Why Pennsylvania? Neil's brother Jonathan was getting married to a pretty fabulous gal from PA.
We decided if it was going to take us 3 days to get up there, we may as well make the trip more fun for the little ones. Bella and Balian have been on a huge camping kick.
During the winter, we had a couple of "camp outs" in our living room with sleeping bags on the floor and roasting marshmallows over the fire in the fireplace.
Then, when spring hit, and we knew we'd be making this trip, we went on a 1-night campout as a family as a sort of "try-it-out" kind of thing.
After that trip (and Neil and I not getting a lot of sleep) we realized that there were some things we needed to get before heading out for our big trip - like cots! Apparently we aren't as young as we used to be.
We left on Saturday, May 25th, and camped for 2 nights on the way to Hershey, PA.
On our last (3rd) day of driving, we were trying to find a place to let the little ones run around an play at lunchtime. We stopped at a tourist info place outside of Marion, VA, and they pointed us in the direction of Hungry Mother's State Park. It wasn't exactly "on the way". More like 10 miles out of the way, but it was gorgeous!
A beach, on a river, in the middle of the mountains. ahhh...
The littles spent some time on the playground, and we walked around on a little trail, and just admired the beauty from a dock.
Along with Neil's parents and our niece, Maris, we stayed in Hershey for 3 nights, and had some vacation time.
We went to Hershey's Chocolate World, and went through the "tour". It was essentially a simulation of the chocolate factory, and some history about Mr. Hershey and how chocolate is made.
Then, we went on a trolly ride of Hershey - again, all about Mr. Hershey, his trials in his various endeavors, and how he eventually figured out something that worked. The trolly ride was pretty entertaining, actually, with actors/singers making it more interesting...and we got some chocolate samples too :)
Interesting facts: Mr. Hershey wasn't hoarding all of his money for himself. He pretty much built the town of Hershey, so that his factory workers had a town to live in. He built a school, a park (Hershey Park, which later became the theme park it is now), and he began an orphanage for boys. But he wasn't hands-off with the orphanage. An orphan boy ate dinner with the family at his home every week. After Mr. Hershey died, he put all of his company's stock into the hands of a trust. Because of this, the Hershey Factory, Hershey Park, Hershey World, etc. are all linked, and profits from the Hershey company continue to pour into the school for orphans that Mr. Hershey began. So....when you buy a Hershey bar, you are actually helping contribute to boys (and girls) that are either orphans, or at-risk, receive a quality education. Never knew that one!
We also went to The Hershey Story Museum and took a Chocolate Lab class with the 3 bigger kids. We learned the origins of cacao, how cacao turns into cocoa, cocoa butter, etc., and how everything works together to make chocolate. Then, we got to make our own...sort of. We got to put melted chocolate into a mold and add our own add-ins, then learn as our chocolate set. Then, we got to take home our chocolate that we made :)
After Chocolate town, USA (aka Hershey), we headed on to Erie, PA for the wedding.
We spent some time at a State Park right on Lake Erie - again...a beach. But the water was like ice! no swimming for this crew! But we still had a lot of fun playing/jumping/digging/walking in the sand.
Bella posing...oh dear...
The one picture of me from the trip.
We found some unused lifeguard stands...
There was a huge mountain of sand...so there was much jumping.
Later that night, we were back at the beach for Jonathan and Jess' wedding ceremony. Praise the Lord we were able to have a beautiful ceremony before it rained. It started pouring as soon as we got into our cars! But the rain held out :) It was beautiful!
Bella and Maris
This is our beautiful niece, Ellie (Jonathan and Jess' daughter):
Isaiah spent his time during the ceremony doing this:
Then, after the ceremony, the kids all spent their time doing this:
The reception was at an old mansion. Beautiful place, but there was lots of really old stuff that couldn't be touched. Balian was thoroughly confused when I told him that he couldn't sit on a couch. Poor kid just didn't understand why a perfectly good couch couldn't be sat on. But, alas! There was something the kids found they could do! There was a train in the basement that they could control - moving the train, and causing the whistle to go off. The boys LOVED it!
over a bridge...
and just having fun.
love those boys :)
There was another family just down from us and they had 3 kids, twins that were 5 and a 2-yr-old. They were instantly friends. We had a hard time pulling the kids back into the car to leave that day, even though they knew we would be home that night.
We had a ton of fun, but let me tell ya...there really is no place like home. Even if you have to tackle the mile-high laundry mountain the next day.
