Elmo, Big Bird, I Coming!

On Friday Sarah and I went out and enjoyed an evening without the children. We started with a lovely dinner on a cozy couch at the Iron Bridge Wine Company. After sampling a number of tasty red wines, enjoying the cuisine, and finishing it off with a nice dessert, we did what any sophisticated 30-something couple would do for a nightcap. Yep, we saw Hangover Part II. As was the first movie, it was funny but over the top and not meant for the easily offended crowd.

So let's see, what does a couple who enjoys both sophisticated dinners and raunchy movies do for the weekend. By the title of the blog you might have guessed it has something to do with Sesame Street. But why settle for watching the characters on TV when you can get wet and wild with them at a Sesame street themed water park just outside of Philadelphia. Technically the park is closer to Trenton, NJ, which is nice because we were forced to drive through Delaware, Penn., and NJ doubling Tyler's state count to 6 (see counter on the right for details of his state visits). Anyway, we prepped Claire for what she was about to see and as we drew closer she could barely contain her excitement. And then, after a fairly easy 2.5 hour drive, we arrived in the parking lot. Its hard to imagine a toddler who doesn't get excited about everything, but its equally hard to imagine it possible for a toddler to be as excited as Claire was when we arrived. After all, the only idols that her young mind has ever had (besides her parents of course) were a few shorts jumps away. So, as we were getting Tyler out of the car along with all the other parents in the parking lot, Claire, no longer able to contain herself, let out a tremendous "Elmo, Big Bird, I coming!" roar that echoed off the surronding minivans. Parents laughed and children cried (they were already crying for various other reasons, but it makes the sentence sound better.

Lucky for Claire, she didn't have to wait any longer and we began walking toward the park. As a funny aside as we were leaving the parking lot and about to go into the park, another delirously excited parent decided she couldn't wait in line to pay and park her car and drove into the parking lot through the exit. You know, the exits with the big signs that say "Danger, Severe Tire Damage. Do not Enter". What's very interesting about this, is none of us had ever seen this happen before and I assumed that the car would basically be disabled on the spot and require a tow. But in actuality, the woman was able to back her car back over the spikes (the correct way this time) and drive away. Her tires didn't look deflated, but there was a definite loud boom when her car initially crossed the spikes.

As I usually do with my blog posts, I've strayed from the point.... After entering the park, the next 7 and a half hours were a full on action packed blur filled with watery playgyms, cookie monster towers, bouncy mats, tidal pools, lazy rivers, intertubes, carnival games, giant rope structures, water slides, hot air balloon rides carousels, food, and of course all of the loveable characters from Sesame Street. Claire enjoyed all of this, but her favorite part was meeting all the characters. She never warmed up to the 9 foot tall Big Bird, but she gave hugs and kisses to everyone else. Amazingly she was keeping a mental list of who she'd seen and after seeing Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar, Grover, Bert, Ernie, Zoe, and the Count, she was very adamant about seeing Cookie Monster and Abby. It was at this point that we found out that Cookie and Abby were not coming out again for photos and this almost broke Claire's little heart. However, we were saved by perhaps the best part of the day, the Sesame Street parade.
It didn't start until 9pm which is long past Claire's and every other toddler in the park's bedtime. However, none of them were crying, none were fussing, they were all sitting patiently cross-legged along the streets of a replicated Sesame Street lined with authentic looking Sesame Street buildings. At precisely 9pm, the street quickly became filled with lights, giant floats, music, singing and dancing animals and humans and seeing it was worth every penny of the $58 a person admission. Every single character, including Cookie and Abby came out on a float and even Tyler could hardly contain his excitement. His eyes widened and he laughed hysterically as we all enjoyed the wonderful parade. Claire tried desperately to get Cookie's attention, but the sounds of the parade easily drowned out a little girls "Hi Cookie!" calls.

Ah what a day. And you know the best part... the tickets are good for two days and we can use them anytime between now and October. But don't tell Claire, as we want it to be a surprise!