Mass Trip- Cape Cod Day 3

Today, my sister, N, planned for us to head out to Heritage Museum's Hidden Hollow in Sandwich, MA.  It was super cool, and I feel like I could have easily spent all day there, if we didn't have to get kids back for naps.  We didn't get to see the antique car museum or the special Porter Rockwell exhibit they had going on.  The grounds were also very extensive and beautiful and I feel like we only really saw a small portion, but such is life when you have young'uns in tow.  We'll just have to go back again :)

Packing the picnic- the sandwich line up

 We spent most of our time in this kids' play and explore area where there were all sorts of great nature-centric fun activities for kids.  I HEART that the whole place was well-shaded and I was very inspired by some easy activities we could maybe do at home.  Some things not pictured are a playhouse, a puppet show area, binoculars for animal watching, and so many other stations I can't remember.

The hut building station was especially cool.  They had 3 large sticks that were sort of permanently tied  into a teepee, and then a pile of others for you to add onto it any way you wanted, with a bunch of fabric strips to use to cover it.

Uncle J and cousin L's fort

They had wooden blocks, and here, The Frog is looking at the "blocks" made of thick sticks, sawed into about 1-4 inch pieces.

And here's peach building towers with them.

 Our family set up a picnic right there so we could eat and watch and the kids could come and grab bites and run off again, kid style.

 They had several really cool xylophone-like instruments made of wood, in several sizes.

 We overheard another family talking about riding the free carousel again and we decided we had better check it out.

Cousin A, Auntie E, and cousin L

We, of course, couldn't leave without riding it about 4 times...

Peach, Daddy and The Frog

Cousin C and Uncle J

The Frog usually wants to sit in these on carousels, which I think is so funny.  For me, I always wanted to ride an animal that wasn't a horse.

This place was sooo big and thankfully, they had a "shuttle" that would take you back to the entrance when you were ready to leave.  We miraculously all fit and I made everyone sit tight for a picture.

 Of course, The Frog didn't want to participate and jumped off...

the runaway

 After naps, The Frog convinced Jay to swim with him again in the salty water.

 And after another delicious dinner (Auntie E, I meant to ask you for that recipe...) some of us went out for ice cream.

This is how he looked right when we sat down.  By the end...  **shaking head**

Jay always goes for a vanilla malt

Cousin L is always generous with grins

Peach let me "help" her with her potential drips, so she actually stayed pretty clean...

Peach on sugar, in the car ride home

 More random play ensued on the front lawn

 And we somehow managed to get all 6 kids in a photo together:

Watching the fun

 I thought this was hilarious...  Apparently, ticks are a major threat at the cape, and the D-family has discovered that Uncle J's lighted bike helmet is the best way to find them.  Here's Auntie N performing the nightly tick check:

And that wraps up the first part of our trip visiting family in Massachusetts.  The next morning, we all just packed up, cleaned out, and went our separate ways, though our vacation was still just getting started.

To be continued...