Sesame Place, Philly & Princeton!

At the end of July, we were given the gift of two days at Sesame Place! A family member gave us the experience and paid for our hotel in Langhorne. It was only an hour and a half drive there and we were really looking forward to two days away to enjoy our kids and have a setting that we knew they would enjoy. 

 

I'll be honest, I built it up in my head and had looked at all these tip websites and had been busy making a plan for our time. The night before our trip, NOBODY slept. It was awful - both kids were crying and I kept getting up to pee. When we got on the road at 8:30 I just felt so defeated already because we were all cranky. 

We got there right as the park opened and one of our children had a major major meltdown. It was awful. This child has some sensory problems and we ended up leaving the park after a 30 minute scream fest. We decided to drive around, see if the kids would nap, and come back in the afternoon.



We drove around Philadelphia, which happened to be during the DNC so there were a lot of people in their Hillary/Bernie shirts, we saw a woman with a delegate badge and saw a few protesters! It was neat to see the historical buildings and the kids did take quick naps!

We headed back to Sesame Place just in time for the afternoon Parade. 






After the parade we went into the Elmo Live show, which Israel LOVED and we were shocked when he didn't freak out that Cookie Monster came over and touched him on the shoulder!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in their awesome wave pool - the whole water area was toddler-friendly and so nice!











We ended the day with Cracker Barrel for dinner and a swim in the hotel pool!


Day 2 we walked over from our hotel (we stayed at Springhill Suites which had a walking path to the park!) and had a character breakfast. The kids LOVED this so much. I was so proud that they weren't scared but really in awe of their "friends" from Sesame Street!

























After breakfast we went to the pool area, then came back to the hotel for a nap (all four of us napped!!) and then back to do some more shows and rides!





















The first night Edith slept in the bed with me and Will and she was all over the bed all night, so we didn't get a good night's sleep. The second night we tried her out on the couch next to Israel and they took forever to fall asleep because they kept giggling. It was really sweet and like they were having a slumber party. They did pretty well except one time that Israel woke up coughing/crying and it woke Edith up and she fell off the couch! Ha, after that it was a good night and I was proud of Israel for staying quiet in the morning until Edith woke up.



We were going to spend Saturday morning at the hotel pool but it was closed, so we decided to take a quick tour of Princeton, NJ. It was really beautiful but SO HOT.













All in all it was a wonderful vacation, and despite the rocky start we had so many awesome moments of just delighting in our kids. They had a blast seeing Elmo and Abby, and loved the pool areas, shows and rides.  There was only one ride I was allowed to ride on (because I'm pregnant) and Will was a trooper going down the water rides with each kid and taking the kids one at at time on rides. Vacation isn't so restful as a parent, right!? But it was a really wonderful break from the normal life to just enjoy what our kids enjoy, make some quality memories as a family of 4, and just enjoy each other. So thankful for this little getaway and for the blessing from our family!