Lehigh-Lafayette Weekend at Hope Lake Lodge

In our decision to move to campus, Braydon and I always factored in that there would be certain weekends and times of year that we’d have to go away. We knew there were a few key times that would be important for us to exit the scene — mainly Lehigh-Lafayette weekend, and the Eagles Summer Training Camp (and, in addition, possibly some Greek Week/Rush times as well… although, at this point, I’m pretty confident we won’t need to worry too much about those).

For our first Lehigh-Lafayette Weekend Away we decided to do something totally kid-centric and very unlike our daily-life-on-campus. We decided to go somewhere where we’d be practically guaranteed to not run into any college-aged students. A true Get-Away Mini-Vaca!

There was very little we needed to do to prep for this trip… other than this for Meera and I the Sunday before:

Friday afternoon we picked up the kids from the bus with the car packed. And then made the short 3-hour trek, to the Fingerlakes Region of New York, to Hope Lake Lodge. The main attraction for us? The Cascades Indoor Waterpark. We had never been to an indoor water park. It did not disappoint. And everyone there was pretty much either a parent or a (relatively) youngish child (i.e., no college kids). It was a great place to take a break from our reality.

The bambinos were in heaven! Their favorite part? The water slides.

We knew K & O would be in their glory. But we hadn’t anticipated how much Meera would love the water slides too. She is just like her brothers: a fearless, water-loving, ear-to-ear-smiling, fully-immersed-in-the-moment-of-it, little dare-devil. She rode those water slides again and again and again.

We had hoped it would be a great way to spend the weekend. It was. It was also an amazing bonding experience to get away from campus, just the five of us, and focus in on just our little family. By mid-morning Saturday I could already see the sibling bonding that was happening — it was awesome to see it. I guess an indoor water park can be a great place for family bonding. Who knew?! (That, alone, was worth every penny.)

We just had so much fun.

My favorite part was the indoor-outdoor heated swimming pool. We spent a lot of time in that pool that day. (And we all got quite a kick out of seeing the lifeguards in parkas, boots, and wool hats!)

The resort was really nice, which was great, because we spent the rest of our time just hanging out in our room. We did our own food for breakfasts and lunch, and got room service both nights for dinner. The kids watched a lot of Disney Channel (funny thing: they have no clue that we have Disney Channel at home… they somehow think that this is something that is only available at hotels!?!!! We’re not doing anything to correct them on that anytime soon). Braydon and I drank gin & tonics and talked and talked (our favorite pastime). We all went to bed late and woke up even later. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a lazy, sit-around-the-hotel-room, trip. The fact that our room/suite was so clean, cozy, and well-equipped made it possible to truly just sink in deep and relax.

After I got Meera to bed Saturday night, Braydon took the boys back to the water park for some late-night fun to max out our water park passes. They probably could have stayed there forever. I think we went for just the perfect amount of time: a quick, 2-night, weekend of water-logged fun. And then we came back home to a very tame (and quiet, tired, hung-over) campus on Sunday afternoon. A great Lehigh-Lafayette weekend for the J-Ms!