21 - family vacation

This year for family vacation all my siblings and I traveled to Disney World.   It was to celebrate both thanksgiving and my mom turning 70 originally we were going to travel to Vegas and then plane tickets were insanely expensive.  So we opted for something equally as expensive Disney.  

While it was much fun to be with my family I must say that Disney is not relaxing, at all I much prefer a beach vacation. I don’t really understand the appeal of it really.  While the rides are much more speed than Kings Island it was soooo crowded and hot and we walked about 8 miles each day.  Anyhow I tried not to be too Debbie downer and just enjoy the company and as usual that was my y favorite part.  

27 - someplace new

Technically I have been to Pittsburgh before, but honestly I remembered like nothing.  So I am considering this “new”.

I took the kids on a trip just by myself.  Pittsburgh is not terribly far from us and actually the drive is very much like 1/2 the drive to DC.  

Each day we each picked things we wanted to do (from a list/or within reason), and we did that.  There were a few snafus like that “bicycle heaven” was more than a few minutes away, we got twisted around driving, and showed up to a historical site that was closed. 

But otherwise everyone got to have a little of the things they like and we had many fun adventures.  

One surprising thing that happened twice was screenprinting.  Warhol is from Pittsburgh and apparently we kept going places where randomly screen printing workshops were happening and we got to try it. My kids both enjoyed it and recommended we get our own speedball paint, pizza oven and screen.

7 - Great Wolf Lodge

Last weekend my brother and sister in law invited us to join their family at Great Wolf Lodge.  We came just for the day and enjoyed the water park, bowling, arcade, quest, and more.  I will say that the day passes might be the best way to enjoy the GWL.  It’s less than an hour from our house to the Ohio one so it was convenient to drive up for the day.  

I did one big water slide and reconfirmed my decision that I prefer the small ones, wave pool and lazy River.

The kids had the best time, and it was a good way to spend time with cousins.  Thea now talks of nothing but returning and thinks we should just head there after school or with play dates.  

Thanks for the adventure Schreve and Alicia.  

8 - Spring Break Carolina Beach

Over spring break we traveled to Carolina Beach, North Carolina.  It was a little before their perk season and it’s a smaller beach destination but this worked well for us.  But we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.  

We stayed in a hotel right on the beach, and enjoyed our beachfront balcony and going out to the beach 3-4x per day.  The water was a bit cold but honestly I don’t think much colder than Lake Superior.  

We built soooo many sand castles and braved the cold waves and started a new alligator castle tradition prompted by my cousin (who’s family always makes alligators at the beach).  We checked out the aquarium, arcade, boardwalk, swimming pools, nearby fort, took ferries, shopped and more.  It was a good time together exploring the area.  We also saw my great aunt and several cousins although they were short visits.

1 - family vacation

Last week we went on family vacation in Florida it was our 2020 trip in 2021.  It was much fun with the kids together and being at the beach and having a pool for a week.  

We relished in each other’s company.  

We invented 100 pool games and built many sand castles that were crushed before completion. 

We let the water crash into us.

We floated on top.

We took boats into the bay.

We ate ice cream everyday.

We swam with manatees.

Scooped up sand dollars.

Located starfish.

Collected shells big and small.

There was a synchronized swimming performance and the most ridiculous game of duck duck goose.

We saw the sunsets.

The boys all went fishing.

At the end of the trip we hit up Legoland.  

We ate big family meals.

We sat in Orlando traffic.

There were 100 loads of towels and equally as many reapplications of sunscreen.

We drank TONS of water.

We played hard and slept good. 

Can’t wait to do it all again.