What is better than a long weekend? A long weekend with beautiful weather! We were lucky to have a 3 day weekend for Columbus Day and the weather forecast was absolutely perfect with temperatures in the upper 70's. Sure, it didn't feel one bit like fall, but we weren't complaining! We had big plans for the weekend and we were looking forward to spending it outside.
On Saturday, we started the day with our weekly Gymboree class. From there, we went to lunch and headed to the pumpkin farm for a corn maze, hayride, and picking pumpkins. It is hard to believe when we went to this same farm last year, Camryn had just started walking. Although, it was a very similar day with weather reaching almost 80! This year, we thought we would also tackle the 5 acre corn maze. Yeah, I am not sure what we were thinking. We really should have used the map they gave us rather than letting Camryn lead the way. The novelty ended fairly quickly. We finally ended up coming back out the entrance and we were happy to be done. Camryn yelled, "we did it!!!" Um, yeah, sure we did. After that, we went on the hayride (which actually had no hay) to the pumpkin patch. By that point, Camryn was fairly tired, but we managed to get a few pumpkins to take home. We finally made it home and Camryn crashed for a very long nap.
On Sunday, we planned on spending the day at Dutch Wonderland. We had bought 2-day flex tickets when we went earlier in the summer, but we hadn't used them yet. Seeing as how this was the last weekend for the park to be open for normal hours, we decided we better use them. As we all know, Camryn loves rides and was so excited to go! As soon as we got in the parking lot, she started yelling, "Dutch Wonderwand, Dutch Wonderwand"!!!! When we are there, she is in charge and she tells us where she wants to go and what she wants to ride. It is priceless to see her there - she is totally in her element. It was fairly busy, but she was very patient and waited her turn for the rides. When it was finally our turn, she was overflowing with excitement each and every time. Once again, she loved the Frog Hopper and the Wonder Whip and, of course, those hands were way up in the air!!
On Monday, we decided to have a more low-key day. It was still absolutely beautiful outside, so we went to a local park so we could enjoy more of the beautiful weather. Long's Park is a huge park in Lancaster that has a pond, a playground, and a petting zoo. Camryn loves playing on the playground (who doesn't??), so we set her loose. She spent quite a while climbing up to the top of the slide and sliding down. When she got tired of that, she decided she wanted mommy to take her picture as she jumped off the ledge at the edge of the playground. She has recently mastered her jumping skills and it is one of her favorite things to do. This was the first time she decided to be daring and jump off of something instead of just jumping in the air. She fell a few times, but she got right back up and tried again. After a while, she was landing on her feet like a pro and saying "ta da". Then, we explored the huge playground some more, did some swinging, and took a walk to see the animals. The petting zoo is closed for the season, but we still got to see them through the fence. It was getting close to nap time and Camryn didn't want to leave, but we managed to get in the car to go home. She was all but sleeping by the time we got home and we all got a really long nap. There is nothing like a fun day at the playground to tire everyone out.
Now, we are back to work (and not happy about it). I am just hoping the weekend is here soon!! I have a bunch of pictures to post of our fun weekend, so I will try to do that soon.
Camryn should have had a big girl bed a long time ago. We planned on getting one over the summer, but we decided to focus on potty training instead. We didn't want her to have too many changes at once. To make a long story short, we procrastinated getting her a new bed until this past weekend. As with everything else we have presented to her, she took right to it. She was so excited to see her new bed and climbed right into it. When it was finally time for her to go to bed that night, we sat for a minute in her chair like we always do. I was expecting some resistence when I told her it was time to go to sleep, but she didn't fight one bit. She climbed in it, got comfy, and went to sleep. It was an extremely easy transition. She still yells for us in the morning like she can't get up herself, but I am sure that will end soon! 
