum! We took several trips to the bike trail: And our favorite restaurant near the trail: And of course spent hours hanging out at the pool (and it was extra fun with a visiting friend!):
Aunt Julie sent out this awesome unicorn, which proved quite the challenge for the kids to ride at first:
But they eventually got it! Then it was the boys’ turn – I’m not sure they had as much luck staying still! We also had fun at the bowling alley: (And to answer anyone’s question who closely observed Danny’s wind-up in the picture below – no, his ball did not end up anywhere near the correct lane!): And we even had our dear friends Ashley and Uriah come visit for the 4th of July, bringing their sweet puppy Bentley along for the ride:
Tazie was very tickled she had a little friend to play with! We lit our own little fireworks and sparklers: And then we were treated to several INCREDIBLE firework shows put on by our neighbors. It was the best 4th of July night ever!
Oh, and I have to show you how cute Bubba and Katelyn looked in their festive Fourth outfits! Okay, I’m finally getting a chance to sort through some of the pictures from our time with our Arizona cousins in June/July. We crammed a lot of fun into our few weeks together! Here are some boating pics:
Jimmy is learning to wakesurf! We were fortunate enough to see fireworks over the lake near the 4th of July. They were spectacular as always. I haven’t forgotten about this blog, although my lack of posts would indicate otherwise! Life has been wonderfully busy and unfortunately my blog has taken a back seat. I’ll be back soon with pictures from the last month. So many fun memories to share! As a teaser, here’s my Susie enjoying the view at our Deep Creek Lake rental house. She’s getting so grown-up!
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