Knoebels Grove 2009

This past holiday weekend, Scott and I took the kids to Knoebels Grove for the first time. Friends of ours had planned the trip earlier in the year, and I thought it would be fun to go along....and much to Scott's surprise....stay in a TENT (yeah...that's right...me in a tent!! LOL) We left on Thursday evening...just in time for rush hour traffic...but after all the finger biting and a fast dinner at Mickey D's we made it to Lake Glory Campground (although at times I was not sure that Jimmy and his 5th Wheel trailer was going to make it down the cow path his GPS send us down). After we had are lodging accommodations set up for the next three days,

The Marsh Family Mansion

we sat by the campfire for a relaxing evening. The first night went very well except for me waking at 6:30 in the morning thinking it was 9AM because the sun was so bright!!!

On Friday, we took the kiddos to Knoebels Amusement Park. Our intentions were to go to the park for a little...eat the lunch the Angie and I took the time to pack...and stay for a little while longer...and then come back to eat dinner. Well, we got to the park around 11am....and at 9:45 PM we were back at the campground!! Our entire time there was wonderful despite the TWO torrential downpours we had to sit through (luckily under cover). The kids had so much fun riding on everything and anything.

There was a cute little Theatre that was having a showing at 5PM. Hayley wanted to watch it...but little did she know that she would be part of the show. She was so excited to go up and play one of the King's princesses, isn't she the cutest?? Brayden at one point fell asleep...and I didn't bring the stroller so I was carrying him around the park for just a short while since then a rainstorm blew in and then we decided to wait it out under a pavilion. Oh...and our lunches we packed...well let's just say are PB&J and ham sandwiches didn't have a chance with all the good "CHEAP" food they had there at the park! Although Angie and I did eat our ham sandwiches once we got back later that evening (well, we took the time to pack them didn't we!! LOL) I was a little concerned (due to the fact that it had rained extremely hard two times while we were gone) that I would return to a WET DAMP tent...but it honestly was not that bad....they must make tents much better than a few years ago.
On Saturday, the weather was much nicer and actually didn't look as though it was going to rain....so we packed up all the swimming stuff minus a PACKED LUNCH this time and headed to Crystal Pools. There they had a great Kiddie area and a HUGE pool....the kids enjoyed themselves swimming and snacking on food from the snack area. Hayley was so excited because they had a sliding board in the water that she could slide down and when she did, she went UNDER WATER with no TEARS!!

We got back to the campground and made dinner...and then smores...and then mountain pies....I bet I gained at least 10 lbs over the weekend (good thing I have ZUMBA class for the next 4 weeks!! LOL)

Sunday came way too fast!! We ate breakfast and then took a walk around Lake Glory..the kids had fun throwing rocks in the water and watching people fish and we took a few pictures.

After we ate our lunch...Scott, the kids, and I took what we thought was going to be a LONG trip back home...but 2 hrs later we were in our driveway...seemed like a hop, skip, and a jump...not like the trip down, which we thought would never end.

I extremely proud of ourselves that we took this little family vacation and "roughed" it for a few days. That night when we got home, Hayley didn't want to sleep in her own bed, she wanted me to set the tent up out in the yard..hmmmm maybe I have a little camper on my hands!! It is definitely something we would do again....but maybe next time, we will borrow my aunt's POP UP camper!!