Hershey PA

About every other Thanksgiving, we take a family vacation to New York City to visit family. This year we decided to drive. We didn't drive straight through like we did the first time because I thought that would be too much time in the car for Bryson. We planned to take 3 days to get there and 2 days back. We left out on Saturday and drove about 8 hours to Virginia. Bryson did great in the car. We stopped a few times to eat and stretch our legs. We didn't spend much time in Virginia. We got there around dinner time and found a restaurant near our hotel to eat. After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening in the hotel room. We headed back out early the next morning. We made a short 5 hour drive to Hershey Pennsylvania where we planned to spend two days. We took our time on this trip and arrived late afternoon. The hotel we stayed in had a pool. Bryson loved it! We remembered to pack his swimsuit but forgot floaties. Thankfully the hotel had some.

 We ordered take out from Red Robin for dinner. Robert and his mom went to pick it up and they did a little exploring while they were out so we would know exactly where to go the next day. We headed out after breakfast to go to Hershey world. We drove around and looked at the city a little bit before we stopped. It was the cutest little town. The street lights were shaped like Hershey Kisses. It almost felt like we were in the movie Willy Wonka.

As soon as you walked into chocolate world you could smell all the yummy chocolate. We signed up make our own chocolate bar so while we waited for that, we did a little exploring. They had a gift shop and of course a ton of little shops to get food and of course sweets. Bryson was able to make his own Hershey Kisses to bring home. They had a few displays made out of chocolate that were so neat.

 

Then it was our turn to make our own chocolate bar. Each of us had our own ticket with our name on it. We went into a room where we designed our chocolate bar. We scanned our ticket and chose which type of chocolate we wanted and what toppings we wanted. You could chose white chocolate, dark chocolate or regular chocolate. I chose dark chocolate and Robert and Bryson chose white chocolate. For the toppings, I just chose butterscotch and chocolate chips. Bryson and Robert chose chocolate chips, cookie bites and rice krispies. Once we designed our candy bar, we entered the room where it was made. To start our chocolate bar, we scanned our ticket, We were able to follow the making of the chocolate bar down assembly line because our chocolate bar had our name under it. After it was made, all of them were covered in more chocolate then went through a cooling off process. While it was cooling off, we designed our own label and then were able to take them home. We wanted to wait until we got home to eat them but decided we wanted to see what fresh made chocolate tasted like. It was a million times better than store bought.

Once we made our chocolate bar, we wanted to take the tour of how chocolate was made. This was Brysons favorite part. He loved the song that was played the whole time and kept laughing at Eli trying to get all the chocolate. When we ask him his favorite part of this trip, that's what he will tell us.

 After the chocolate tour we grabbed a late lunch and did a little more sight seeing. There was more to do in Hershey but we wanted to save our money for NYC. We called it an early night and Bryson was able to enjoy a little more swimming. We took our time heading out the next morning since it's only a 3 hour drive from Hershey to NYC. It was nice to not be rushed out. Before we headed out, Bryson had to stop and play with the ducks. There was a little pond in front of the hotel with a ton of ducks you could feed. Bryson kept pretending to be a duck. It was hilarious!

Soccer 2014

Bryson played his first sport this fall, Soccer. We tried to register him for t-ball last fall but not enough kids registered so they didn't have it. We figured the same thing would've happened this year so we chose soccer. My friend had her son play soccer last season and they all really liked it. Here in Helena, Bryson is too young for the soccer leagues. There is an organization called BUSA that offers a Sunday soccer program for Bryson's age and younger. They have games and practices on Sundays. They have little 30 minute practice before the game, then a 30 minute game. I thought Bryson would love it. He didn't. I think it's the way the whole thing was set up. First off, our team wasn't assigned a coach so two of the dads stepped in and said they would be a coach. They were great with the kids but didn't really know much about how to coach soccer. I know that Bryson is only 4, but I wanted him to learn how to play the sport and how to be on a team. The only thing he learned was how to be on a team. The games were even crazier. There was no organization at all. The coach would just throw a random ball out and the kids would just run. Not many knew what they were supposed to do and it was confusing when they would just randomly throw a ball out. It was funny to watch all those kids run. I think Bryson didn't like it because he didn't get the ball much. It seemed like he didn't want to take it from the other kids and when he would bump into a kid, he would say "oh excuse me, I'm sorry". It's was really sweet. I think if he would have been more aggressive and gotten the ball more he would have enjoyed it. The times we he did get the ball he loved it and wanted to keep playing. At the end of the season all of the kids got a trophy. He was so proud of his trophy because it meant that he finished the season. This spring, he will be playing t-ball. I'm hoping he enjoys that more than soccer.

Halloween 2014

This year, Halloween was all about Star Wars. Bryson had been talking about his costume months before Halloween, and changed his mind several times. First he wanted to be Darth Maul, then Jengo Fett, and finally he decided to be a Clone Trooper. Robert had taken that day off of work since it was a Friday so we thought it would be fun to surprise Bryson with a Star Wars decorated car at our schools trunk or treat. As soon as Lisa heard about this, she took off work too! Robert and Lisa worked hard on the car decoration and Bryson loved it. He had no idea that Lisa was coming or that they had decorated the Armada like Star Wars. This is the first year that we have all dressed up for Halloween but since Bryson loves Star Wars so much, we knew he would love it if we all dressed as the different characters. Robert was Darth Vader, Lisa was Princess Leia, and I dressed as Chewbacca. I was originally going to dress as Boba Fett but the costume shirt I got was huge! Since I had to wear the costume all day, I just wanted to wear a long t-shirt and leggings so I would be comfortable. Chewbacca was the only one I could find.

After school, we went to Zaxby's with my parents so Bryson could get his 99 cent kids meal. Every Halloween they give the kids a free kids meal if they are dressed in their costume. This year they charged 99 cents. It was an early dinner but we knew Bryson would not eat after trick or treating, and it killed some time while we waited for Robbie, Martha and Will to get to Publix.
After Zaxby's, we took Bryson and Will trick or treating at Publix. Every year Publix does trick or treating for the kids. They have different booths set up with activities for the kids to do to win candy or other prizes. The boys had a lot of fun and Bryson finally got his face painted! He has never wanted to do this before so we were pretty excited.

After Publix, we went trick or treating in our neighborhood. Will came with us for a little bit and Steven and Jessica joined us with Coby and Sophia too! A lot of people come to our neighborhood because there are a lot of houses very close together. It was a lot colder than we had planned so Martha, Will, and my parents didn't stay with us long. Steven, Jessica, Coby and Sophia did and Bryson had a blast with Coby. Once we finished our street, we went around to the townhomes on the next street. That's where we met Stevens family! It was great to see all those kids (and their Mommies and Daddies). We got half way down that street and Bryson was done. He was freezing! We walked back home and headed to Lisa's for dinner. I think he would have stayed out longer if it wasn't so cold and windy. He definitely enjoyed Halloween more this year than any other year!