Last year Aidan participated in the Boston Public Library’s Read Your Way to Fenway.  It required kids to read three books and write about one of them.  1500 tickets are awarded throughout the branches of the library.  Aidan was so excited!

Then Hurricane Irene came.  The game was postponed until later in the evening and was held in the midst of the storm blowing in.  Come to find out it was also the weekend that signified the beginning of the end of the 2011 season, Tito, Theo and the team as we knew.  I wrote about it here.

So this year there was a lot of excitement when not just Aidan but also Brendan got to go to the game!  Of course it was a hot day and they didn’t last long but what we saw was great.  This year year’s team drama was the big trade that included “star players” who headed of to LA.  Only time will tell how monumental this weekend’s game was!

Oh and somehow the boys ended up on the publicity poster-

This year we decided on a road trip for a family vacation.  Since we just got the new car we figured why not add 2,000 miles?!  We decided on three places- Hickory, North Carolina to visit Chris’ cousin’s family (we have never met 2 year old Samantha), Baltimore, Maryland to see the Red Sox at Camden Yards and Hershy, Pennsylvania because we love chocolate.  Each place would be a two night stay for a total of 7 days, 6 nights away.  Our longest trip away from home together.

I took care of snacks, packing and itinerary.  Chris had a much more important job- entertainment.  He purchased Nook colors for both kids (and headphones!) and spent weeks loading videos (thanks Parisi’s!) on them.  There must be about 50 movies on them!!  Nana and Papa also gave the kids activity boxes just before we left. We were good to go!

The drive to North Carolina was long- almost 15 hours!  About 2 hours in to the drive, Brendan got sick.  Lesson learned, don’t give a 5 year old a bag of chocolate donuts!  Otherwise with stops along the way, we did pretty well.  Lots of silence and even nap time!!  North Carolina is beautiful!  We loved seeing Ellee, Scott and Samantha.  We enjoyed feeding ducks, playing at a playground, mini golf and delicious food.  Samantha likes to be read to and Aidan likes to read.  She also like to say Brendan is silly!

Next up was Baltimore.  A shorter drive (about 6 hours).  After getting to our hotel, we spent time in the pool.  The next day we went to the Baltimore Science Center.  It was awesome!!  Everything there was so cool!  The kids loved it!  Great exhibits, lots of hands on activities and experiments!  It was a great time.  And funny enough, lots of children with Red Sox shirts (including ours).  That night we went to the Sox game.  Camden Yards is great (and lots of empty seats!).  The kids lasted through the 6th inning (and when we left they were winning, but that changed).  It was a perfect summer night- popcorn, peanuts, pretzel and baseball.

The ride to Hershey was shortest, about 2 hours.  We got on the road Thursday morning and were at Hershey when it opened.  It was a hot day!  The kids liked all the chocolate themed parts to the park.  Ultimately their favorite place was the water park and wave pool.  We went to the Chocolate Experience before leaving and got to learn (via tour ride) about how chocolate is made.  We then made our own chocolate!!

The next day we went to the Hershey Museum.  This was another great museum.  The kids learned about the Mayans who first made chocolate.  They were apprentices and discovered lots of cool facts about Milton Hershey and we all got to go to a chocolate tasting!  And again made our own chocolate.  It was great!!

Saturday we drove home- about 8 hours.  And this time it was Aidan who got sick, just before lunch (yuck!).  The ride home seemed long mostly because we hit New York traffic.  We made it home by late afternoon.  Then we were able to celebrate Chris’ birthday!

It was a really fun trip- better than we expected!!  I was able to tweet parts of it (when I wasn’t driving too!)  All our pictures are on my facebook page!