Vancouver

After a great visit in Virginia it was time for our biggest adventure of the summer, a Disney cruise to Alaska.  The first stop was Vancouver, the starting point for the cruise and where we were going to meet back up with Jeff.  We had a great reunion at the Vancouver airport with running and hugging, and then we had a day in Vancouver to do some sight seeing.  We spent most of our time at Stanley Park.

We did a great walk through the forest trails.

My mom was in awe of the size of the trees.

We also got to see totem polls

and ride a miniature train.

The next day we walked down to the port to check on our ship before sailing.

After a pretty smooth boarding process we could look at things from the other side.

Elena loved it, and didn't appreciate being interrupted for photos.

Vivian toasted our sailing with apple juice, and we were off!

Happy Birthday Vivian!

My baby is now seven years old!  It's so hard to get a good handle on her age, because sometimes she acts like a teenager and sometimes she acts like a little kid, but no matter which Vivian manifestation shows up, she is always full of energy and enthusiasm.  She delights me and keeps me on my toes, and this birthday was no exception.

Jeff's mom came to visit for Vivian's birthday, and she and my sister helped me take Vivian out for a big girl celebration the day before her birthday.  My parents were on Elena duty.  Our plan was dinner and a show, so we started with a yummy meal in a fun booth.

The main event was a 360 degree performance of Peter Pan that felt more circus than theater.

It was right next door to a Thai restaurant, which I took as a good omen.  Sure enough, the show was excellent, and everyone enjoyed it.  We even had some time during intermission to pose for silly pictures.

On Vivian's actual birthday, she went to camp where they brought her cupcakes and made a card, and then we had a family and friends birthday dinner at my parents' house, complete with our traditional birthday cake: yellow cake with fresh strawberries and homemade whip cream.  

We missed Jeff, but it was great to have his mom and our Virginia friends to help us celebrate.  I think it's a birthday that Vivian will remember fondly.

Happy Birthday America!

Since we're back in the States for the 4th of July weekend, it seemed appropriate for Vivian to have as many "American" experiences as possible.  Elena got to experience some of it too, starting with patriotic t-shirts.

Vivi got off to the right start by learning to love roller coasters earlier in the week.  The 4th fell on a Saturday this year, so everyone had Friday off, making it a long-weekend celebration.  Since Friday morning was pleasant, I thought we could do an outside activity.  There's a farm nearby that you can go to for free, and they had cow milking scheduled at 10, so Mom and I got the girls in the car and headed over.

Yes, that's a Captain America shirt Elena is wearing.  Girl can be captains too :-)

The best part of the farm trip was watching the employees trying to wrangle the cow into the barn.  She was not in the mood to go in, and she almost tossed them in the mud a couple times, but eventually they managed it.  Then the kids and parents all came in to learn about milking cows.

The kids got the opportunity to pet and milk the cow.  At first, Vivian wasn't going to do either one, but one of the guys who worked at the farm told her the cow was so soft, she should really try, so she did.

She was duly impressed.  Then we walked around for a while, and the girls found a baby goat.

Elena thought the goat was the best thing ever, and had to be bribed to leave.

Luckily, there were some chickens nearby, so she proceeded to cluck at them through the fence.

Vivian wasn't as impressed with the animals, but she did like the tractors.

After our farm adventure, we came home for a rest, because that night was Vivian's next all-American experience, a baseball game.  My sister and her friends had gotten tickets to the Nationals game with fireworks at the end.  My sister also got Vivian a Nationals shirt, and my mom lent her a cap, so she was all decked out and ready for fun.

There was some rain, but Judy had prepared for that.

The baseball game didn't hold Vivian's interest, but the grown ups kept her entertained, so that she could enjoy the win and the fireworks at the end.  She came home exhausted but grinning from ear to ear.

The next day was the actual 4th of July, so we had burgers and hot dogs for lunch, followed by pie and a rest.  During rest time, Judy's friend Ramona taught the girls how to pose for selfies.  Elena tried her best.

That evening I stayed home with Elena, who fell asleep before firework time, and Vivian went with the rest of my family to watch fireworks in Fairfax.  To finish off her all-American 4th of July experience, she got to light sparklers.

She is having a great summer, and I hope it's one she remembers and treasures.

Sesame Place :-)

Elena has made her Elmo obsession very clear, so I looked for Sesame Street related things to do in the area.  That's how I discovered Sesame Place, an amusement park in Pennsylvania about a three hour drive from my parents' house.  It looked like there was plenty of Elmo stuff to keep Elena happy, and lots of fun rides and activities for Vivian.  Road trip!

My awesome mother agreed to help me take this on.  We found a deal for a two day pass and got a hotel with a shuttle to the park.  We figured we could drive up and spend the afternoon at the park, sleep at the hotel, go back to the park in the morning, and then drive back to Virginia.

