Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Pilot Mt, Kennywood and Seneca Caverns

Our computer crashed at the beginning of June and we didn't get it running again until mid July, so I missed a few posts. So here's a little catch up....

6/29/2011- I am required to visit my home office in PA a few times a year and usually the whole fam joins me. It's super hard for me to be without them and they get to visit family while we are up there. The only problem is driving 8+ hours with 4 kids (and the last time we did this, I got a speeding ticket). We have too much stuff to take to fly and we always manage to stretch that 8 hour drive into like 11 hours.

After much debate, we decided we would skip taking the kids to see Pilot Mt until we were on our way back to avoid getting to our destination too late. I did have to work in the morning, ya know?      That was until Paul took the exit  RollingEyesSmiley5.gif image by EarlyMemphis

So we got out and had some random guy take our picture:

 Took a pic of the view:
And took a pic of the kids on a rock:

Then we got back on the road and we got to our hotel at midnight! YAY!

7/2/2011- We figured while in town, we would visit Kennywood. I think the last time we were there I was pregnant with Addy. Jenna stayed with Grandma Becky and Grandma Ginny went with with us...we all had a blast. Ashleigh rode almost everything, the only thing holding her back were a few height requirements. Cooper and Addy couldn't ride everything because of their height, but they showed no fear and rode everything and anything they were able to.

Here a pic in the Old Mill:
 Posing at the fountain:
And I don't know where this girl thought she going when she got in the car but she had to be ridiculously surprised when she ended up at Kennywood! I mean look at the heels...my feet were tired and I was wearing flip flops!
And here's the only pic I have with Ash since we had split up ( she's waiting for the water while Coop and Addy are crouching to avoid it...sillies! ):

7/3/2011-My mom had a cook out for us and we got to spend some time with some family. Christina and Jeff also stopped out to visit and my mom started a bon fire.


Aunt Connie and Bean:
 Aunt Connie with the kids:
 Aunt Luanne with the kids:

7/4/2011- Happy 4th of July! We left Weirton around 9AM (I think) to head back home. I had it set in my mind that we were going to take the kids to see some caverns, so we wanted to get moving as soon as possible.

We made it to Seneca Caverns about 10 minutes before the 3:00 tour. It was of course pouring rain, so Paul ran in to get the tickets while I changed Jenna's diaper. Then the kids had to pee, so the entire tour was held up because of us...yes we are "that" family.

We finally get into the building, get our hard hats on, and begin to head down into the caves when I realize Jenna had kicked off her socks in the car. Since the caves are underground, they are around 58* and even cooler when it rains. Mommy fail #1.

The entrance:
 Notice Paul's wet shirt :)
 I did remember the coats for the kids...Mommy win?
 Me and Bean (she did super good but I forgot her bottle...Mommy Fail #2):

After the tour, we had 2 options. We could either walk back through the cave ( I think about 3/4 mile) to the main building or we could walk 1/4 mile in the rain to the building. We chose to walk in the rain since it was warmer outside.

The sun tried to come out after we got back to the building. Here's a pic of the kids sans Jenna:


 A panoramic view of the scenery:

When we left, we ran into a slight snag. We had used the navigation app on my phone to get the directions there and without service, the navigation tool was useless.(SN: I am not good with my phone and there were other map options that I could have used...Mommy Fail  #3.) Luckily I had written down the directions prior to not having service but I didn't write them down in detail (like I forgot the E and W part, who knew that would be important!). So when we got to the road we were looking for, I told Paul to stop and let me think about it for a second.

Instead of pulling over, he continued driving. He wanted to see another landmark and figured we'd run into it. Well, we didn't. Instead we took a 3 hour detour around a mountain. Instead of getting home at 9PM, like we should have, we pulled up to the house at 1AM....and Paul had to get up for work at 5AM.

We had a fun-filled and exhausting trip...wouldn't have it any other way!

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