The Very Short Vacation

We left on Monday afternoon, and made our first stop at an indoor water park. We got there after 4pm, when the price of admission is cut from $16 to $6. So much more reasonable! Emma was shy about getting in the water, and Ashlyn hated it at first. The place was nearly empty, which was good, because I don’t think Emma would ever have gotten in if it had been packed with kids. Even though it wasn’t crowded, it was very loud in there. They had a giant wooden bucket on top of the play area that filled up and tipped over with a loud crash of water about ever 60 seconds. That took some getting used to. After we’d been there for a while, Ashlyn began to think the crashing water was about the funniest thing she’d seen. There was a little chime you’d hear about 5 seconds before the bucket would tip. When she heard that, Ashlyn would turn and point, and then laugh when the water crashed down on everything. And as time went, she also got more brave about walking around the wading pool area, touching the water sprinklers, and swimming with mom or dad in the kiddie pool.


Speaking of brave, they had two very long water slides that looped around outside of the building and came back in. Emma saw them and said she wanted to ride them. She was just barely tall enough to qualify to ride. Dakota and I each went down the “easy” one first to see if we thought she could handle it. We had our doubts, but she insisted that she wanted to do it. They had a very small water slide in the play area, and we told her if she could go down that by herself 3 times without getting scared, then we would let her go down the big one. She quickly took her 3 turns, and then took off for the tower of stairs to the top of the big slides. I waited at the bottom of the slide for her, and after what seemed like forever, she finally came down. She said it was fun, but also a little bit scary, and decided that one trip down was enough for her. We told her she had been brave and we were proud of her for trying it.

After the water park, we grabbed some food to go and headed for the B&B we would call home for the next few days. It was a great little place Emma and I had stayed in before, during a “girl’s weekend” with my mom and sisters. We had the upstairs to ourselves, which included a family room, full kitchen and bathroom, large master bedroom, and small bedroom for the girls. It was clean, well decorated, and offered lots of space for the girls to run around. Plus, it cost about the same, if not less, than staying in a hotel room! (But side note: always check your bills before paying. The B&B’s website said the price was based on a 4 person occupancy, but we were charged an “extra person” fee for the girls. The lady tried to explain it by dividing up rooms and such. But any way you do the math, we’re still only 4 people occupying the one advertised space. It’s still a great little place and I’d recommend it to friends, but I’d also recommend you check your bill before leaving.)

One other great thing about the B&B is that it was about a block off of the main street in the Amana town we were in. So the next morning, we got ourselves together and set out for a walk around town. The streets were full of older-era buildings, German restaurants, and lots of neat shops. Some of my favorites were a gift shop with lots of good kid’s books and random, unique gifts; Little Red Wagon, which is a fun toy store with a mix of old and new toys; and the bakery, which had all sorts of breads, jams, pastries, and more. They also had a chocolate house and a fudge shop, but Emma didn’t want to spend any time in them, since she has a peanut allergy, and they said their goodies were not peanut allergy safe. I can’t blame her, though. Who wants to look at displays full of candies and chocolates that you can’t have? Too bad.

By the way, here's a picture showing Emma with the same rooster 2 years ago. Big difference!


Later in the afternoon we drove around to the other, smaller Amana towns. One town has the largest rocking chair in IA. It was kind of neat to see that.


After touring all the colonies, we headed for the big city! We drove to Coralville, near Iowa City, to get some dinner and check out a thrift store we always pass on our way to Chicago, but never bother to stop at. It’s probably good that we don’t live anywhere near this store (Stuff ‘n’ Things), and also that our time was considerably limited by two tired little girls, because I could have spent all day there! It was the largest consignment store I’d ever been in, and oh, the deals!! It’s really not the kind of store you can leave empty-handed. We walked out with a shirt for Dakota and several family games. (It was toy and game day in the store, so all toys and games were marked down an extra 30% on top of it’s already-cheap-garage-sale price!) I wanted to look at the books and kid’s clothes, too, but there was no way to do that and get me out by closing time. Another time, perhaps…

On Wednesday, we met with our friends, Roger and Nancy Charley, for lunch. We had some gift cards to the Olive Garden burning a hole in our pocket, so we treated them and caught up on all the latest happenings. Roger and Nancy were kind of like surrogate parents at college. Roger was the campus minister at the Christian Campus House, where I lived for two years. He commented that he feels kind of like a grandpa now, keeping in touch with and hearing the stories of all the CCH alum, who are busy raising their own kids now.

After lunch, we went to explore the Children’s Museum. It was a very neat museum with lots of hands-on play exhibits, including a mini grocery store, pizza parlor, construction site, farm, an ambulance and hospital, an arts and crafts studio and more. The girls had a great time running around and playing in all the different rooms. One of Emma’s favorites was a room that had exhibits about kids all over the world. The lives of a dozen or so children were shown through models, pictures, and objects the kids could try out for themselves. Emma was most drawn to the one that showed a Vietnamese girl, and told about how the girl had to go out and collect firewood every day. There was a basket with pretend wood that Emma would go “hide” somewhere and then say she had to go out and collect it. I would say that was probably her favorite exhibit.

The one room Emma refused to go in was the hospital. She said if she went in there, they might think she was hurt, and she didn’t want to have to go to the real hospital. Ashlyn, on the other hand, had no problem exploring that room. She had a great time driving the ambulance and trying out a walker. She also liked the maternity area they had set up, but mostly because there was a little bathtub that she could climb into. But as much as Ashlyn liked the hospital, I think she liked the room with the balls and slides more. One room showed the effects of gravity with several ball experiment stations. And of course, for the little ones, what demonstrates gravity better than a slide? Ashlyn could have stayed on that the whole time we were there and been quite happy about it.

Around mid afternoon, it was obvious the girls were getting tired and it was time for us to go. So we got in the van and headed for home. It’s always nice to be home again, but boy, that sure felt like one very short vacation. I wouldn’t mind staying away for extra day or two next time.