Dutch Wonderland
The first part of our staycation was a short, 2-day trip to Dutch Wonderland in PA. We decided to spread it out into 2 days since we weren’t sure how big the park was and would rather take our time going through it than to have to travel there and rush through the park in a day. It helped that we were able to purchase 2-day flex passes, and the boys were able to get in for free.
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We made a pit stop to each lunch on the way up.
And here we are at the McDonald’s playground for our 2nd pit stop. We had to stop again to feed Josiah, so William had some fun while Josiah was feeding. Not very good planning to make so many stops, but we had plenty of time. The drive actually went by pretty quickly.
When we finally arrived at the park, the first ride we saw was a train, so we hopped on. It was great b/c it took us around the park so we could get a glimpse of what was there.
William even got to feed some ducks! Throughout the park, they had food for the ducks in bubble gum machines. For 25 cents, you could get some food to feed them. William kept trying to walk up to the ducks to give them the food and had a hard time understanding that all you had to do was toss it on the ground near them. It was cute watching him try to approach the ducks, but they would just run away.
There was also a Thomas show, which we thought William would love, but he actually wasn’t too interested in it. =P
One of William’s favorite rides…
Waiting in line with Uncle Jimmy…
Here we are in line for the monorail… the last ride of our first day at Dutch Wonderland. All I can say is thank God for easy babies! Josiah was able to just go to sleep whenever he was tired. We never would have been able to do this with William!
It was a long wait for the monorail, so William decided to stick a sticker on Josiah’s cheek after he woke up.
Here comes the monorail… finally!
My mom decided to sit this one out… and catch a little snooze. =)
I was astounded by the sheer number of strollers that must have been there. It literally looked like it had rained down strollers. At every ride, people would park and leave their strollers. For some of the rides, there were even parking areas for people to leave them. Initially, we took our strollers with us on rides if we could… or one person would stay behind with it, but we quickly learned to follow suit, just making sure that we didn’t leave anything valuable. I was amazed at how trusting people were. |
After leaving the park, we made our way to a pho restaurant to grab a quick bite for dinner. Then we hightailed it the motel since it was getting late. It was our first time staying in one big room with the boys, so we already had been a little anxious about how it would go. Arriving there late, beat, and tired didn’t help our situation. We were hoping that they would just crash.
When we checked in, the boys were already sleeping in the car. We still had our luggage and the pack-n-plays to unload and set up, not to mention changing their diapers, changing them into their pjs, feeding Josiah, and then putting them both to bed. When we drove around the motel to our room, there was a family sitting around, hanging out outside one of the rooms smoking and drinking. Inside the room, there were a bunch of kids watching tv. When we pulled up, we discovered that 2 of the adults were having an argument. Great… this is our stop, too, we realized. We had to go up the stairwell near them to get to our rooms. So we quietly unloaded our cars and discretely made our way up the stairs, trying to avoid the domestic conflict that was occurring outside this late at night.
When we got to our room, it was nice and big, but stinky. It seriously smelled like someone had urinated in there or something and housekeeping didn’t do a great job of covering up the stank. But since it was tolerable, and it was getting really late, we decided to just put the boys to bed as quickly as possible. So we started unpacking, set up the pack-n-plays, got them both ready for bed… and then we noticed that there was water dripping from the ceiling onto our bed. What in the world? We considered just moving the bed, but for some reason (can’t remember why now), were unable.
