always expect the unexpected

One of the things I've learned since becoming a parent is you should never expect anything to go according to plan. And I am a serious planner. Ask anyone who knows me. So really, what I've had to learn is to be more flexible. Not so easy for someone like me, but necessary.

Thursday afternoon, we headed to Pennsylvania for a planned rendevous with our NJ cousins to Dutch Wonderland. The trip up was an uneventful almost three hours (other than a very close call of getting rear-ended, and an unfortunate case of getting screwed over at the McDonald's drive thru). We all met at our hotel and enjoyed some swimming....

....and went for an early dinner. Which is when Logan started melting down. Eating out with a two year old is hardly ever fun. But eating out with Logan is bonafide torture, and this particular dining experience on a scale of 1 - 10 was a strong -15.7. As we were to find out later, I think he was trying to tell us something.

We wrapped up dinner and headed to the theme park to buy our tickets for Friday. By doing so, they allow you to preview the park for three hours before closing. We were able to check out some rides and get the lay of the land, preparing ourselves for hours of fun the next day.

That night, Dylan was having a hard time sleeping and very restless and insisting he was hot. Warning number two.

The next morning, I took the kids to the hotel lobby for breakfast. Where Logan proceeded to projectile vomit his milk all over the table, floor, himself and me. Andrew and I got him settled in back at the room, and I went to check on Dylan, who was still in the lobby with our cousins. And no sooner did I sit down to eat my breakfast, Dylan joined the barf-o-rama and threw up all over himself, the table and my breakfast. This leads me to a second thing I've learned as a parent. Always, always bring extra outfits. Pack what you think you need, and then throw two more outfits per child in the suitcase. There is a strong chance your child will encounter dripping ice cream, blood, paint, chocolate or vomit, and you have to be prepared.

So at this point, we knew we'd be packing it up and heading home. There would be no water park, no log flume rides, and no super cute frog diving show, that my friend Kristin told me about. We borrowed some plastic laundry bags from the front desk and kept our beach towels ready, stripped both boys down to underwear/diaper and hoped for the best.

On the way home from PA, our mini-van was a mobile vomitorium, and Andrew spent most of yesterday afternoon scrubbing vomit out of carpet and car seats.

The silver lining is that our park tickets, which we had purchased upon arrival, are good for the rest of the season. So we'll be picking a day for Daddy to play hooky and we'll head up for the day. The park is clean, and shaded and the staff seems really kid-friendly. And the attractions are all based for young kids, so its well worth the trip.

Also, the vomiting has stopped and the kids both seem perfectly fine now. Which is a beautiful thing since Daddy leaves Monday for Boston for four days.

Dutch Wonderland, we will be back!