Spring Break

Just before Brielle's spring break, the Hershey Symphony traveled to New York to play at the Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall! Mama Judy flew in the weekend before so she could come hear us perform!

My amazing Visiting Teacher Eileen watched the kids all day for me since Brandon couldn't take off work that day. Mama and I rode on the symphony bus, which was nice not to worry about driving/parking ourselves! We arrived around lunch, so had some time to kill before rehearsal and the concert. We walked across the street to see the beautiful Manhattan temple, and were reminded that it's closed on Mondays haha! We got a picture of Mama Judy at the doors anyway :)  The American folk art museum was also closed, which was disappointing, we thought that would've been fun.

After some yummy seafood lunch we walked around the Lincoln center, taking pictures and listening to an audio tour of the venues there, like the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Ballet, and where the symphony plays. 

We had a little extra time to hunt down a treat....and ended up at Holey Cream where I got a giant donut ice cream sandwich!

The performance went well! We shared the program with a wind ensemble from Las Vegas and the Hershey Festival Strings (middle schoolers). Everyone did a beautiful job! The hall had great acoustics and an enthusiastic audience (I think almost everyone there was connected with one of the performing groups) The concert was recorded and can be seen here! We drove home that night on the bus and were so glad for the opportunity to play in such a great venue.

We had some fun playing outside, Carter loves the lawn mower!

We also went to Hershey Park and Carter loved riding the pony cart ride and the train. He was less enthusiastic about the mini scrambler that he went on with Lily!

Then it was off to the beach for spring break! We hadn't been to a beach in while and even though it was early in the season we really wanted to go. In order to find warmer temperatures we planned to go all the way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, over a 9 hour drive! This was our first car trip over 3 hours with all 3 kids.

Carter liked helping us to pack....

We left Wednesday after dinner and drove to Richmond where we stayed for the night. The next morning we had a yummy hotel breakfast and drove the rest of the way. We rented a 3 bedroom condo that was right on the beach and it was perfect! The first afternoon we played on the beach and swam in the indoor pool. The weather and water was perfect! We aren't ocean swimmers, so the water was pleasant enough for splashing in the waves. The kids loved the water, collecting shells and playing in the sand.

The moon that night was full and reddish orange. The photo doesn't show how orange it looked, it was so cool!

The next morning we saw the sunrise! And then headed over to South Myrtle Beach to get donuts and walk on the boardwalk.

We went out on the pier to get a nice view of the beach and the ferris wheel

We also walked through a giant candy store! The kids loved looking at all the treats and hamming it up for the camera. 

(click on this to get the full panoramic view!)

Besides every flavor of jelly beans and oversized candy of all kinds, there were special flavored items like bacon flavored lip gloss, tooth paste, gum, etc. haha!

That afternoon Carter took a good nap while the girls played on the beach some more. 

That night we put the kids to bed and went on a date to Fire and Smoke gastropub for some fancy food! The duck confit nachos were the highlight for me, but the cajun shrimp and grits, steamed lobster tail, and bison and wild boar meatloaf were all delicious!

 We loved visiting the beach! It was a bummer to have to leave so soon, but we needed to be home for Easter Sunday! Thank goodness Mama Judy was with us to watch the kids during our date, stay with Carter while he napped, and entertain him during the looooong drive home. We started our day with breakfast at a pancake house which was of course super yummy, then made good time considering we had to stop for bathroom breaks, lunch and play time, more break times, gas, potty accidents, get through weekend DC traffic.....haha okay maybe it wasn't great time, but we made it in one piece and are so glad we got to take a little vacation!