feeding ducks in philadelphia

A few years ago we accompanied Ben on a work trip to Philadelphia. The hotel had a huge atrium with water and ducks and the girls got to feed the ducks. They have talked about the duck hotel ever since. Last week, just a few days before Spring Break, Ben found out he had to go to Philadelphia for a few days this week. So he booked the duck hotel and we joined him again. The girls were thrilled to not only be staying in a hotel (which is the coolest thing ever for kids) but to also get to feed the ducks again. They also loved the hotel breakfast where they could get cereal and donuts AND made-to-order pancakes and french toast.

While Ben was working, I took the kids to the Philadelphia Zoo one day. The weather turned out to be great and there weren't too many people there. We took our time wandering through the zoo and enjoying lots of animals that our zoo doesn't have (penguins, polar bears, giraffes, and flamingos to name a few).

Four hours at the zoo chasing Oliver in my condition completely wore me out. So I was happy to reunite with Ben and let the kids wear him out in the hotel pool.

Oliver was so excited to go swimming that he climbed on the table to do a dance.

Vermont (part 1)

Amelia had two days off of school a few weeks ago so we decided to use the long weekend for a road trip to Burlington, Vermont, to visit my brother Dan and his family. We left Thursday evening (not ideal since we ended up in some evening commute traffic) and drove about half way (4 1/2 hours). We ended up somewhere in New Jersey for the night and then drove the rest of the way on Friday.

The kids were thrilled to see their cousins and had so much fun with them all weekend. It was great to hang out with family, enjoy some winter fun, and explore Vermont a bit. My parents even flew in for the weekend and joined the party.

We drove to nearby Stowe on Saturday for some sledding. The hill was pretty iced over so it was FAST. The kids loved it. Until the cold finally broke them down (I think the high was 15 degrees that day). My phone kept shutting down because it was too cold to function. I managed to get a few photos and a few snippets of video. Unfortunately it shut down during Ben's ride down the hill on the crazy skeleton-like sled. I was kind of a professional sledder in high school so I was sad to miss out (sledding seemed a little unsafe in my current condition).

 

We warmed up at a cute little malt shop nearby where we had a yummy lunch by the fireplace.

Sledding wore all of the kids out. James couldn't quite make it through lunch.

I had to see a covered bridge while in Vermont.

We stopped at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill where they make these amazing apple cider donuts (and delicious cider). We loaded up on some of each.

 

We also stopped at the Ben & Jerry's factory for more treats.

Saturday night my parents were generous enough to take over bath time AND bed time with all five kids so Ben, Dan, Rachel, and I could go out. We saw "Lincoln" which was a great movie. We came home to a quiet house full of sleeping, clean children. Date nights with free babysitting are the best.


Sledding in action:

An evening in Philly.

After spending the morning at Longwood Gardens, we were feeling adventurous and decided to head to Philadelphia since we were so close. I really like Philadelphia and we haven't explored it nearly enough. We were excited to see some of the Christmasy things going on.

Our first order of business was devouring a Philly cheesesteak. We've been to Tony Luke's before but hadn't experienced such a long wait. Luckily all three kids were sound asleep in the car (which rarely happens) so I hung out in the car while Ben waited for our meaty sandwiches.

The kids were really excited about all of the tall buildings, something we lack in D.C.

Our next stop was the Comcast Center to see the Comcast Holiday Spectacular—a short Christmas movie they project throughout the day on a huge screen (the largest four-mm LED video display in the world, apparently).

We walked over to Love Park for some photos.

We passed by a really fun art installation of giant game pieces. The kids could have climbed on these all night.

Our last stop was Macy's. They have a fun light show inside that's been around since the 1950s. The building is really beautiful (Macy's is inside the Wanamaker building...home of the historic Wanamaker Organ). The Wanamaker Organ plays musical accompaniment while thousands of lights create holiday images and scenes in the four-story-high atrium.

(Macy's window display.)

They also have this elaborate Dickens Village in Macy's where you can walk through and see all the scenes from "A Christmas Carol" which they have recreated using animatronic figures. The girls thought a lot of it was kind of creepy.

Our time in Philly was brief but festive. I already have a list of places to visit next time we return.