The "second happiest place on earth"

It has been said that "the happiest place on earth" is Disney World. I'd like to believe that it is our own home, thank you very much. (Well, we are holding off on the Disney trip until Liam is a little older. We want to wait and expose him to more Disney stuff little by little, so that it all makes sense to him when we do go. I suspect, it won't be for a few years.) So, what is "the second happiest place on earth"? That for many is debatable. We put it to a vote and have agreed, that for our little family, Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA might very well be "the second happiest place on earth" right now.

We had been there once before and loved it since we are such huge fans of Sesame Street. As you may recall, it rained for just about the entire two days we were there last year. Well, I am happy to report that this time, we had two, fun-filled "sunny days!" Hooray! Again, we were able to spend the two days (Thursday and Friday of last week) at Sesame Place and stay at a nearby hotel all with our credit card points! What did Liam think of the hotel room now that he's older? He suggested that we drive back home, because "this place doesn't have a kitchen." 

We took very little photos this time around since we decided that I would join in on the fun and do all the rides with the family. As I explained in the post before, we are trying to keep the incessant picture taking to a minimum. You tend to miss some of the fun in making memories when you are stuck behind the camera as opposed to being an active participant in the fun. Sure, we would love to capture it all in photos, but sometimes, it just isn't possible to take pictures and have fun at the same time. This is especially true while doing the water rides at Sesame Place.

We rented a locker for our towels and change of clothes, and we only took with us our 99-cent flip flops and our money in a little waterproof container that hung around our neck. The weather was very hot and humid, so we didn't mind walking around all sopping wet from one wet ride to the next. 

Liam experienced his very first roller coaster (this one called Grover's "Vapor Trail"). Much to our surprise, he loved it and asked to ride it again and again. I, on the other hand, didn't enjoy it much. I used to ride the roughest rides at Great Adventure when I was a teen, but I really don't enjoy the vertigo. (This just started happening after giving birth to Liam.) 

Liam rode on one water ride with daddy ("Sesame Streak", basically just a ride on a tube down a slide) and then we all went on another ride ("Sky Splash") where we all hopped on a raft and slid down splashing heavily at the end of the ride at the bottom. We really enjoyed riding on "Big Bird's Rambling River" (otherwise known as the "Lazy River") on inflatable tubes, the three of us, holding on to each other's tubes and letting the river take us along. At times we floated directly in through some water falls and sprinklers much to Liam's delight since I always happened to be the first one to float directly to it. 

Of course, we couldn't miss "The Count's Splash Castle", and we spent quite a bit of time there. Liam, an expert now*, at going down the slide, went several times down the easy yellow one first (half pipe, curved). Then, to our surprise he moved on to the green one that was partially enclosed. I was hesitant, but Liam, of course, loved it. When we all started to see our fingers and toes all prune-y, we decided to dry up. 

We then headed over to have a buffet dinner with the characters. At dinner, the characters went around to each table to say hello to the children. Here are a few fun pics we took at dinner:

Liam thought it was hilarious that Ernie was taking a sip of Liam's chocolate milk.

Here Liam is showing Ernie a little Ernie figurine that we picked up at the gift shop.

Cookie monster taking a sip of daddy's slushie...

...and then offering some to Liam. So cute!

Zoe also stopped at our table to say hi...

...but Liam's favorite moment was the one and only chance he got to be close to Elmo.

(Sorry about this picture, Elmo!)

After dinner, we went on a few dry rides and then bid farewell to Sesame Place. We may go back again before the summer is up, but just for the day. We missed out on some shows because of all the water activity. Little Liam wanted to be in the water all the time, and who could blame him with all the crazy hot weather we had those two days.

*Last year, Liam only went down the slides at the playground that went straight down. I thought it would be best for better control. Well, at Sesame Place last year, Daddy took him to the half pipe, curved, slide (the easy yellow one) on the "Count's Splash Castle". I thought he would sit Liam on his lap and slide down together. I couldn't see them go down, but when I saw Bill come down alone first, I panicked and started screaming. Then, I saw Liam come down and land at the bottom with his hair all pushed to one side of his head, coughing and coughing. I was so upset, but Liam, between coughs, kept saying, "Again! Again!". The rest of that summer was spent looking for the same kind of curvy slides at the playground so that he could practice. This year, he had no problem handling the slides at Sesame Place. Thank goodness.