Time is going way too fast. I know every parent says that, but it is just so true. Baby B is four months old and really showing his personality. He’s super smiley and easy-going, loves to chat, and even sleeps for 10-hour stretches at night (which, btw, affirms for me that the way kids sleep is just something they’re born with–Mini B didn’t sleep through the night until she was 15 months old and we’re the same parents and now we have a kid who’s been sleeping through the night since just over three months. Go figure!).
He did some traveling this month too. Besides our Camelback adventure, he also flew to Boston and he did tremendously well. Thank goodness, right?
He’s just such a little love. Sigh.
That last pose is his best air guitar.
We did it: our first vacation as a family of four and we survived. And actually we did more than survive–we had fun!
With my final days of maternity leave ticking away, we wanted to try something new and get away. So Mr. Bunches did some research and we ended up at the Camelback Resort and Lodge in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania. It’s a brand new hotel at the base of a ski mountain with a huge attached indoor water park and also a separate outdoor water park.
The drive was 4.5 hours from home, which ended up taking us about 6 hours since we took a long pit-stop at a mall in Scranton (needed some lunch and leg-stretching). Both kiddos did great on the ride though, for which we were super thankful (we should probably just write a thank you letter to Apple for inventing the iPad).
Which was good since once Mini B saw this from the lobby, she wanted in!
So we got Mr. Bunches and Mini B suited up while Baby B and I stayed dry. Of course, by the time all that happened, our rooms were ready. Go figure.
And since all kids love hotel rooms, we actually headed there first. Got ourselves a “King Bunk Suite” (there are something like 20+ different room types at this place), and the layout of this room was awesome. A semi-private small room with two bunk beds and a TV for the kids and then a large bedroom with a king bed and Queen pullout sofa bed. There was no door on the bunk room but the layout still worked well.
Mini B loved it and got her first taste of a big girl bed!
And of course Baby B pretty much loves anything, so he was happy too.
The resort was brand new, so everything was exceptionally clean and still in good working order (although I’m not sure how long it will stay that way given all the action this place was getting–kids galore plus water plus skiing in the winter–yikes!).
Only lodge guests were permitted at Aquatopia, but there was also an outdoor water park (Camelbeach) less than a mile away (with free shuttle service). Each resort guest was given a voucher for one day at the outdoor water park (which costs $39.99/adult and $29.99/kid so if you pack your hotel room with 8 people, then the cost of the room doesn’t seem so high once you factor in the cost of one day at the outdoor park).
We mainly stuck to the indoor water park and only spent one overcast morning at the outdoor one (skin cancer on both sides of our family makes for difficult relations between the sun and me).
Aquatopia had a lot to offer–a super shallow area for babies and toddlers (depths of 6 inches to 1 foot), a mixed shallow area for both little kids and older ones (max depth was about 3 feet with most of it being around one foot), a wave pool, lazy river, a bunch of monster water slides, an indoor/outdoor hot tub, a swim-up bar for adults, and a surfing simulator. Mini B loved the wave pool and the baby area, but Mr. B and I definitely liked the water slides and lazy river best.
The outdoor park was definitely more chaotic and a lot more spread out (it’s at the base of the Camelback Ski site), but there was also a lazy river and a fun toddler area where Mini B actually braved a tube slide (until she was all done when she flipped over on her 15th ride).
The lodge/resort was a bit lacking in walking-around space. Anyone who knows Mr. B knows that he loves his walkabouts, but there really wasn’t much room here. Even the lobby seemed cramped and a little ‘womp-womp,’ especially given that it was brand new.
And there really wasn’t any outdoor space to speak of. We had visions of kicking around the soccer ball in an open area and/or walking on some trails in the mountains, but there was really no space. The front of the resort is a parking lot and the back has a steep drop-off. So we had to settle for walking around the parking lot . . .
and just looking at the ski slopes. And yes, she’s in her pajamas. Because it was a vacation and that’s what you do on vacation.
As with all kid-focused resorts, there was of course a gift shop with lots of overpriced stuff. Mini B fell in love with this little guy so by the end of the trip we rewarded her good behavior and let her bring him home. She named him “Puppy Dog”. She’s nothing if not literal.
Restaurants were also disappointing. I guess when the aim is to please the masses, then it makes sense to offer just the basics (lots of chicken fingers, fries, and pizza), but again we had some hopes for at least a few more grown-up offerings. Hemispheres, the buffet restaurant, wasn’t bad–at $22.99/adult and kids 3 and under free, we were able to piece together a decent meal that didn’t consist of only fried options. And Mini B loved it, especially once she saw the desserts!
