Poconos 2014

Warning: This is going to be a monster, mammoth post with a ton of photos. I used to split up the Poconos posts into each individual day, but I’m already far enough behind where I’ll just stick it all together. Be prepared!

This was our eighth consecutive year traveling to the Poconos for a big family get-together. I’ve been going pretty regularly since I was a child, but once all of us kids got into our teen and college years, it was too difficult to coordinate schedules and we let it fall to the wayside for a while. But I’m so glad we’ve picked it back up again and have been making this a tradition—not only for ourselves, but for our children, too. Nora loves the Poconos and was REALLY looking forward to going this year. And boy, was she sad when we were leaving to come back home!

We drove down on a Wednesday night after work, stopped only for a quick bathroom break and to get our traditional frosties at Wendy’s, and got to the Poconos around 9:45 p.m. Unpacked the car, settled in a little bit, and tucked the kids into bed around 11:00. And then all of us adults were up until 1:00 a.m. talking and catching up. Yikes! And go figure, despite the late bedtime, our girls were up at 6:00 a.m. Ouch.

It was a beautiful day, though, so we took advantage and spent some time down at the pond (I guess it’s technically a tiny lake, according to my brother) in the late morning. Nora and Hunter were eager to head down there with their bathing suits and fishing poles.

After doing some fishing (with her new princess fishing pole, girly girls unite!), Michael took Nora out in the kayak. She LOVED that.

Trevor took Hunter out on the paddle board and they were all having a grand ol’ time.

Meanwhile, Kara and I relaxed in the gazebo with the babies…

Vivienne tried to eat Sadie again. You know, the usual.

I love this pic of Vivi. She is so sweet, but such a little terror, too. I’m pretty sure her toddlerhood is going to run us completely ragged. This girl is ON.THE.MOVE.

We relaxed on the deck/porch in the afternoon while thunderstorms rolled in. The big kids played with Play-Doh and the adults had a few beers and appetizers. We moved inside for dinner, then afterward, Tyler, Marie, and Bryce arrived. After all of the kids were in bed, we played Cards Against Humanity. Michael and I had never played before—such a fun game when you’re with the right group of people! :)

The next morning, we woke up to rain. Thankfully, the girls let us sleep in for a bit (probably mostly due to the gloomy weather). Everyone eventually got up, had a big breakfast, and then we made plans to go to the outlet mall. We were originally going to all go together—kids and all—but then my mom and Susan decided they were going to stay back… and offered to watch ALL FIVE KIDS for us!! Michael, Trevor, Kara, Tyler, Marie and I all BOLTED as soon as we heard that offer. We didn’t want them to have time to change their minds! We all packed into our car (minivan for the win!) and headed out for the afternoon.

It was the 4th of July, so first, we stopped at a fireworks store to buy $100 worth of fireworks to have our own personal show over the lake that night. Then we hit up a few stores at the outlet mall, then stopped off at a grocery store to replenish our beer supply—which took WAYYYYYY longer than expected (for all of you Pennsylvanians out there… man, you guys have some messed up liquor laws!). By this time, the weather had cleared up so we were anxious to get back to the house.

We had the ENTIRE group together for a very brief period of time, so we organized everyone out in front of the property to take our traditional group photo. It’s amazing how this photo has changed over time—I think I need to do a comparison post sometime where I compile all of these group pics together. It would be hilarious if I could gather the ones that my mom has from my childhood as well!

That afternoon/night, we played and talked outside, ate dinner outside, and then waited around for it to get dark enough for fireworks.

One of the stops we made at the outlet mall was at Gap. I’m sure you can’t tell, right? :) Such great deals on their hoodies, I couldn’t resist picking up one for all three of us!

This is the first year we’ve let Nora stay up late enough for fireworks. She had taken a good nap earlier in the day, so we knew she’d be able to handle it this year. Vivienne went to bed as usual and managed to sleep through them all.

When it was dark enough, we all went down and sat on the dock at the pond. My brother was in charge of the lighting the fireworks display and it turned out really well. It’s kind of impressive how good of a fireworks display $100 can buy you. Nora covered her ears for most of it, but she was smiling the whole time. About 30 seconds after it was over, she was asking when we could see fireworks again, so it’s safe to say that she loved it.

Afterward, we walked back up the hill and put Nora to bed, then played some more Cards Against Humanity.

On Saturday, we woke up to beautiful weather, which was good because Vinny had made a reservation for us to rent a pontoon boat for the afternoon. We relaxed around the house in the morning, played outside for a bit.

Vivienne looks really tough in this photo. I wouldn’t mess with her and her puzzle pieces, you guys. :)

Right around lunchtime, we packed everyone up and headed out to Lake Wallenpaupack. We got to the marina, got the kids fitted for life jackets, and loaded everyone on the boat. The lake was quite choppy, but it was still really nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air, water, and sunshine.

We brought lunch on the boat for the kids, and snacks and beer for ourselves. We cruised around the lake for quite a while, stopped at Vinny’s brother’s place (right on the lake!) to swim for a few minutes, then loaded back up to head back to the marina. The babies had reached their limit of tolerance for the life jackets (well, at least Vivienne had—Sadie is a little more laidback about the matter), and it was getting to be close to dinnertime.

By this time, Nora was running on empty, too. She actually fell asleep sitting up in Michael’s arms on the way back to the marina. This NEVER happens. Tired girl!

Once we were back at the house, it was more of the same—hanging out outside, dinner outside, kids to bed. We made a fire in the fire pit and talked for a while, but then everyone turned in to go to bed pretty early.

When we woke up the next morning, we all began the process of packing up all of our things and taking off for the drive back home. *sigh* Another year down! It’s always a little depressing when the Poconos trip is over for the year. Already looking forward to the next!