Wellsboro 2012

This past weekend we made our annual trek with Marty's parents to Wellsboro to get away for a couple of days.  We stayed in the hotel again and just drove up to the mountains/canyon during the day, we haven't ventured into the territory of actually camping with the kids.  I'm not ready for that yet, the idea of trying to make Zoey pee in the woods gives me an ulcer just thinking about the possible places she'll end up with poison ivy.  However I think we're going to take a baby step and try a cabin next year.  For now, we continued to take yuppie advantage of having plenty of available hotel amenities while having a two and three year old in tow.  Such as cuddling in a big comfy bed:

And the indoor pool.  The kids are such water bugs, they LOVED swimming in the pool.  The hotel had little inflatable swimmies that Zoey wore on her arms and even though I know they are really not recommended anymore due to lack of safety (arms tend to stay afloat and heads tend to go under... not so optimal for breathing), Zoey had a blast with them.  She put them on and took off swimming by herself in no time, didn't want anyone else helping her.

The next sequence of photos makes me laugh.  First she's explaining to Marty that she's about to jump in the pool:

Get ready:

Jump!

Random thing about the weekend:  the kids were obsessed with pushing the elevator buttons.  In addition to simply hitting the "up" button, Finn also managed to push the alarm button that connected us to emergency assistance via loudspeaker.  We ran away.

Here are some of my favorite photos from our trip to the canyon:

Granny & Zoey

Using his killer pincer grasp to escape yet another photo op

Walking with Pap Pap

Sister & Brother

"Hello?"  Talking into his log phone.  We tried to get him to order a pizza but apparently they don't deliver to the canyon.

My favorite picture!

I also wanted to include two comparison picture compilations from last year and this year.  Fun to see them in the same setting from year to year.

Yep, that's our kid, obsessed with licking the big rock for some reason.  Eh well, it builds immunity right?  Between eating worms and licking rocks, our kids are going to have the fiercest immune systems around.

Later that night after we got back in town we went to the sweet shoppe for ice cream and candy.  And by "we", I mean that "we" got it and then Finn proceeded to eat all of it.

Mommy's ice cream is delicious

Commandeering Daddy's Swedish Fish and threatening anyone in the room who tried to take them

On the way back we stopped at a pretty overlook and took some pictures:

I could totally live here

She has a caterpillar cupped in her hand that she picked up off the trail to "set free in his nature home"

Finn boycotted being in most of the pictures

Family in the Woods

Picking wildflowers

Mismatched Socks

There are so many little things about our kids that I want to remember years from now.  Not necessarily the big momentous occasions (though of course I cherish all of those too).  I'm talking about the little everyday idiosyncrasies that make up their unique character.

Lately Zoey insists on wearing socks to bed, which is new for her.  She always hated socks before.  Now she takes great joy on picking out her "bed socks".  But they can't ever match, they have to be two different ones.  She loves her mismatched bed socks.

Beach Vacation!

The Laus had our very first official vacation to the beach as a family of four.  Since neither of the kids had ever seen the beach before it was all new and pretty exciting for them.  We took a long weekend and went to Ocean City MD from early Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.  We debated staying on the boardwalk, but ended up getting a suite at the Princess Royale down on 91st Street to be a bit more laid-back and farther away from the hullabaloo.  Plus the hotel was awesome (despite the early 80s coastal decor), it's hard to find places that have a separate bedroom that allows us to lay the kids down for naps/etc.

Sitting / hang-out room:

Galley kitchen.  Narrow but with full refrigerator, stove, microwave:

Bedroom.  Little monkeys behind the curtain:

View from balcony over pool:

The kids thought the beach was pretty nifty: 

Although with the hurricanes the waves were crazy-high and the tide was really unpredictable.  Within the first 10 minutes of setting up our little nest on the beach, this ginormous mini-tsunami crested and gave us a little bath.  It's not even like we were close to the water, look how far away we were!

Because the water was so crazy, we hung out at the shoreline but didn't really get all the way in the ocean.  The riptide was intense, hardly anyone was swimming.  Even at the shoreline the waves immediately knocked Zoey and Finn on their heads, surprisingly Zoey was the one who was a little reluctant to go back in.  And by "a little reluctant" I mean sprinting up the beach screaming like a banshee, something like "No, no, NO ocean!".  Meanwhile Finn was laughing his head off as the waves were slapping him all around, the more he fell down the more he giggled like a maniac.  He was seriously giddy.  Apparently it was contagious or looked really interesting because Zoey couldn't resist coming back down and it wasn't long before she was trying to charge right into the deep part of the water.  I wish I could have taken pictures but there was no way I wanted to take my nice camera near the water.  

It must have taken a lot out of her because later she dug a little hole in the sand and informed me "I'm going to sleep now".  

The next day we didn't spend quite as much time on the beach because it was so windy.  I think my entire body got exfoliated by all the flying sand:

Instead the kids swam in the pool, which was also a huge hit:

We also ate out a lot.  Breakfast on the boardwalk:

Poor Finn.  He was so happy with his lollipop... until he broke it.

Fish Tales.  Every restaurant should have a giant wooden pirate ship playground.

Giggles in the hotel room: