First family vacation.

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Ahhh...... Vacation!  It use to be music to my ears when I was single. Then as a mom it was time with my little guys. When Lucas and Noah were little I use to look forward to just that one on one time with them. As they are getting older it turns into weeks of things I had to get done, weened them off the bottle, take away the pacifier, big boy bed transition and of course potty training. I have always taken a week off to do this. Fabio....just couldn't, he wouldn't have survived. He is a tough man and a devoted Father but Patience is not in him ........at all and all those tasks involved "patience" so I bit the bullet and took care of it myself.  

But now the boys were older and alone time with mommy at home was not enough to keep them satisfied all week. We decided it was time for family vacation.  It had to be about them. Wherever we went and did it had to include them and make sure they had a good time. We couldn't do Disney because we wanted to drive and not drive for hours. We decided to do amusement parks. We would do two days of Dutch Wonderland, two days of Hershey Park and two days of Great Adventure. We didn't make concrete plans due to both Fabio and I being busy at work and between birthday parties and end of the year for the boys at school  it turned out to be too much. So we were kind of winging it and that actually made it fun. We made reservations the day we were leaving for all three parks and were excited for our adventure. The boys couldn't notkeep their excitement down.  

On the way to Dutch I put on a movie for them but they were screaming with joy.  Thank God "power rangers movie" calmed them down. When we arrived in lancaster we were starving and the boys were jumping for joy when we got to our room. They were jumping on beds and laughing. It was cute. It also didn't help that a wedding was going on downstairs and you could hear the music and from our balcony you can see the guests dancing. The wedding ended at ten and then it was lights out. 

The boys loved Dutch and all the rides. They were beside themselves not knowing which rides  to go to first. We stayed till really late and we could see that one day of thrilling rides was already too much for them but we had to go through the rest. The next day the boys couldn't wake up. They were exhausted. They couldn't even eat breakfast. They had no energy. This was going to be fun. I decided to dress the boys alike so it will be easier to find them. As you can see from the  picture of both of them Noah couldn't even smile and Lucas looked disoriented. From the picture of me and Fabio you can also see Fabios fake smile as his exhaustion was also setting in. I was happy not to be cooking, working or having to do anything around the house. I smiled. 

The next day Lucas woke up and his cheeks were bright red almost like someone had slapped him really hard and under his eyes were large red circles. We panicked and cancel our morning Amish buggy ride and took him straight to the hospital. It was his first time and our first time with our kids in the Emergency room. The service at this hospital was unreal. From the moment we walked in to the moment we walked out we were there for exactly 45 minutes. Have never heard of this before and I have been to the ER plenty of times. Turns out our Lucas had Fifths disease a virus that was going around in his school. It makes their cheeks very red and with time the redness goes away and they feel better. But they do have flu like symptons during the rash. it's not dangerous only to pregnant women in their first trimester.  It's only contagious before the rash so that's why it can easily be passed on. By the time the redness comes they are no longer contagious. The second picture shows lucas with his red cheeks still smiling.  

Then we were off the Hershey park. The doctor said Lucas might be tired (that explains it) and Noah will probably be getting it too. Wonderful we thought. Let them eat whatever they want just as long as they eat and stay hydrated. So we gave them all the junk food they desired. I never had to fight with them to eat their food.... it was fantastic. Wish I could do this forever.  

When we got to Hershey we tried the water park and Noah was not having it. He hated it. Refused to get anywhere near the water. I tried taking pictures again and tried also in the car but they were both so grumpy. I yelled "we are going to have fun, we are going to smile, I am just as tired but we are going to smile because we need pictures to remind us of this wonderful family vacation so suck it up and smile for the camera". Yes I said Suck it up, very unlike me but it got the point across. Their faces were in shock and when I said cheese they smiled. 

When we got to Hershey our hotel sucked and after one night we went to another that we loved. Except a tropical storm was there and we lost power only for a few hours at night. Thank God the boys were tired and fell asleep. While at Hershey we visited their zoo and as we passed the wolves there was a horrible urine odor. A boy about 4 years old behind Noah yelled "yuck you stink". Noah thought the boy was referring to him. Noah turned around and yelled "you are a mean boy, you don't say that word, I no stink". Then turned to me and said "mommy that boy mean, I no stink mommy". The boys mom explained that her son was talking about the wolves but Noah stomped his tiny feet up the hill and Fabio, Lucas and I laughed. It was priceless. I tell you that Noah does not stand back. 

By the time we got to great adventure Fabio and I were all tired out of the amusement parks. We were exhausted. We decided to only do the safari and went home a day early. 

On the day back home no one spoke to each other. The kids went to play with their toys quietly and Fabio and I just layer on the couch in and out of consciousness. We had don it,

we had survived our first family vacation and although it had been fun it had been tough work. Now if only we could take a vacation from that vacation. No can do, tomorrow back to work. Oh man.