"The Sweetest Place on Earth" brings out the family in EVERYONE!

Hershey Park, better known as "The Sweetest Place on Earth," certainly has its charm.  With tons of amazing roller coasters, an awesome water area called the Boardwalk, and great grub wherever you turn, it's hard to have a less-than-fabulous time.  It's doubly (if not infinitely) sweet when you have someone like Jeff to share it with...and not just because he's my bestest, my hubs!  No, Jeff is just so joyful when he's at our local treasure-it's sort of like he's a kiddo all over again.  He gets so excited to go on rides he loved as a li'l guy, like the Trailblazer (a train-shaped rollercoaster that makes a double loop around a tall set of trees) or the Coal Coal Cracker, a log-flume like ride that makes me nostalgic for Kennywood.

Last year, we were very excited to go to Hershey on Jeff's work's dime (he received free tickets).  We had a great time, rode a lot of different rides, and made it to the Boardwalk, where we quenched our sun-plagued skin with a good dousing of chlorinated H2O.  We were not newly engaged, but we were not in the thick of wedding planning, either...we were just happy to have some time off together! 

Again this year, Jeff received free tickets; we planned several trips to our "sweetest place," but with showers and weddings galore, one fantastic honeymoon to Punta Cana, a house-worth of new gear to unpack, visits with family and friends, and, and, and, AND....the summer got out from under us, and we never made it there.  The season ends next weekend (the tickets expire then, too), so we figured a long-overdue trip needed to happen, pronto.

We were our same good-old silly selves on the Musik Express (shown here in a before, during, and after shot of centrifugal force).

Somehow, though....things feel different.  It's one of the first times I can say that "life as we knew it" has felt somehow nothing like I knew it.

Last year, I felt totally wrapped up in "us," and I think Jeff did, too.  We floated along the lazy river countless times, totally unaware of our surroundings, including the shouts and screams of those not feeling so "lazy" as we did. 

This year, my focus wasn't just on Jeff.  Everywhere I turned, there were families, and I found myself totally wrapped up in the idea of "just the two of us" becoming the "magic" number three. I've been in "kiddie" mode for a while-you know what I'm talking about, where you see every baby in the world and go "Awww, ooohhhhhh, ooooooo" as you make the craziest faces possible.  Hershey Park this year sent my "kiddie" mode into "kiddie-overdrive."  I should state here, for the record, that we aren't even nearly ready to have a baby of our own (although so many of you have told me you are never really ready for a family addition).  We'd like to have some things in place, and be at least close to owning a home before we're ready to talk about children "for serious."  This lack of readiness didn't stop us from dreaming of what life will be like with a little one: how crazy-amazing it will feel to bring our children to Hershey Park, what rides we'll want to take them on, watching their little faces light up all the while.  Every baby, toddler, or tot made me have another of these "visions" of our future family.  Surprisingly enough, none of my ooh'ing and ahh'ing made Jeff flinch one bit.

I will say that, non-flinching aside, Jeff does not feel any extreme urgency to act on this "mode."  He likes where we are right now, just the two of us.  Despite this "overdrive" session I've been experiencing as of late, I have to say that I agree.  I'm not in any rush, because I know that this little baby we'll eventually bring into the world will rock our socks, in more ways than one.  I'm so enjoying Jeff's and my newly-married life together; I'm enjoying cooking for him, nightly, in fact, for the first time since we moved in together (now that his schedule allows such things!).  I'm enjoying crazy and lazy weekends with just him.  So, though I am in "kiddie-overdrive," for the moment, I intend to keep the status-quo and try to go with the flow, and though the best may be yet to come, I'm definitely loving the life we've got going now.