lessons learned on our first family trip

At the end of last week, my husband and I packed up the kids for a long weekend in Erie, Pennsylvania.  It was only a two hour drive, and, since we've been there many times before, it was easy to come up with inexpensive activities to occupy ourselves ...  Among them were visits to the Erie Zoo and Waldameer Park.

Although I would consider the trip a success, we learned a couple important lessons that we'll certainly keep in mind whenever we decide to round up our kiddos and take to the road ...

Lesson #1: Hotels with pools provide lots of warm-weather entertainment at little cost.

Lesson #2: Some family portraits are actually fun to take ... All you need is a camera with a self-timer.

Lesson #3: Getting the two-year-old to ride on one (non-kiddie) ride should be considered an achievement.

Lesson #4: Just because he enjoys the local zoo, doesn't mean he likes all zoos ...

Lesson #5: You can't really call it a "vacation" when there are two kids involved, but that doesn't make it any less fun!