Playmates Galore

The kids are having a blast having so many kids around to play with. There is never a dull moment around here :) Wil is in hog heaven, there are so many different cars/bikes to choose from to drive. He's taking advantage of each one! At home we ride bikes on our quiet street, so it's been a little hard for him to understand that here we only ride in the driveway :)

Wil filling Katie's car up for her

Emma is having a blast
(mom needs to learn to face Emma towards the sun when taking photos to avoid the shadows)

Katie, Summer and Emma

Wil's partner in crime is another 2 year old little girl named Stella, She and Wil have been so cute playing and talking together. Here they are reading books together. They were naming the different animals to each other in Wil's zoo book, TOO CUTE!

Hang Day

Emma and Wil had a great day just hanging and not getting into the car :) Bete watches a bunch of kids Emma's age and today they all played hard and well together. Here are a few of Emma and Wil's new friends (Wil was napping during the pic)





The kids had a fun time out in the driveway playing with all the cars and bike , Emma was happy to be the gas attendant She also had a blast riding the bikes down the driveway and haulting to a stop inches from the street giving mom a heart attack over and over again :)


Emma and Wil LOVE Bete's beanbag chair. The kids were go, go, go all day and by the end of the evening they were both ready for a good nights sleep

MADE IT!!!

WE MADE IT!!! Left Youngstown, OH around 7:30 after a quick Dunkin Donuts breakfast which made all of us smile to start the day. We headed to the Toledo to check out their zoo, IT WAS HUGE. Emma & I must have walked miles from one end to the other. Fantastic exhibits, but felt bad we were there three hours, rushing around and we still only saw half the zoo. We went on a nice train ride through the safari and on a fun African animal merry go round with beautifully carved animals. The kids favorites were the hippos, elephants, polar bears, and orangutans.
Trying to take pictures while making sure not to loose a child was my challenge at the zoo, took a few pictures then decided to keep both eyes on the kids and take mental pictures instead :)
After the zoo I was sure both kids would take fantastic naps in the car, Wil slept for about and hour and Emma didn't sleep at all :) but were both good and watched movies for the 5+ hour drive. The kids were so happy to be at Dan and Bete's house and torn into the toys bins in minutes and just played for a few hours before bed.

Here are some of our zoo pictures

Beautiful Driving!!!

Children's museum

We had another successful day in the car. Left Madison NJ early AM and made it to children's museum in Bloomsburg, PA with time to spare before it opened at 10am. Great museum the kids had a blast running around looking at all the animals, and playing in all the different rooms, running the grocery store, flying in the spaceship, playing school and brushing the large teeth!


after the museum some of the staff members directed us to a super local park where we did a picnic lunch and ran around the HUGE playground.



We made it to our hotel after a quick couple of pee breaks along the way. We took bubbles out at one and made friends with some 3 year old triplet girls traveling solo with their mommy, who were also out getting a little energy out. We played ball and red light green light.
Once settled into the hotel we ordered in a pizza from a local pizzeria delivered to our room. Then chaos broke out. Wil & Emma went into hyper, get all stored up energy out from a day in the car in a 15ft small room. So we decided to suit up and by this I mean, Wil in a life jacket and Emma in a foat suit with noodle and head to the pool. That will be the last time we do the pool on our own without a second set of hands. Once in Emma was fine on her own. Wil wanted to jump in and then climb out and repeat till the end of time. Emma then decided she wanted to join in keeping one little boy from jumping in while catching Emma wasn't easy so pool time was over to both kids dismay. Back to the room jammies for all, some coloring and playing with our reward for being good toys and now it's time for bed. Hitting a BIG zoo tomorrow in Toledo then our longest leg of 5hrs to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. All and all things are going great, Night All

The American Road Trip

Here's our adventure mapped out!!

The kids and I left Newport today to begin a three week odyssey that will take us half way across the country and back again. Do day we left Newport and made our was to the Turtle Back Zoo in Wes Orange, NJ. Great drive, not one bathroom break in the 4hrs it took to get there, new record :) and no major traffic problems. We arrived at the the zoo with only an hour and a half left till closing but were able to get a good quick visit in. The highlight for the kids was the train ride through the forest.

snack break at the zoo

Lets get this duckie moving :)

Both kids were well behaved and great listeners today, hoping this continues and we keep having a blast. I didn't even have to pull any of my dollar store busy toys out. It was a short hop from the zoo to our final stop of the day in Madison, NJ. Staying at the home of family friends for the night while they are up in Newport. Kids ate great Jersey pizza and had fun with the buckets full of toys. After Wil went to be Emma and I began working on a cool journal kit I found for road travels with kids. We worked together to answer the questions and keep track of things on our trip. Will be fun to add pictures and keep as a memory for looking back on our adventures.

The one downer of the day was that Emma again got car sick, luckily we were already stopping and we got mostly out of the car. She is such a trooper, hoping this isn't a daily event, but if it is we are prepared!

Time for me to hit the hay, two long days ahead. I'm going to try and keep blogging daily as we drive, great way to decompress at the end of the day, thanks for reading :)