Photo Dump Wednesday: A Fall Weekend Getaway

A couple of weekends ago, J, JOE, JAE and I all went on a mini weekend getaway. As much as I love traveling outside the country and seeing the world, I also love exploring what we have in our "backyard." 
We decided to visit Dutch Wonderland which is about a 2-hour car ride for us. Since it was a long holiday weekend, we made a trip out of it. 

The park is dedicated entirely to young kids and it was definitely a fun time. 

Word to future visitors though...PACK YOUR PATIENCE! There are LOTS of kids and strollers there so you definitely will need to be very understanding and accommodating. 
We certainly enjoyed ourselves and had no incidents.

Here are pictures from our trip.

We got there late on Friday and after settling into our hotel room, we went out to a diner for dinner. I do love diners and the the lovely assortment of desserts they often have. But we didn't get dessert on this trip because it was getting late and it was the kid's bed time.

The look on JAE's face. You'd think she was also reading what was on the phone!

 

The next morning, we got up bright and early, took showers, had breakfast and headed to the park. We planned on spending all day there and we did.

JOE played a game and won a duck for her and her sister. Truth be told, EVERYONE wins regardless. It was cute how she we paid for the first play and when she saw the duck, she said "this one is for Jenna." Then she wanted to play again "this time for myself." Yeah...conned us there...she got 2 plays and got another duck. Smart kid!

 

Hand peddle operated train. This was just too cute!

There was a minimum height requirement so JAE couldn't go on the train ride. She was sad about it :-(.

But we made the best of it and took selfies while we waited for JOE and J. 

Practicing my photography skills. 

J and JOE drove a car on the Sunoco Turnpike.

One of JOE's favorite bedtime books right now is the Gingerbread man. There was a Gingerbread house there so we took a picture of the display. 

Half way through the day, it was time for "mommy duties"...a.k.a pumping. We went to the car and I pumped while J held JAE and JOE provided verbal entertainment. Oh the joys!

Then it was back to the park for us. We got to take a family picture and I love this one. I would frame it except for the fact that in one, JAE was looking away and in the other, she looked rather pissed.

JOE wanted to get her face painted. I thought for sure that she would chicken out at the last minute but she didn't. She actually waited in line, picked the art she wanted and sat through it. I was so proud of her! Her first face paint and I think it turned out great.

JOE also got to ride the truck with J.

I typically don't get food at theme parks when I visit but with kids, it almost impossible to escape this. Plus this park specifically prohibits you from bringing in food and drinks. 
Here is the lunch J and I got. What you see here came to $31. Yes...THIRTY ONE AMERICA DOLLARS!!!

After a late lunch and face painting, we went to ride the choo choo train to close out the day at the park. JOE really loved her face painting. I'm glad she did it because we are considering this for her upcoming birthday party.

Yes, I am a baby wearing momma and I like it...most days. JAE slept towards the end of the day.

It was definitely an awesome time. I count it a success especially because at the end of our time at the park, JOE said "I want to stay!" Too bad it was almost 6pm and the park closed at 6pm.

We hope to come back here again sometime in the future. The kids had a great time and it is a good weekend getaway trip from our home. 

I put together a quick video collage of our trip. Enjoy!

After we left the park, we decided to drive around for a bit. I wanted to see some Amish people and also explore more of the area. I especially wanted to see a horse and buggy up close but sadly, we didn't get to see it this time. Perhaps next time. 
However, we did get to visit a famous landmark. On our way there, we saw this sign. Check out the bottom of the sign. 

We also saw a sign for the train museum. We are bookmarking this as a stop for next time. I'm sure JOE will really enjoy it. 

This was another interesting location. J and I were wondering how this came about. Was this a baby boy named grandma? Or was this a girl who the parents thought would be a boy and just decided "whatever, we'll name her Jack." Eitherways, it merited a picture.

Then there was this store right next to Grandma Jack's. I don't know that I'd want to buy furniture from a place called "The City Dump." But hey, to each his/her own. 

Then we got to our destination.

We did sample some shoo fly pie and honestly, in my humble opinion, it was just OK. Not really my thing I guess. 
We also got some Whoopie Pies. They were also OK. Perhaps I didn't get the right flavor? I got a red velvet one and J got a pumpkin one and we got a chocolate one to share. I'll have to ask J what he thought of his pumpkin pie. 

While there, we explored the store. The furniture really looked nice and if we have room in the trunk, I may have purchased a few pieces because they were really very reasonably priced. 

So here is J being cute. I love this picture of him. Now I know what he'd look like if we were Amish. I'd be going around saying "there's my hunky Amish husband!"
 JOE fell asleep once we left the park so J ended up carrying her through the store.

J thought this was cute and wanted to get it so he could wear it the next time we visited his parents.

Then I saw this one. Umm...

We didn't get any of these signs but they definitely merited a picture. We did however get a couple of the spreads you see there on the shelf. J had some pumpkin spice spread on his crackers last week and he said it was pretty good.

This was a very successful road trip and we hope to do more traveling to nearby locations over time. 

And while we were there, guess who turned 6-months? Yup. My little JAE! More on that in a future post.