We had our first official family vacation at the end of
June! My cousin Shannon was getting married in Virginia and thought it would be
the perfect time to head east to visit all my family on the east coast that I
hadn’t seen in over 18 years!!
Thanks to the AMAZING help from Dad and Deborah, we were
able to make that trip possible!!
We flew out June 24th for a whole week of East
Coast exploration and a wedding!
Day 1- Our first airplane trip! The kids were beyond
excited!!!! It was all they could talk about- flying on the airplane. We had a
direct flight to Baltimore that lasted a little over five hours. The kids did
AMAZING! Better than I could have expected! We landed in Baltimore where Dad
and Deborah were there to pick us up. We got in the van and headed east to the
Delaware coast, Rehoboth Beach! Our first trip to the Atlantic ocean as a
family J
Day 2- Woke up and had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast J We got our swimsuits
on and made it down to the beach. It was a sight- beach umbrella’s everywhere
and a ton of people already on the beach. We found a great spot, right in front
of the ocean and set up camp for most of the day. The kids had a blast playing
in the sand and running from the waves. Sage loved to go into the water and
float with the waves (she was pretty adventurous!) , while Evan played with
Nana in the sand. We headed back to our motel and hung out by the pool while
the kids took a quick nap (our rooms were right outside from the pool!!) That
evening, we went to the boardwalk and had a yummy dinner and played at the amusement
park. Another first! It was the first time that both kids went on an amusement
ride- our first one was helicopters, which is the only reason I think Evan went
on it J
We spent a good amount of time on all the kiddie rides.
Day 3- Woke up and walked the boardwalk a little more that morning. Little did we know that Popi was going to buy souvenirs for the kids that they would to this day, not leave the house without! Evan got a school bus (this bus has become his safety blanket in a way!) and Sage got a pretty pink Mermaid! We got in the car and headed down the coastline to start our journey to Virginia. We stopped at Fenwick Island State Park and played more on the beach. We spent all day at the beach, flying kites and building more sand castles and sand pits! One last stop before we headed inland was to stop and have a good seafood dinner with crabs! After dinner, we drove the rest of the way to Richmond, Virginia. We planned it that the kids would be able to sleep at night for the drive.
Day 4- Woke up in Richmond, VA and got ready to meet up with
Grandmom Casey!! This would be the first time that I’ve seen her in 15 years,
the first time Brad has ever met her and the first time she would meet her
great grandchildren! It was the day I was waiting for this whole trip! My
Grandmom never misses an event, a holiday or a birthday with my little family-
she always sends us cards and presents on any occasion and I know Brad really
wanted to meet her to thank her for always making him feel a part of the
family!! Grandmom came out to meet us as we arrived at her hotel and her and
Brad were the first to greet each other with a big hug!! I hurried the kids out
for all of us to go and give hugs! It was such a neat moment! I wish there were
more of those with her!!! We spent a few hours with her and all of us in the
hotel lobby (that was more like a living room). The kids were full of energy
(must have been those two bowls of fruit loop cereal they just had!). I even
got to see my Aunt Janet and Uncle Chike- which had been well over two decades
since I seen them last!! It was a nice visit and got us even more excited to be
able to spend the next couple days together!!
We left and headed back to get ready for the wedding! The
weather had turned a little on us, which we expected it to. It was cloudy and
raining off and on- but still fairly warm and humid out. As we were getting
ready for the wedding, about 90 minutes from it starting, a tornado touched down
very close to the venue and our hotel! Not a big one- but enough to cause
debris on the roads and lots of rain. By the time the wedding started, you
wouldn’t have known there was a tornado that touched down close by!
The wedding was amazing!!! Brad hung out with the kids while
we sat in the ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful, my cousin Shannon was
stunning as a bride and it was just absolutely magical to see all my family
again. It was the most perfect night for us- incredible fun for all of us to
hang out, everyone to get to meet my husband and see my kids! And the kids were
ABSOLUTELY perfect!! They were the only two kids at the wedding so they received
A LOT of attention. I felt like the photographer spent more time taking
pictures of the kids than the wedding! Sage got out on the dance floor and just
stole the show! She had everyone watching her, cheering for her, spinning and
dancing with her. Sage was on cloud nine!! I’ve never seen her be so shy, timid
and a show-off at the same time. That was such a fun night, my heart was full
and I really owe it all to my Dad and Deborah that made it happen!!
