The Luhring Life: A Dutch Wonderful Day!

We had a Dutch Wonderful day...despite a cranky (tired) little sister and a heat advisory that's running up the entire east coast!

So only about 10 minutes in to our visit, while the boys did this...

little sis did this...

So one issue solved with a shady (and comfortable?) stroller.

Now about that heat advisory...

Rejuvenated and ready to ride!

These picts say "summer amusement park lunch" to me! Sweaty sweeties chowing on hot dogs, mac n' cheese, fruit, and milk!

Sylvie's first roller coaster ride!

Brady's turn-

Brady was tall enough to ride by himself. So all three rode once together.

Close-up zoom on the little miss's face-

Just as Brady greeted Duke last night,
Sylvie greeted the DW Princess while toting her DW Princess Dollie.

I admit it- I scoffed when Brett wanted to take umbrellas (b/c for me it's nearly impossible to hold a large umbrella and steer a stroller with a 30 lb. kid in it with one hand). But he insisted that it was a little cooler in the shade provided.

I was skeptical, but around 4 PM when Sylvie decided she needed another nap, I was praising Brett's ingenuity :) and agreed that it was cooler in the shade of the umbrella! This time Sylvie said the stroller was too small. We were in Duke's Lagoon (the water attraction side of the park). So I laid towels on the grass like a blanket and she slept in the shade provided by the umbrella. Fabulous!!! She took another hour nap here while the boys went off again to ride more rides.

They're holding up their hands to get ready for the ride...but they very well may have been showing the number of times they rode this ride...in a row!!! I'm not kidding- they seriously rode it at least 23 times in.a.row. They'd either just stay seated and say "again!" to the attendant or if there was a small line (or someone else wanted to get off) they'd get off, exit, and then run right back to the entrance for another ride. Sylvie's "whoa! whoa! whoa!" commentary and Brady's "it's a belly tickler!" were Hilarious! Maybe DW is always like this (b/c this lack of lines was the same thing we experienced last year) or maybe it was the heat advisory- but either way it was Totally awesome to not wait in any lines! We heart DW!

Big bro helping his little sis out of the ride...SO sweet!

btw, she's holding WAM (named after Whack a Mole), the toy her big brother won for her when he played a carnie game while she was napping. :)

Another "it's summer" pict.

We kept buying these huge lemonades. I mean HUGE and Sylvie looked hilarious drinking them b/c the cups were like 1/3 the size of her!

It was sort of silly to pay for face painting when we knew it wouldn't last long in the heat. But they were so excited and then they came out SO cute...Totally worth it!

Sylvie's first "make-up" application- fun!

Checking each other out-

Yup, totally worth it!

Seriously, isn't she adorable with that cup?

eh, she's just adorable any way!

I wanted to remember how cute Sylvie was driving these cars! She was like a little cartoon granny- eyes barely over the steering wheel just jutting the wheel back and forth. It was so so so cute!

While we waited for the monorail to return, the kids went head-to-head. haha! Brady would touch his face to Sylvie's and yell, "Batman!" and she would respond, "Flow-ah!" Cuties!

This year, Brady was in the amber height category and tall enough to ride everything (some even by himself, like the roller coaster). Sylvie was in the emerald...just barely. Actually we're pretty sure her Crocs gave her the edge she needed. No joke- b/c the ride attendants' measuring bars skimmed her head and only stopped at the very peak of her skull, so they'd let her on. She made it by less than 1/4", which Brett realized was about the height of the sole of her Crocs- LOL!!!

For good measure- summer 2012: