So the plane ride was ok. Not awful, not great. The kids reached their limit about 90 minutes into the two hour flight. Natalie had some motion sickness, Ben got sick of Natalie being able to reach him and give him smooches for two hours. It was a packed flight, and luckily we were sitting next to a very patient 20-something guy who shared his funny pages from his newspaper with the kids.
Our first order of business on day 2 was to play outside! We found a playground...
...with lots of birds right next to it.
love the physique in shorts
kid loves to swing
And then there's Natalie.
She was swinging on the equipment, climbing, sliding, jumping. You name it, she was doing it. She's fearless. I love that about her.
Natalie and Pa, solving the world's problems.
Once you're in Ben's inner circle, I think you've got a spot for life.
He and Pa did some real bonding.
Natalie taught some older kids how to jump off a giant pretend rock on the playground.
While they were discussing how safe it was and if they'd get in trouble for doing it, Natalie took it in for a few minutes then bailed off. This was her warm up, apparently.
When slightly cooler temps moved in, we opted for the Lion Country Safari Park in West Palm Beach instead of the zoo. If you're ever in the West Palm area, I highly recommend this. I didn't want to bore you with the 75 pictures I had of all the different animals, but there were tons of animals, and they were super active and very close to the road. The park offers about 5 miles of driving through open range type enclosures full of various types of animals. And lots of them. Like 20 zebras and 10+ rhinos (versus the 1 or 2 that you might see at the zoo). It was very cool. The safari portion was followed by a walk through zoo/amusement park that was perfect for Natalie and Ben. Older kids might be a little bored by the few rides, but there were some animals and animal shows. It was a really fun day.
Ostrich crossing
water buffalo right in front of our car
this herd was running across in front of us...my favorite part of the day
zebras!
The kids got a little restless towards the end of the driving part
tell me that baby rhino is not one of the cutest things you've ever seen!
Ben scoping out the giraffes.
out of the car at last!
the best I could do...
(I'm loving Ben looking just like an old man)
helping little brother ride the train
Natalie rode a camel. By herself.
She's amazing.
It was her turn next. She was studying the camel and the rider before her,
very patiently waiting her turn.
a little help into the seat
Seriously.
Then, Miss Daredevil got to ride the ferris wheel...whose baskets were shaped like hot air balloons.
What a dream for a small fry. Can you see her little face peeking out?
buckling up to head home
Natalie was pretty much as adorable as any kid could be when we got on the plane to go home. We lucked out with getting one of two rows on the entire plane that wasn't full, which meant we were able to spread out. The flight attendant came by to check on us and Natalie was very excited. She said hi, then said, "My name is Natalie Beth. This is my brother Benjamin Kranz" (then smooched him right on the cheek). Finally, she pointed at me and said, "And that is Mama." The flight attendant, and everyone in a 3-row radius, were just delighted.
After a week of bad sleep by Ben, a bad cold that Natalie caught, and generally a lot of togetherness in cramped quarters we were ready to be home. We had a wonderful time (and so appreciate our hosts for having us), but with a sick baby and a tired baby, the comforts of home were calling.
That is...until we stepped off the plane and it was below zero, I hauled to super crabby kids through the airport, our car in long-term parking was under several inches of snow, and I had to wrestle the car seats back into the car in the gale force winds with no winter coat, hat or gloves. Instantly, I wanted 60 degrees back!
No comments:
Post a Comment