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:

 
Showing the DW Princess again that she had her dollie (DW Princess)
and bidding her farewell as the park closed-

Indeed, a Dutch Wonderful Day!

Wonderful Preview

As we did last year when we visited Dutch Wonderland, we purchased our tickets for the next day and did the free preview tonight. I only brought our old little camera tonight and found it really didn't take good picts anymore.  sigh.  I did take a few with Brett's phone though--

 

Whip it, whip it good! :)

I wanted our family's caricatures done.  I was so excited b/c I've never had this done!  We sat in shifts b/c the kids were a little restless and it was hot sitting in the sun.

 

The result was not entirely accurate (except maybe Brett's), but it's kind of neat.  And funny- b/c the kids now take their paper and pen and ask us "Do you want me to draw your cartoon? It will only take me 5 minutes." which is apparently what they took away from this experience.  btw, their homemade caricatures are very cute!

The kids brought the souvenir stuffies we bought for them last year back to Lancaster so they could "visit their old home."  They were excited to show the "real" characters their mini tributes.  Brady was so excited to see "Big Duke" (b/c he has the mini stuffie version) this evening and gave him a big hug!

Boot Camp

Our camo outfits started out incidental and then turned intentional.  Sylvie got this super cute camo shirt from Mimi that says, "You can't see me" haha! and I was planning on wearing my comfy camo shorts while traveling today, so I made the boys dress in BDUs too.  :p  I wanted a camouflaged family photo.

Then we decided we should make Army guy faces and be tough.  They loved that!

In this one, I looked pained, Brady's mid "grr!" which resulted in looking like he's crying, and Sylvie's got fishie face- LOL!  Daddy looks good!  This pose (hands on your legs and saying "grr!") was Brady's idea.

How cute is the little miss?

It seems Brett had even more fun playing around with photo editing features- super cool!

 The Luhring platoon is ready for vacation.  Over and out.

Volcano Island

Today we took the kids to Volcano Island, a small local water park. I didn't know about this place until Graeme posted his Living Social deal on Facebook. I did it too so we got 50% off admission on a weekday. When I bought the deal, I was thinking we'd be using it during the daycare vacation...and that's just what we did today!  We left the house after lunch and in Bazarre-o World fashion, Brady (who does not nap on weekends anymore, but does nap at school) fell asleep in the car immediately and Sylvie (who typically takes a 2-3 hour nap daily at this time) stayed wide awake chattering away. I took this picture on my phone b/c it cracked me up.  Little sister was staring at him and asking me, "What Brady doing Mommy?"  Uh, he's sleeping little girl, like you should be doing!  I also thought it was funny how Brady pulled his sombrero down low during his siesta.  :p

There was putt-putt at the park.  Brady's been going to the range and golfing with Daddy and Papa. But Brett says Brady's short game could use a little more work. Brady was delighted to play mini-golf.

I took this picture of the boys indicating their scores on this particular hole. Yup, Daddy shot a 3 and Brady got a hole in 1!  Hmm, looks like someone else's short game could use a little work!  ;p

Sylvie was excited about her pink ball, but lost interest in putting after the first hole.  LOL!  Most of her time was spent playing and seeing what she could do with her pink ball (throw it in the river, roll it under the tunnel, pull it out of the hole when she pulled the flag out, etc.)  Needless to say, the boys had their fun and we girls had ours!