So Bill went to ask for another room. He spent an hour taking a look at a few different rooms to see if he could find one to fit all our junk. Don’t ask me why it took so long, but between talking with the front-desk man, looking up rooms on his computer, trying to figure out the paperwork, and actually walking back and forth to the rooms, it just did. When Bill finally came back and told me they had another room for us, but weren’t going to do anything to compensate for not having the room we reserved ready for us, we trekked back to the front desk to ask for A DISCOUNT. The front-desk man said that he had the other room he was offering, but could only give us a 10% discount. “Wait a minute. Just $8 off for the extreme inconvenience, smelly accommodations, and the room that we had reserved that was supposed to be available to us, but wasn’t,” I asked in disbelief. He proceeded to tell me that the room they promised was available, but it just had a leaky ceiling, something that they can’t control or account for. So the room technically is available. It just has a leaky ceiling.” I wanted to pound someone. Did I just hear him say that it’s not their problem if the room we reserved is leaking water onto the bed we’re paying to be sleeping on? That did not go over very well, so I asked to speak to a manager, who of course, was not there. So we decided to bite the bullet for now and just take the other room they had available.
We moved all our things down the hall, and thank the Lord this room worked out perfectly for us. It wasn’t as big as the other one, but still had plenty of space. Of course, there was a loud train that went by, which we discovered was right outside our window, but at that point, we didn’t care anymore. Josiah was already konked out in my mom’s arms. But William was awake, very concerned about why we kept coming in and out and were moving things to another room. He was so exhausted at this point that we decided to just let him sleep with us (the bed was humongous) instead of trying to get him to go to sleep by himself in his pack-n-play. We were all worn out from the day that we all just wanted to sleep. And it was nice since it was the first time we also got to sleep with William. We had never shared a bed with him before, so it was nice being able to snuggle next to him and fall asleep, although he did end up turning several times in the middle of the night with his feet jabbing into my side.
The next morning, the boys woke up earlier than I thought they would. Sleeping in… those words don’t seem to exist in their vocabulary. What is up with small children and early risers? As we were all getting ready, William told us matter-of-factly, “Wih-num don’t like sleeping Momma and Dada’s bed. Wih-num sleep in that bed (pointing to his pack-n-play).” Hmmm... So much for snuggling with our little boy. =P
After we were packed, we decided not to pursue anything more with management since they weren’t there anyway. We had ended up getting a cheaper room with the 10% discount than originally planned, so the Lord was faithful to provide, even though I was ungrateful and bellyaching (ok, complaining) and sinning the whole time. I probably should have asked the front-desk man forgiveness for my sinful attitude, but did not think of it at the time. So I said a prayer and asked the Lord’s forgiveness and that He would cover over my sins. Self-control and anger… especially with my tongue and heart… I have much to work on... sigh.
After leaving the motel, we went to Denny’s for breakfast… Josiah was all bundled up b/c it was FREEZING in there! Bill loved it though.
| A group shot (minus Jimmy) at the front of the park…
The Chen clan and grandkids…
Back on the train… This actually was another of William’s favorites.
William went on his FIRST ROLLER COASTER!!! As you can see, he just barely met the height requirement. Seeing him ride this was one of the big highlights of our trip for me. I love roller coasters, so I was very proud of him.
Going down the first drop… (We’re in the front of the 2nd car.) Woohoo!!!
William loved it so much he wanted to go again… this time with Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy wanted to sit with him in the way back to get the full experience. It’s hard to see, but I love seeing the big smile on William’s face.
Of course, Uncle Jimmy had to teach William proper roller coaster etiquette by showing him how to put his arms up. I was quite impressed that he actually did it. Jimmy said he felt a little bad b/c William was flailing around everywhere since he wasn't holding on to anything.
I think I finally have a roller coaster buddy. Yay! (Bill doesn’t like riding roller coasters.)
Bill and William were waiting in line for the bumper cars…
This ride cracked me up b/c William had no idea what he was in for.
I think William thought it would be like the roller coaster.
William was watching in bewilderment as a bunch of strangers kept trying to bump each other.
I think Bill had more fun than William… =)
William also LOVED playing Skeeball even though he didn’t have the strength to roll it all the way up the ramp on his own.
He also loved watching the balls come back down.
William went on a couple of rides by himself…
Hard at work… Whew! It was finally time to go home… I love this pic b/c William fell asleep as we were leaving the park with his hand in his snack bag. Guess he was too tired for Teddy Grahams… It looks like he tried though. =)
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