Party in PA

At the beginning of July we jetted up the East Coast to spend a week at Mark's parents home in Pennsylvania. All of Mark's siblings were also there with their families. It was the first time we'd all been together since Aubree was Thane's age. All together there were 9 cousins staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house, 7 of which were four years old or younger.

Boy Cousins: Chase, Tyson, Thane, & Bryce

Girl Cousins (minus Cora): Cambrie, Ella, Aubree, & Ally

Overall, the kids got along remarkably well, especially since they didn't even know each other at the beginning of the week. Grandma had huge bins of toys with which to play and having playmates available constantly was thrilling. Aubree and Bryce hardly fought with each other the whole week - mostly because their paths rarely crossed.
Aubree spent most of her time playing with her cousin Cambrie.
Together they spent hours drawing, reading, playing games, and imagining. Cambrie is six, so their make-believe play was a bit more sophisticated than Aubree's typical creations. The first Saturday we were there, the girls decided they were secret agents and asked to be sent on special missions. Collectively, the Moms thought up random tasks such as "go get Grandma to tell you she loves you," or "get Aunt Amy to show you a picture of her boyfriend." Uncle Eric snuck around as the necessary "bad guy," (more specifically - a Panamanian spy) seeking to thwart their progress, much to the girl's great delight. The next day, Sunday, the girls wanted to continue with their secret missions, this time with additional recruits and special disguises.
To give their challenges a more Sabbath-day appropriate flair, we had them go on missions likened unto Lehi's leaving from Jerusalem. They made a "tent in the wilderness," went back trying to get the golden plates, and made boats with which to cross great waters. It was great!

Their "tent in the wilderness"

Bryce spent most of his time happily playing with the vast assortment of Duplos and Little People. Grandma had at least 6 different tractors and an equal number of trains (and oodles of other great toys); so Bryce was totally content. On one occasion (when I was watching most of the nieces and nephews) Cambrie came crying to me saying, "Tyson won't let me play with Bryce. He says that since Mom and Dad are gone, he's in charge and I can't play!"
"Okay," I thought, "I'm glad they want to play with Bryce, but they must realize he's just two..." I think Cambrie was mostly upset that her big brother was bossing her around, but when I went to find out what was going on, poor Tyson admitted, "I don't have anyone to play with! Everyone else gets to play with cousins." Tyson is 8 and Aubree is the closest cousin to his age. He did play really well with Bryce, and Bryce reveled in Tyson's attention, but Ty spent most of his time with the adults. He and Mark built this great dinosaur:
One of the great things about this trip was that we were able to stay in the same time zone! Hurray! However, did you know that the day starts much earlier and ends much later in Pennsylvania than in Florida? I hadn't thought of that until my up-with-the-sun son, Bryce, was up and ready to go every morning by 5:30 am. Combine that with the fact that he and Aubree were in the same room trying to go to sleep in the evenings (chatting and arguing and tattling) AND that it was still daylight till after 9 pm AND that their West Coast cousins were still up playing, = recipe for sleep disaster. Probably it was more frustrating for me than anyone, because Thane was fussy at the same time of day. We discovered that taking Thane outside immediately calms him, so I spent most of my evenings enjoying the refreshingly tolerable weather on the patio. Too bad we can't do the same in Florida (bugs and nasty heat).
For one of our adventures, we spent a day at Dutch Wonderland, a fun kiddie-Amusement park that Mark and all his siblings worked at as teenagers. We happened to visit the park on a record-setting hot day. I remember thinking, "I should take some pictures, but I'm just too hot." So I have no visual record. It was great to have so many adults, because the kids were constantly going off with one adult or another to their preferred area of attraction. For example, little Ella (3) loved the spinning, scary rides so she went with Grandma who also revels in those types of rides. Aubree tried most of the rides, but was especially fond of the huge slide and "Choo Choo Charlie" (a self-motorized little train). Bryce, as you might guess, was thrilled to get to ride the train around the park. I took him on one ride that involved a lot of spinning. I knew he didn't like it because he gripped onto my leg, but sat totally quiet until it was almost over when he declared, "I don't like this, Mom. I don't like this!"
Other fun activities included: getting group pictures taken, swimming, lots of chatting, playing "Bang!," and touring Wilbur Chocolate Factory. Too bad I don't have pictures of those things.
To end our trip, we spent a couple days touring Washington DC. We spent most of our time visiting various Smithsonian museums. I love history and was excited to visit the US History museum. Unfortunately, I realized that I am becoming more and more like my mom (i.e. wanting to stop and read each placard), and having three little kids is entirely non-conducive to such desires. The US History museum, though fascinating for me, was WAY over the kids' heads and interest level.
We headed next to the Natural History Museum which was much more kid-friendly. The kids liked looking at the stuffed animals, the dinosaur bones, and the ocean animals. By that point, however, it had been a very long day. We were all tired and hungry and Mark had the beginnings of what turned into a nasty migraine, so we headed back to the hotel and all of us were asleep by 9 pm.

Grandma Winters and Thane at the hotel

The next morning we hopped back on the Metro and headed back to visit the Air and Space Museum. On our way to the museum, we got a little lost and ended up taking the LONG route through a wonderful summer rain storm. By the time we got to the museum, we were all thoroughly soaked!
The Air and Space Museum is amazing! Lots of hands-on activities and more to see than can possibly be seen in the limited time we had. It was funny to visit the "space" section and see all the stuff related to the space shuttles. Around here that's almost mundane! All too soon it was time to say our good-byes and get back on the airplane. We had a great trip and hope it doesn't take another 4 years till we can all get together again.

How Thane spent our time in DC
Uncle Eric & Thane
Ella & Bryce
Karen and Cora

P.S. Have you ever wondered about the meaning of the word "precocious?" Here's a simple definition in lieu of a 1000-word explanation:

Cousin Ally