A Mini Stay-cation

Somehow Paul didn't use up all of his vacation time last year, which is quite amazing to me with the trip to UT, another to VT, and a third baby added to the mix.   Fortunately, his company allows him to carry so many days over into the following year, but they have to be used within the first quarter--before the end of March.  So, we got three extra weekdays to spend with daddy in early March--what fun we had!! 

First of all, as far as the boys are concerned (Jack included), hanging out with Daddy is always exciting.  Paul is such a wonderful dad--he is so fun, and patient, and gentle, and understanding, and funny, and I could go on and on and on.  Seriously, our boys are lucky--I am lucky.  Paul is pretty spectacular...

So, upon hearing that Paul had three days off leading into the weekend of our 6th anniversary, many of our friends thought we should go on a trip somewhere--take a vacation.  Well, that sounds like a good idea in theory, but in reality going away with three little ones is anything but relaxing and enjoyable.  It is much simpler to just stay at our home turf where everything we could need or want is right at our fingertips.  One friend even suggested that Paul and I should try to take an overnight getaway to the Jersey Shore.  HA!!!  That also sounds like a really good idea in theory, but in reality, since we have no family members here it would cost us a small fortune to pay a babysitter, and Jack is still breastfeeding.  So, we spent our three extra days with daddy right here.  We went to parks and museums, and Paul and I even got to enjoy a fun anniversary dinner.

The following pictures were taken at Everhart Park which is really close to our house.  When we first moved here (almost exactly three years ago!) this was the only park I knew of so Max and I would come here almost every day.  Man, life was different then.  Only three  years ago--I was pregnant with Sam.  I only had one kiddo to strap in a carseat.  One kiddo to take care of.  I thought life was pretty busy then.  I had no idea...

Jack peeking out through his cozy little seat...

 

There is a tiny little stream that flows through the middle of the park, and when Sam was a baby and Max a mere toddler, this bridge got the nickname "Tommy Bridge".  Max was into Thomas and Friends back then, but it's funny how nicknames stick...

 

 

 

 We also took a little trip into the "big city" of Philadelphia.  The boys know that their dad works in "the city" and they know it is named "Philadelphia" but they really have no idea what this means.  Living in the 'burbs with every possible chain store and very good restaurants so close to us, we rarely make it into center city.  In fact, I think our trip to the zoo last spring may have been the last time we were here.  So, the boys were very excited to see a little piece of the urban life and thought that the "skyscrapers" were quite neat.  Max even clued us in on why they are called "skyscrapers"--because they "touch the sky!"

While in Philly, we went to the Franklin Institue, a museum named after Benjamin Franklin.  Paul is a big fan of the noted statesman so he insisted I take his photograph in front of this huge statue of the Founding Father...

 But, aside from the fact that its namesake is Paul's favorite historical figure, the main reason we chose to explore this particular museum is for the dinosaur exhibit.  Sam in particular loves dinosaurs, but when we told him where we were going the night before he got a little scared.  He was afraid the dinosaurs were going to "bite" him.  After explaining that they were only skeletons, he reluctantly agreed to come along.  He was tentative at first, but then we couldn't get the little guy to leave.  He wanted to keep going back and seeing them all over again and again.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so the only photo that suggests our trip had anything to do with dinos was this pose taken in front of the display for the exhibit...

 There were several other really cool science-related attractions at this museum.  The boys got to walk through a giant heart, explore electricity, climb in an old plane, ride in and operate an old steam engine, and several other things that they were a little bit too young for.  It was a really fun day, and Sam asked if we could go back to the city to the museum almost everyday for a week afterwards.

 

Then came our anniversary.  It is amazing to think that it has been 6 years.  That number seems so big.  I feel like we just got married.  But now, we live on the East coast and we have three kids.  A lot can change in six years...

We got a sitter so we could celebrate our special day.  We took the train into Philadelphia and had a very fun and tasty dinner at the Oyster House.  It was such a great night--we really enjoyed ourselves (and 3 dozen oysters!)

 

On the last day of our wonderfully low-key vacation with Paul, we took advantage of the beautiful early spring weather with a biking adventure.  We took the boys' bikes and Paul broke out the brand new baby backpack carrier (brand new because we only used it like twice when Max was a baby), and we headed to a nearby trail.  

Jack loved his seat.  From that vantage he could see everything, and he was more than content.  I didn't envy Paul's job of lugging it around, though.  That thing looks cumbersome and heavy...

Sam is just learning to ride Max's old bike with the training wheels, and he is actually quite good.  Occasionally he has trouble starting and stopping so Paul uses a ski pole to help him along.

 Max is super speedy on his bike.  We had to keep calling after him to wait for us...

Then he finally got to the point where he would go really fast for a minute or so and then pull over to wait for us...

Taking a breather to enjoy some fresh air...

 At the halfway point the boys got to throw rocks into the creek.  They could have kept that up for hours, only I think a lot of other little kids had the same idea because the rocks were quite hard to come by--one really had to look hard and walk far to find one...

Sadly, Paul's mini vacation was over in the blink of an eye and it was back to the work week as usual.