Day 5- We woke up early and hopped in the car as we had another exciting adventure. This was the day Popi and Nana were waiting for- we were off to see Thomas the Train!! We got an early start to avoid any traffic and drove all the way up to Strausburg, Pennsylvania. We arrived and the kids were excited to see Thomas. As we were in line grabbing our tickets, Thomas the Train rides right past us!! It was a huge train!! Sage was excited and Evan was in shock- at least that is what we think. He was just so overwhelmed at seeing Thomas that he was silent- haha! You could just see him taking it all it. We got our tickets and hurried down to go see Thomas and to take a picture with him. Evan could not keep his eyes off him and Sage was all about it. We got on the train that Thomas was pulling and had a fun trip out into the Amish country. After our Thomas ride, we got to go see Percy and ride his train- which was just equally as fun! This was another first for us- going on a train! It was a fun time! After our rides, Nana and Popi spoiled the kids with Thomas merchandise! Once we were done, we headed down the road about 30 minutes to Grandmom’s house, where we were staying for the rest of our trip. We had a nice dinner and just spent time together!
Day 6- Today we explored Amish country! We drove past my old
house where I used to live, saw the elementary school Travis and I used to go
to. It was surreal to see how everything has changed. Where there used to be
corn fields are now neighborhoods. It’s funny how you remember things as a kid
and visit back as an adult. Thing are exactly the same while things are so
different. We drove over the same covered bridge that we used to on the way to
my horseback riding lessons! We spent time exploring a few covered bridges! We
went to a well-known farm that makes fresh ice cream and got to see a lot of livestock.
We drove around all the roads of Amish country looking at farms, corn fields
and watching the Amish people. Brad was very fascinated by their culture. We
headed back to Grandmom’s for the afternoon and played and just hung out. That evening we got to see all kinds of lighting bugs!! The kids loved trying to catch them, although they never wanted to hold one- just chase them!
Day 7- We spent the morning hanging with Grandmom, and then
we went on our last adventure of our trip. We headed to the city of Hershey,
PA. This is where Hershey chocolate is made. Or as Sage would call it- the
chocolate factory! We went in and had a ride on the tour of how chocolate is
made. We did that twice and walked around a little bit. We didn’t go into the
Park as we thought the kids were too young for the rides. We drove back to pick
up Grandmom and went to a cool park nearby. That night, my uncle Pat, Aunt
Linda and cousin Tyler came over for dinner. We had a great time hanging out, catching
up and playing with the kiddos. We eventually grabbed the old photo albums and
had a good time reminiscing. Unfortunately, we had to say our goodbyes that
night as we were driving back to Baltimore to catch our planes the next
morning.
Sage loves to dance now!!
This was the best trip that we’ve ever had (with exception to
our Honeymoon!!). The kids did so great, above our expectations. They never
once had any major issues and were incredibly flexible and easy going the
entire trip. There was never a time that Brad and I were thinking “we’ll never
do this again” In fact, we want to do more traveling and exploring!
This trip meant so much to me- to be able to travel with my
family, to spend an entire week with my Dad and Deborah!!! and to visit family
I haven’t seen in nearly two decades. There is no way I can explain how much my
heart was filled by that trip. I cried the minute we got home because I already
missed everyone terribly. You know you had the BEST trip when you don’t ever
want it to end and you’d do it all over again and not change one thing!!
There was no way we could have ever experienced this amazing
time without the help of my Dad and Deborah. They helped provide us with such a
cool and unique experience. We’ll never travel like that again with our kids when
they are this little and see all the new things through their eyes. We had so
many “firsts” on this trip and it was so neat to be able to experience that
with Dad and Deborah.
I can’t wait to look back at this post and to be able to
relieve the whole experience again!
