East Coast Tour - Part 3, Aunt Jill and Uncle Nabil and Sesame Place!!!

For the last leg of our East Coast Tour, we headed to Aunt Jill and Uncle Nabil's house in Princeton, NJ. They were great sports to have all three of us, in their beautiful and clean (and child free) house. Within seconds of arriving, both kids exploded their backpacks of toys all over the living room floor, left unflushed treats in the potties, and a path of little dusty foot prints all the way across their shiny hardwood floors. But, like a good Aunt and Uncle they just smiled through it all. Most of our short visit there was consumed by our visit to Sesame Place!! For those of you not tuned in to all things child-centered, Sesame Place is basically a Sesame Street Themed-Six Flags, for kids under 10. All rides and games, and shows are meant for young kids. There is nothing there they couldn't do!


We started them off small (and tame), on the Merry-Go-Round. It was a HUGE hit. When given a choice to pick their favorite thing to do one more time before leaving at the end of the day, they both chose the Merry-Go-Round again.


Next were the spinning tea-cups. Aunt Jill was smart enough to opt out of this one, and wave to us from the side. I came off of it, on the nauseous side. The kids, of course, loved it.


Matthew, the dare devil, loved the swings, while his sister white-knuckled it, but made it through.

The hot air balloon ride was more her style, gentle and calm. Now, I have to tell you all that the most traumatizing ride of all was.....The Lazy River....no joke. Ellie was NOT happy with that ride. Once you are on, you are on. There is no getting off halfway. She got hit with one of the waterfalls shortly after we got in the tubes, and she cried the entire rest of the ride. Poor Aunt Jill did her best to keep them against the wall and out of the way of oncoming waterfalls...wow, that was a traumatic ride. Looking back, I can understand. That water falls with quite a force, and for a child who doesn't quite understand that this is "fun", it can be kind of scary.



We saw shows with the "real" Sesame Street characters. Matthew touched the "real" Elmo and said, eyes wide,"I touched Elmo. He was...so soft". We saw a parade, sat on the "real" Sesame Street stoop, ate ice cream, climbed in Big Birds Nest, and on our way out, seconds after our last ride, Matthew passed out cold. My original thought had been that this would be a one time trip, perfect for their ages now, but in the car back to Princeton, they were already taking about "next time". What fun!