Hershey!

Monday morning the big kids left early with my in-laws and I knew it was going to be sad for Emma and Brandon so I invited us along with the Rays to see Inside Out 2. It was a good distraction and a fun movie and good to be with friends.  Tuesday I had offered to pick up the Wiest girls because Leisa was at day camp with Joel and they were just hanging at home alone but then Michelle wanted to do a pool day so she got the girls for me and we all hung out at the pool for the afternoon. It was super fun and I love lazy summer days. The only bummer was we had to leave around 3 so I could teach four piano lessons but it was a fun day. Then I went to book club and we had a great discussion and a fun night.

Wednesday morning Josh and I took Emma and Brandon on a trip to Hershey. I had originally wanted to go to Williamsburg with the family but then the Colorado plan took over so I pivoted to this little trip. The big kids remember going to Hershey but the other two didn't so we went on an adventure just the four of us and it was super fun. We drove up to the Turkey Hill experience and started with the make your own ice cream. I wouldn't do it again because even though I added a ton of pineapple and coconut flavoring mine only ever tasted like vanilla and it melted so fast. Plus we were given time limits and it felt very stressful to me. Josh can't even eat ice cream so his just sat there and melted but we had wanted to try all the experiences. so we did, but now we know. The museum part was super fun and cute and they give out free samples all day so we should have just stuck to that, but we had a good time. There was also lemonade that Josh drank a lot of to make up for the ice cream he couldn't eat. But we made commercials and our own ice cream labels and milked pretend cows and it was all good fun. 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove up to Hershey and had dinner at a cute 50s diner and then went shopping at the outlet mall for awhile. Thursday we were in Hersheypark from opening to closing and we had a great day. It was hot but we went on the boat ride that soaks you as our first ride so we were damp all day and none of us were ever super hot. The lines weren't long; we walked on almost everything and the longest we waited all day was 35 minutes. We did the Ferris Wheel three times, the wooden roller coaster once (I am definitely too old for the jerkiness of those), the music ride, the wild mouse, the flume ride, the Kiss Tower and the swings. We basically just walked to the back of the park in the morning and then worked out way up and around and just went on whatever ride we discovered. It was super relaxing and fun and made for a great day. We did get stuck for a few minutes on one ride (Mixed) but after 10 minutes we got off and they gave us coupons for free snacks and we just went back later to actually ride it and I loved that one.

 

 

We walked over to the zoo which is attached and walked around for about an hour seeing animals. They have elk, wolves, a bear, lots of owls, bald eagles and otters. It is a cute little zoo and it was  nice break from the rides. Then we got some okay BBQ for dinner and rode the Trail Blazer, which is a metal coaster but very kid friendly so we did that a few times after I finally convinced them to get on. Josh rode a few coasters as we were walking around since the lines were so short and Brandon did the flyers three times in a row while we waited once. We did the monorail and sky ride and just had a really fun day. It is a nice park and since it was so hot I think most people were in the water park so that helped with the crowds on the rides. We got ice cream with our free snack coupons and shut the park down. 

 

 

 

Friday we spent all day at Chocolate World. There are four experiences and we planned to do them all so we started with a new one called Unwrapped that was a silly show about how to taste chocolate. They used to do more official tastings but they must have tried to make it more entertaining and I think they went too far and made it ridiculous but we got a box of chocolate and the kids thought it was funny. Then we went on the free ride a few times and met up with our historic trolley tour of Hershey. I loved it and enjoyed learning more of the history (again, we did this years ago) and getting treats and seeing the whole town. Then we had lunch and then we were starting to make our own candy bars when they had a power outage and we had to leave and try later. We did their new candy express (a train movie kind of experience around Hershey land) and it was cute. 

 

Then we tried to make our candy bars again but still no luck. I had wanted some cute flip flops in the park the day before but the stand was closed when I went back to get them so I asked the girl at the ticket scanning place if I could just run into the the park to buy my flip flops and come right back out. I knew it was a funny request but they were cute and we had time to kill so I thought it couldn't hurt to ask. After talking to two managers, they found a guy who works retail to escort me into the park so I could buy my flip flops so that was fun. Then we tried the candy bar experiences one more time and it was up and running so success! We all ate a bunch of chocolate and so we hersheyed it up pretty darn well. We decided to finish the outlet mall and grab a quick snack at Wendy's before heading to the hotel. 

 

 

Saturday we drove to my sister's house and spent the afternoon swimming with her before we headed to the airport to pick up the big kids. It was great to have them back and be a family again! They had a great time in CO with Josh's family. Curtis went to a Rockie's game, they went on a jeep tour of the Garden of the Gods, they watched a movie every day and ate junk food and went shopping. Lily got her hair cut and they went to the library where my SIL works. After we picked them up we went to Cafe Rio for dinner and talked and talked and drove home.