I sent a goal this summer to do “Mommy Days” with each of the four kids. I am now 4 for 4!
I’ll admit I was not sure we were going to do this last Mommy Day. Jasper went with my husband on a work retreat in June. None of the other kids got to do this, so there was some grumbling that he’d had his turn for solo parental time. Also, due to his camp schedule, the only week we could do our Mommy Day was sandwiched between two family trips, both featuring very limited internet access. I have a lot of work flexibility but I may have overshot on my vacation time this year.
However, my husband and mother-in-law took all the kids on Saturday to the railroad museum in Lancaster, and to Dutch Wonderland, so I had that whole day to work. I moved anything I would have done Wednesday to Saturday. I also realized that if my adolescent still wants to hang out with me, I should seize the opportunity. This might not be the case in a year or two!
So we got in the car by 8:30 a.m. and drove out to Hersheypark, getting into the park by about 10:30/10:45 (preferred parking was closed due to the Kiss concert that night, alas; we walked A LOT).
We started with the brand new Reese’s Cup Fusion — a remake of their old Reese’s Cup Challenge. It seems everyone else had the exact same idea (“we should try the new ride first!”) so we waited for 90 minutes. But since I only had a 12-year-old with me, and we were in shade much of the time, this wasn’t so bad. Indeed, since we’d put our bag in the locker we didn’t have our phones and had to talk to each other. My nefarious plan for forcing such communication! The ride was fun — shooting our laser guns at various misfit candies as we whirled through a candy factory — though I’m not sure I’d wait more than 30-40 minutes next time.
Next we split a funnel cake, then went to one of our favorite rides, Trailblazer. This rather accessible roller coaster is reasonably fast, but rarely has much of a line. We went on multiple times.
Then we went through ZooAmerica, a small but cute zoo with bears, a wolf, prairie dogs and other North American animals. During this time my son was working up his courage to go on the Super Duper Looper, which is a roller coaster with an entry-level inversion (one loop, naturally). He thought it sounded doable, but doing anything for the first time is scary! So we talked this through: how would he feel on the car ride home if he didn’t do it? He watched the video of the ride, and we noted the time: one minute and 30 seconds. So I pointed out that even if it was the worst experience ever, it would be over in less time than we’d been talking about it.
He decided to go for it — and loved it! Yay for risk-taking.
We went on the Skyride and headed out a little after 4 p.m. We drove to our neck of the woods and had dinner together at Iron Hill Brewery. He’s told me multiple times today that he had a really good time, so I’m glad we decided to go for it. And I don’t seem to be any more behind than usual on the workload, so there we go.
Photo: Yet another souvenir cup…
Hi Laura, I love that you used your expertise in time tracking to put the ride in perspective! 1 min and 30 seconds…great strategy and objectivity. Glad you had a fun day
I traveled to Pennsylvania this week for the first time and did Hershey Park with family on Sunday. We had a great time and since I don’t know the area, I wondered briefly if this was near where you are based. Had no idea PA was so hilly!