To Be Continued...

A few months ago, right after school finished up for the year, we decided to take a spontaneous trip to Hershey, PA and to Amish Country. We had a great time staying in the Cocoa Suite, touring the chocolate factory, eating Amish baked goods, and visiting authentic Amish sites that lay within 5 feet of a Target. Unfortunately, contrary to our plans, we never did get to go to Hershey Park due to the torrential downpours that day.

We had envisioned returning again soon, to finish what we started there, but unfortunately between Scout Camp, Youth Conference, Girls' Camp, and High Adventure we never really found a big enough hole in our schedule to make the trip. Then by the time Glen and Spencer returned from their trip to Maine with High Adventure, Spencer's football practices had started en force.

I, personally, didn't think it would be that big of a deal to miss a couple of summer practices, after all it is still summer, but I am not a teen-age boy playing high school football for the first time. Spencer has remained adamantly opposed to missing a single practice, even with the promise of a fun beach trip or return trip to Hershey in its place.

Last night Spencer had his first scrimmage of the season. It did not go as well as he'd hoped, but afterwards we got a big surprise. No practices over the Labor Day weekend.

Hmmmm, it was 8:30pm on Thursday night when we first heard this. Could we pull a quick trip out of town with that short of notice? We'd have to wait and see if Glen would be able to get off work in time to do anything about it, but we were tantalized by the suddenly open spot in our schedule on our last weekend of the summer!

After a morning filled with orientations (middle school and high school) and other excitements, Glen finally popped in right about 3:30.

We still had no idea what we were going to do, but we were determined to do something to take advantage!

We checked the weather report for tomorrow (81 degrees and sunny), did some last minute finagling, and some quick packing, and then jumped in the car...

We sat in traffic for a while and have now safely arrived into the exact same room (Cocoa Suite) that we stayed in two and a half months ago. The kids are so excited about a day at Hershey Park tomorrow (even though both Spencer and Cami are missing birthday parties to be here).

It all came together so nicely, despite the last minute planning. Too bad Emma didn't let us know before we left though, that she was going to suddenly lose her appetite and develop a fever of 101 degrees between home and here.

We assume it's the same nasty bug that brought Ellie down a few days ago, with a fever, vomiting, and headache....not fun even if you're at home in your own comfortable bed, but downright miserable stuck in a car for hours and on your feet all day at an amusement park. Ack! This is not quite what we envisioned our trip to Hershey Park to be...

So what do we do? Drag a sick, miserable eight-year-old around an amusement park with us all day? Have one of us stay back here at the hotel with her and let her rest until we have to check out? Give her alternating doses of Motrin and Tylenol and hope for the best? Or just jump back in the car and take another tour of Amish country, get lots of whoopie pies, and drive through Gettysburg on the way home?

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