Vacation, Day 1

The Rowe family headed north to New Hampshire yesterday afternoon, kicking off our family vacation to the White Mountains.  We stopped in at the CVS to purchase new coloring books and markers before getting on the highway, and they proved to be the best possible car-ride entertainment we could have imagined.

"Mama!"  Julia cried at one point, as we got off a highway exit to make a pit stop.  "I was just so busy coloring that I FORGOT that the highway is BORING!"

Since it was a rainy day, and since our check-in time at our hotel wasn't until late afternoon, we stopped in Laconia, NH en route to the mountains, taking the kids to one of my favorite childhood indoor entertainment sites: Fun Spot.  The girls got to enjoy mini-golf, bowling, bumper cards, and all sorts of indoor kiddie rides:

Julia still can't decide whether the bumper cars or the mini-golf was her favorite activity.  Madeleine had a slightly less favorable impression of mini-golf, after her desire to stuff her ball into one of the windows of a decorative "fun house" at hole #4 caused her to permanently lose her ball and wind up heart-brokenly, prematurely finished with the game.

We stopped for a quick dinner at Hart's Turkey Farm following our Fun Spot adventure, then got back on the road for the 90 minute drive into Jackson.  Upon arriving at our hotel, the girls were so excited to be on vacation and out of the car that they decided to act like two completely untrained apes in the hotel lobby.

CONCIERGE: You girls seem excited!  Are you excited to go to the place you're visiting tomorrow?  I'm not sure if I should say the name, in case it's a surprise.
ME: Oh, they already know that we're going to Storyland tomorrow.  We drove right by it, and they were so excited, like 'Can we just go there now??'
JULIA: (indignant) Mommy, no we were NOT!
ME: Well, you have a better understanding of time than your sister does.  You knew we weren't going until tomorrow.  But Madeleine was saying she wanted to go right now.
CONCIERGE: (looking at Madeleine) And you're Madeleine?
MADELEINE: (full volume, to the Concierge) Yeah, I was just talking 'bout LICKING MOMMY.  Yeah.  I was talking about LICKING MOMMY!  I was just LICKING HER.  But that gets YUCKY GERMS!

It was at this point that Julia decided to get down on all fours and repeatedly bonk her head into Ethan's crotch as she attempted to crawl through his legs along the lobby floor.

I swear.  We can't take them anywhere.

When we got to the hotel suite, the girls were OUT OF THEIR MINDS with excitement.  "It even has a KITCHEN!  So, Mama, we CAN COOK!"  Julia exclaimed in delight, despite the fact that there is not actually a stove in the kitchen, just a mini-fridge and microwave.  Most exciting of all was the pull-out couch, which was to be the girls' bed.  Both kids took some time to jump up and down on the fold-out bed, then settled in on their stomachs, echoing each other: "THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!"  Oh, to be a child again, and to be so excited about all of life's experiences that a pull-out couch seems like the greatest thing in the world...

It was clear that, despite the time being past 7:30pm, the girls were too wound up to go right to sleep.  (ME: Madeleine, are you ready for bed?  MADELEINE: No.  I'm not.  I'm just still being excited playing in my special COUCH.)  So we let them stay up a little extra late and headed to the hotel's pub, where Ethan and I enjoyed a drink and the girls shared a water.  With the "sparklies" (Christmas lights), the live music, and the wide screen tvs, Madeleine was pretty convinced she was in wonderland.

"Isn't this GREAT?" Madeleine exclaimed, looking around with eyes alight.  "They have the LYMPICS!"  Julia's focus then turned to the tvs, which were indeed showing the Olympics, which seemed extremely confusing to her.

JULIA: Wait, Mama, they even have the Olympics here, even though we're in NEW HAMPSHIRE?
ME: Yeah!  People all over the WORLD are watching the Olympics.
JULIA: (baffled)  Even in China?
ME: Yup.
JULIA: Even in Washington?

Yes.  Even though we're in the foreign terrain of New Hampshire, which is, of course, SO DIFFERENT from Massachusetts, they still have Olympic coverage on the tvs here.  Not only that, but if you're in China you can watch them too.  Not only THAT, but those strangers over in Washington can see them as well.  What a world!

Today we are gearing up for a Storyland adventure, so you can imagine how high the excitement level is in the Rowe family!  Pictures to come!