The ride there went really well.  Vivian only had to stop once to go to the bathroom.  Elena screamed for a bit, until Vivian (the world's best big sister) gave Elena her book.  Elena "read" it for a minute before falling asleep.

We made good time, so we were early for check in, but the hotel was fine with us dropping off our luggage and hopping on the shuttle to the park.  The first ride we saw when we came in was a Super Grover roller coaster.  Vivian had never ridden a roller coaster, so she really wanted to try it.  There was no line, so it was easy to get on.  

It was a relatively tame roller coaster, but there was a moment while we were whooshing along, that I was worried.  Vivian was huddled over making whimpering noises.  When we got to the end, I expected her to be traumatized, but instead she said, "I think we need to do that again.  I need to get used to it."  We looped back around to the entrance side and got on again.  This time she looked up and giggled nervously.  At the end, she said we should probably do it one more time, because she knew how much I liked roller coasters, and she wanted to be able to keep me company when I went on it.  I said she was very thoughtful, but we were only going to do it one more time.  She agreed and we went around again. 

After that we walked farther into the park.  Elena kept spotting Elmo's face everywhere, and exclaiming, "Elmo!" with equal parts surprise and delight.  You would think the enthusiasm level would fade after a while, but no.  It was "Elmo!" all day long.  We tried to find a ride that Elena could go on and enjoy.  The carousel seemed like a safe bet.

She started crying when the horse went up and down, and after a minute she was reaching for me and begging me to get her off of it.  I held her, hoping she would at least like the spinning, but she didn't seem to like that either, so that was her last ride.  Instead, she spent most of the afternoon playing in the Little Monsters area with my mom.

While they were hanging out in the semi-shade, Vivian and I went on as many rides as possible, some of them more than once.

Her favorite (after the roller coaster of course) was the swings ride.

We took a break for the afternoon parade, "Elmo!"

We also found the Elmo photo spot next to one of the rides Vivian and I went on.  Elena wasn't so sure about getting up close and personal with this giant version of Elmo, but she followed Vivi up to him, because big sister must know what she's doing.

Since we hadn't had enough Elmo yet, we then went to have dinner with Elmo and friends.  The timing actually worked out perfectly, because the sky had been getting darker and darker, and a few minutes after we went into the dinner it started pouring.  It rained the whole time we were at dinner, and then stopped just as we were finishing up.

Elena thought it was very exciting to have Elmo on her cup and her bib.

She wasn't so sure about the characters coming up to the table though.

Vivian, on the other hand, was in her element.

And when the dancing started, she literally kicked off her shoes and got down with the characters.  The funniest was her following the Count to learn the moves for YMCA.  She had this focused expression on her face that was super cute.

She took a break from dancing to chat with Elmo.

She got her photo op too.

Elena was just awestruck.

After dinner, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, and, what do you know, "Elmo!"

Apparently, the cardboard version is more approachable.  My mom followed Elena around the lobby on her character discovery, while I got us checked in.

The girls were so wired from their fun that it took a while for them to settle down and fall asleep.

Elena wanted to call Dada to tell him about our day, but the timing wasn't quite right for a real call, so she made an Elena style call.

By 9:30 both girls were sound asleep, and we didn't hear much from them until about 7:00am, which was great.  Vivian has been talking about pancakes with strawberry syrup at IHOP, so I figured this would be a good opportunity for her to get that special treat.  She insisted that she could pour the syrup herself, since she's almost seven.

She did a great job and was very proud!

This was also Elena's first time having pancakes.  She liked them :-)

After eating a mountain of pancakes, we were all fueled up and ready to go back to the park for a few more hours.  Luckily, we had a bit of a digestion break, because Vivian wanted to go on the roller coaster three more times as soon as we went in. Then she went on the swings twice.  Turns out pancakes make Elena sleepy.

Vivian decreed that Safta needed to go on a ride too, so my mom picked one she thought looked pretty tame.

We were meeting a friend who lives in the area for lunch, so we tried to move Vivian towards the exit.  Of course, that's where the roller coaster is.  We had to go on it "just one more time", but after that she wanted just one more time.  I made a deal, we would do one more, as our good bye to Sesame Place, and then we would leave without tears.  She agreed.  As we were leaving the ride, I saw the pictures they take while you're on it.  I thought the start of Vivian's roller coaster addiction was important to document, so I splurged on the photo.  

It came with two key chains, and Vivian held on to hers for most of the rest of the day.  When we got back home and got everything into the house five minutes before it started pouring rain, my mom and I decided that we had pulled off a practically perfect trip and gave each other a congratulatory high five.