I’m a true believer in at least sampling all things chocolate . . .
Once we tapped out of soaking our ankles all day (Mini B’s favorite area was only 6 inches deep), her next request would be to play games in the arcade. The loudest arcade ever, that is. But we enjoyed it too and tried our best to win as many tickets for her as we could. Although we had to repeatedly explain to her that the “claw” games were dishonest and not worth trying. Oy.
Of course, we never actually won that many tickets, so our prize choices were always limited to the lowest possible ticket levels (that’s what happens when you let a 3-year-old try skeeball and half the balls end up thrown into the tank of the neighboring duck game; shockingly that type of skill is not rewarded with copious amounts of tickets).
All in all it was a great trip, albeit not exactly what we had envisioned. Would we go there again? Sure, but I think only if we could convince some family or friends to go with us. The convenience factor of having our hotel room steps away from a kid-tastic attraction is something we think would be ideal for a group vacation with others: kids get to have fun and parents get to minimize logistics. And while the dining options were subpar, there was a grocery store only a 5-minute drive away and each room had a mini-fridge and microwave. And the true test was this: Mini B didn’t want to leave. She pretty much thought it was the best place on earth–to her, it was basically like being at Disney. And so for us it was a win too.
Plus, she liked picking out snacks for the car ride. Seriously kiddo?!
Even though I know the calendar says that Baby B is only three months old, my back and arms say he is closer to nine months. This kid is BIG. Total contrast to his big sis who was still a peanut at three months.
He definitely is in the midst of a growth spurt and he’s working his way through clothes like it’s his job.
He loves to chat away, especially when talking to the “other” Baby B in his play mirror.
And he’s making a valiant effort at rolling over–he can get onto his side and he’s somehow able to spin around in circles. Which is pretty much more than I think I could do right now from laying flat on my back.
He is still super smiley and really chill. Just goes with the flow most days, which fits our family great at the moment since we never know which way we’ll be flowing on any given day.
And oh my goodness what a difference a month makes. He is all sorts of smiley and cooing, particularly just in the last couple of weeks.
He loves his big sister–whenever she gets close, he greets her with an ear-to-ear grin, which of course she just adores. The funniest is that she changes her voice, raising it a few octaves, to talk all baby-like to him. Even has her own nicknames for him: cutie-patootie is my favorite.
I can’t believe how fast it’s all going, and I’m still in the soaking-it-up phase. Lots of snuggles.
Love him! Happy mid-June everyone :).
I am constantly amazed by people’s generosity. Seriously, Mr. Bunches and I are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family–and Baby Bunches has been the benefactor of all that love. Which brings me to the point of this post: my new favorite thank you cards!
Granted, they aren’t technically thank you cards but that’s how I’m using them. Artifact Uprising uses your photos to make beautiful products. These cards are super high quality, printed on thick card stock.
And you can choose ten of your favorite photos (so you don’t have to narrow it down to just one which would have been seriously impossible for me considering what a great job the photographer did).
I can’t believe that I’m almost out of cards (like I said, we are blessed to have such thoughtful people in our lives), but I’m looking forward to ordering more. And I need to peruse their other products too . . .
Check out http://www.artifactuprising.com. Oh, and if you think this is some sort of sell-out, sponsored post, then um, you would be wrong. I’m just seriously gaga over this stuff.
As a second child myself, I am determined to make sure that Baby Bunches doesn’t get jipped in the picture department (while my sister has loads of beautiful baby pictures, I think that there are a collective ten shots of my entire childhood, ages birth to 18; and somehow most of those are of my awkward years–or maybe I was just super awkward? Anyways, I digress). The point is, I want Baby B to have a close-to-equal amount of pictures as Mini Bunches. And part of that includes the monthly photos for the first year. While with Mini B I went pretty simple, meaning no particular theme . . .
My goal was to capture a few details about the month along with a pic of Baby B in his monthly onesie (thanks Auntie!). In case anyone is interested, the above pic was taken with an iPhone 6, edited in the VSCO cam app, and the text/graphics were added with the Over app. And of course there were some shots that weren’t chosen . . .
What I think is super funny is that Baby B is sporting the same hairline at one month that Mini B was rocking at two months . . .