Busy, busy July!

Hi blog friends!

Once again I haven’t posted in ummm forever! Things are going really well with the A family.  You can blame my blogging hiatus on stupid end of the fiscal year close out at work (yes, I said stupid, and yes I know I am not nine!) and being tired 24/7!  I seriously don’t remember being this tired with Cecilia during my first trimester.  Maybe it’s because I am a momma of one and I am pregnant that I am extra tired!

I am almost officially done with my first trimester! (YAY!) The baby looks great, I have had two ultrasounds so far and I heard the heartbeat on the Doppler at my appointment on Tuesday.  The baby’s heartbeat was a strong 160! I go for my next ultrasound next Wednesday, which happens to be my birthday (YAY!!! I love my birthday, every single year, even though this next year will be the last year of twenties…).  I don’t think we’ll be able to determine the sex then (I’ll be 13 weeks 4 days) so we will have to wait until August to see if we will be blessed with another sweet girl or a gorgeous baby boy.

July is a huge month for us.  We are going away this weekend camping.  Yes, I said camping.  For those of you who know me well, know that I don’t camp.  But friends of ours have a camper that they keep down to the Delaware beaches for the summer.  It is supposedly a very nice camper, but I am still reluctant about the whole thing.  I like hotels and resorts.  I like having a whirlpool tub to soak in after a long day and a nice huge comfy king bed with Egyptian cotton sheets and a down comforter on vacation.  Not a camper.  Daniel promises me it won’t be as bad as I am imagining.  So we’ll see.  Stay tuned for my tweets and pictures on a Instagram this weekend…………

Next week is my birthday!  Yes, my birthday!! Ahh! I think I already told you that, but I have to tell you again.  I really don’t have any plans except I know my momma is cooking me my favorite dinner (a family tradition) of her famous Maryland crab cakes, fried green tomatoes,  cajum squash and zucchini and corn on the cob. Oh and I am getting my very first IPhone next week!  Bye bye stupid Droid!

The following week we are going on our family vacation.  We originally had planned to go to Fairfield Glade, Tennessee.  But Daniel talked me into changing our reservations to somewhere closer.  A 12 hour drive would turn into a 16 hour drive with Cecilia and I having to go to the bathroom every 2 hours.  And I need to save my vacation time at work for my maternity leave so we decided to take a mini – five day vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia.  Both Daniel and I love Williamsburg, we went there for our six month dating anniversary and have went back quite a few times ever since.  Ci is at the perfect age for Busch Gardens and Water Country USA, she loves riding rides.  We are also taking my cousin’s daughter, Kacie, who is 14 so Daniel will have a roller coaster riding partner since I won’t be able to ride anything.

The day we return from Williamsburg, the 21^st, I will be attending the Sugarland concert at the Delaware State Fair.  I love Sugarland.  It will be the 4^th time I have seen them in concert.  I saw them open for Kenny Chesney twice and I saw them at the fair one other time.  On the 25^th, we’ll be going back to the fair to see Miranda Lambert perform. Opening for Miranda is her band The Pistol Annie’s.  I am REALLY looking forward to this concert.  I love Miranda’s music and I like that she is a real size and not size 2 like a lot of other performers out there today and that girl can sing!

Also this month? The start of my favorite reality show, Big Brother AND the Bachelorette Finale.  I cheated and I read who Emily picked, but I still want to watch the drama unfold!

I hope everyone had safe 4^th and I promise to post all about our “camping” excursion next week.

The Sweetest Place on Earth

Earlier this summer one of my former co-workers posted a link on Facebook for free tickets to Hershey Park if you were a Chevy owner.  Neither my hubs or I are Chevy owners, but Daniel's step father was. He gave his VIN number, we punched it into the website and approximately two weeks later we received four of these babies:

The usual price for an adult ticket? $55! So thanks to Chevy and the hubs' stepdad we saved $220. We had originally planned to go to Hershey a few weeks ago, but thanks to the crazy amount of rain that has been dumped on the east coast this month the park was flooded. So we rescheduled for the last weekend.
 
Since Cecilia was free (kids under three are), we decided to ask our good friends, Mike and Amy to go.  Daniel has known Amy since they were in Sunday School together before they even went to Elementary School and he met Mike in high school. Before kids and mortgages we hung out with Mike and Amy all the time, but now with our busy schedules (and budgets) we don't get to see them nearly as much we used to. Mike and Amy have two adorable little girls,  Miss M who just turned 4 and Little A who is exactly a month younger then Cecilia (she turned 2 on May 17th).

We originally were going to stay the night since Hershey is a little more then a two and a half hour drive from home, but last minute we decided to go up there and back on the same day.

Miss M seeing how tall she is

It had been years since I've been to Hershey Park. I believe the last time I went when was when my grandparents my cousins and I, I was only 10 or so at the time. That was over 18 years ago.  It has changed a lot since then.  Instead of being more of a kiddy park, they have added several roller coasters.  This trip however was all about the kids.  Mike and Daniel snuck off twice to ride rollercoasters and Amy and I snuck off once.

This was the first time Cecilia had been to a bigger amusement park.  She loved it!

Miss M, Little A and Ci "driving" cars

"Mom, these aren't like the swings at the park."

"Nevermind, I like them better!"

You can't go to Hershey Park without taking a tour of Chocolate World where they show you how Hershey's famous candy bars are made.  You go through a replica factory on these little carts.  Suprisingly, Cecilia stayed entertained.

Picture Amy took of us on the cart before the tour (I look horrible!).

Chocolate

Wrapping Hershey's famous candy bars.

Look at all that Heshey's chocolate syrup!

Hershey's famous kisses!

The store after the tour (surprisingly all of this candy was very reasonably priced!)

Daniel, Ci, Miss M & Mike

After the tour is completed they give everyone a sample of a Hershey's product.  I remember when I came 18 years ago I got a full size Kit Kat candy bar.  Now they give you four Hershey Kisses.  It is better then nothing though considering the tour is free.

We went back to the park after the tour.  We were hoping the girls would take a nap in their strollers, but we had no such luck. All five of us rode in the observation tower, it was neat to see the park and the actual Hershey factory from an aerial view.

Daniel and MIike, friends for almost fifteen years. 

We rode some more rides with kids, Ci enjoyed "driving" a classic car with the help of daddy.  I sneaked a picture of the picture the park took.  There's no way I was paying $15 for that..

Miss M wanted to drive too, but was shy when it came picture time.

Here's all three girls, it was nearly impossible to get a picture of them all looking.

Ci, Little A & Miss M

Cecilia was quickly growing tired..

 

Before we left though the girls wanted to one ride again.  Can you guess which one?

 The swings!

We left right after the last ride and before we ever got to the car Cecilia was out.

Overall we had a great time, we all agreed next time we need to stay the night.  Going there and back in one day is a lot, especially with little ones. (Can I say, I told you so?) Hopefully next summer we can score some free tickets again.  I'll be sure to let my blog readers know if they are running the promotion again (apparently they run it every year) so those of you close to the Hershey area can take advantage of it too.

Congrats goes out to one of my favorite bloggers (and long time blog buddies), Julie who guessed where we were going! Congrats Julie, e-mail me {mindy71183@gmail.com} or Facebook me your address.  I picked a little something up for you and Issac while we were at Hershey Park.

Wordless Wednesday

 This is one of my favorite pictures of Cecilia from our recent vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (taken by husband).