Montgomery County Fair

On Monday we picked Jason up from work at 4pm and headed to the annual Montgomery County Fair.  It was family day so you can buy "all you can ride" wristbands for a discounted price.  While there are many things to do at the fair, the carnival is the boys' favorite part so that is where we spend most of our time.  We rode lots of rides, packed a picnic dinner, looked at some animals(and even pet a sheep), watched a great view of a train go by, played a game, and finished the night off with some ice cream.  We stayed until about 9pm and had a great time! 

Luray Caverns

On Saturday we met Ma, Pa, and Uncle Mike at Luray Caverns.  The boys were very excited for this trip and had a great time!  We got to take a tour of the caverns, eat lunch, find our way through a giant maze, browse through a couple of small museums, sift sand to find gemstones, pick out souvenirs from the gift shop, and have an ice cream treat to finish off the day!  Both boys were impressed by the caverns.  Max said his favorite part of the day was the maze.  Kyle said his favorite part was sifting the sand to get the gemstones.  Thanks to Ma and Pa for treating us to a fun day!

Swimming Lessons

I finally signed Kyle up for swimming lessons this summer.  He loves the water, but still couldn't quite figure out how to hold his breath or really do anything in the water.  Our local community pool offers lessons so I signed him up.  He's been taking lessons in the evenings the past 2 weeks.  Last night was supposed to be his last lesson, but it was cancelled due to a storm.  So he may still have one more that will be rescheduled . . . not sure how that works yet.  The program director will contact us soon to let us know.

Anyway, Kyle did a great job!  He's holding his breath, going under the water, jumping in the pool, doing the back float on his own for 30 seconds, using a kickboard to kick and swim blowing bubbles, and occasionally with his face in the water.  They also practiced swimming arms but he hasn't quite put all that together.  That will be for the next level of swim class which he will definitely be ready for next time.    He was also very fortunate that his class was very small.  All the other levels had 6-8 kids but his class was just him and one other girl.  One night she wasn't there so he had a private lesson.  I think this helped him pick things up even faster since he got so much one on one attention.   I was so impressed with how quickly he picked everything up and he was very proud of himself.

Bowling

This summer a local bowling alley is offering two free games per child per day so we decided to try it out this past week.  You still have to pay for shoe rental and I had to pay for my game, plus we ate lunch there.  So it wasn't exactly free, but less than it would have been! :)  The boys had a great time.  Kyle bowled a 72 his first game and an 82 his second game so he was happy - won them both!  Max got a 70 on his first game . . . pretty impressive.  I joined in for the second game and got a whopping 64.  I didn't get use of the bumpers that the boys did though and I haven't bowled in a very long time so that's my excuse. :)  Max started getting silly on the second game and purposefully doing things to not get pins down so he only got a 56 but he still seemed to enjoy it.  Kyle got pizza, Max got a hot dog, and I got a pretty yummy salad for lunch.  It was a fun time and the boys are already asking to go again. 

Baltimore Aquarium

Last Thursday we continued our vacation week with a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium.  This was the boys' first time there and they really seemed to enjoy it.  We spent about 4 hours there looking at many different aquatic animals and having lunch.  Both boys said their favorite animal was the shark.  They also really enjoyed the stingrays and the dolphins.
 
Here is a link to more pictures from our day: Baltimore Aquarium

Hershey Park

Tuesday morning we continued our vacation with a trip to Hershey Park about 30 minutes from Dutch Wonderland.  The weather was still nice (low 80s) and we had another long and fun day!  We arrived around 10:30am and stayed until about 9:30pm.  Kyle was thrilled because he just barely made it to the next height level so he was able to ride some new roller coasters including the Wild Cat, Wild Mouse, and Lightning Racer.  He also rode some old favorites from last year like the Comet and the Super Dooper Looper.  He also tried out a water ride that he was tall enough for this year called Tidal Force.  He got quite a bit more wet than he was expecting.  Jason went on with him and they were SOAKED.  It took them a couple hours to dry off.  Max also tried standing in the observation splash zone and got soaked as well.  He said he wanted to get wet and cried when the first boat came down and he didn't.  However, the next boat down he got soaked and cried again.  He did however enjoy watching other people get wet and said it's one of his favorite rides even though he didn't even ride it. :)  Max also just barely made the next height level and was able to try a new roller coaster this year called the Comet.  He enjoyed it but once was enough for him.  He also rode the Trailblazer several times.  This is a roller coaster that is more his speed.  He also still enjoys all the kiddie rides and rode them many, many times while Jason and I took turns riding coasters with Kyle.  We also visited the Hershey Chocolate Factory and rode the chocolate tour ride twice.  We drove straight home that night and arrived home around midnight.  Max slept the last half of the ride and Kyle finally fell asleep about 20 minutes from home.  Thankfully they both slept in till almost 9 the next morning so we all got a fairly good night sleep.    Here are more pictures from our trip:  Hershey Park.

Dutch Wonderland

We started our vacation week last Monday with a trip to Dutch Wonderland.  We went last year and the boys had such a great time that they asked to go back.  Max specifically asked every night for an entire year if we could go back so we've known for quite awhile what our vacation this summer would include!  We had a great time.  Max was tall enough this year to ride the Kingdom Coaster which is the biggest thrill ride they have at this amusement park geared for the kids 12 and under.  Both boys could pretty much ride all the rides there which was nice.  Some of the favorites were the Kingdom Coaster, Log Flume, Twister, Wonder Whip, Turtle Whirl, and the train.  We also saw a diving show at the aqua theater called "A Dragon's Tale" which was quite impressive.  It's such a nice park - not too big and very family friendly.  The weather was perfect - high 70's and breezy.  It was the perfect day to go.  We arrived around 11am and stayed until it closed at 8:30pm.  Then we stopped at Friendly's on the way to our hotel for ice cream.  It was a very long, but very fun day! Here are more pictures from our trip:  Dutch Wonderland.