A fun - but stormy - vacation

In late August, I took the kids out east for a visit. Rylee hadn't been to Grandma Lea's since she was a baby. However, Devon came with a long list of favorite activities that he hoped to do...a hike in the woods, playing at the local elementary school playground, jumping in the bounce house. Unfortunately, most of our plans had to be scrapped due to the unfortunate arrival of Tropical Storm Irene.

Despite the rainy weather, we still squeezed in some fun times. We had one lovely sunny day, which we spent at Look Park with Grandma Lea and Aunt Megan. Look Park was a favorite of mine when I was little, so it was fun to introduce the kids to it. We had fun feeding the ducks, riding the Kiddieville express train, having a picnic lunch, riding the paddle (pedal?) boats, walking around the small zoo, and playing on the play ground.

We also had some fun playing at Grandma's house. We enjoyed lots of time with Megan, and a visits with Uncle Walter, Uncle David, Aunt Carol, and Jessica. We read lots of books, and played with lots of games and toys!

We did make it to one of Devon's favorite places - Yankee Candle. The kids got to choose a candle to bring home, and made dipped candles (a vampire for Devon and a lion for Rylee). Devon enjoyed showing everything to Rylee, especially the room where it snows indoors. Devon also visited with Santa Claus (Rylee was too scared to talk to him). In anticipation of the trip, Devon had worked up his holiday wish list. Santa, however, informed him that it is too early for wishes, and that it messes up their record keeping if they start their list too soon. He advised that Devon should send him a letter in a few months instead.

The kids did pretty well with traveling. It's the first time that Rylee flew since she became old enough to care. She had some panic getting on the first plane, kicking and wailing as we went to our seats, screaming "I want to take a boat to Grandma's instead!" Once she got settled in, she was fine though. Devon managed to score visits to the cockpit on all three of our flights, where he got to try on pilots' hats and push intercom buttons. He loved it!