Hello Lancaster!

At the ending of August we decided to take a trip to Lancaster Pennsylvania which is a 3 hour drive

from where we live.  We had heard a few things about Lancaster and couldn't wait to take Eli there.  

We loaded up our car and headed on the three hour drive.  Many of you know Eli was just recently potty trained so I was a little worried about how he would do. Surprisingly enough, we had no accidents whatsoever.  Eli told us when he had to go potty and held it till we made it to the next rest stop.  He is AMAZING! 

We arrived at Lancaster in the afternoon and headed straight to Dutch Wonderland.  

Dutch Wonderland is a theme park made specifically for families.  They have lot's of rides geared to toddlers.  Eli loved every single minute of it.  

The best thing about the park is that it can be done in a few hours in it's entirety.  It's just enough to keep their attention, get all of their energy out, but not too overwhelming.  

The only negative that I found about the park is that their cafeteria was not very good.  The food tasted a bit old.  I would recommend that you take your own food instead.  We did see a restaurant and perhaps that is better than the food in the cafeteria.  

 Leaving Dutch Wonderland with his football souvenir, he couldn't put down :) 

We called it a day and headed to the hotel we booked for the night. We knew it was too much to do 6 hours of driving in one day. I did my research and found the Double Tree Hotel in Lancaster.  The hotel was very child friendly, with a nice kiddie pool to burn out the rest of the energy Eli may have had after the park. From this picture you can tell it wasn't much :) 

Needless to say Eli didn't even have enough energy for us to go out to dinner so we ordered pizza and had a quick dinner in our room.  Our stay at the double tree was great.  Their hotel was very clean, and the staff was super friendly.  

DAY 2

The next morning we checked out and headed to the Cracker Barrel for some breakfast.  Eli was very satisfied lol 

There was one more surprise for Eli before we headed back home.  For the past few months Eli has really been into choo choo trains.  During our research for Dutch Wonderland I found out that there was a place near Lancaster that had old engine trains.  This place is called the Strasburg Railroad.  Not only do they have engine trains they have "THE" engine train of ALL engine trains... Thomas! I knew that this was perfect for Eli.  Unfortunately the weekend we went, Thomas was not running (it's only on certain dates so check before you go).  However we were hoping they would at least let us get a glimpse of him.  

Upon our arrival we got to see one of the engine trains arriving and Eli's face was truly priceless.  

Eli also got to meet the conductor 

Beautiful scenery of the country side 

The ride is about 40 minutes which is perfect for a toddler with a short attention span.  We got to look at the country side, cows, and horses. They also blew the whistle a lot and that was Eli's favorite part.  

And FINALLY... We got to take a peek at Thomas...  That face of excitement means EVERYTHING to me! He was a little upset that Thomas wasn't running, but I just told him that Thomas was tired and he was resting.  Overall we had an amazing trip to Lancaster and are thinking of going back soon.  

Luv 

Eli & Mommy.