Vacation, last day!

Before I get into our last day of vacation activities, I must first share a few words of wisdom spouted by the kids over the course of this week.  The first comes from Madeleine, and was a completely random comment in the middle of breakfast, after she and Julia glanced at the following photo hanging on the wall of our dining area:

JULIA: Mama, is that a REAL bear in that picture?
ME: Yes.  It's a black bear.  Those kinds of bears live around here.
MADELEINE: (furrowing her brow)  Why are people scared of bears?  Bears are just really really NICE!

I'm so glad I kept the kids house-bound on the day that a black bear was on the loose in Needham.  I don't quite understand how Madeleine is terrified of Auntie Shannon's teacup chihuahua but thinks bears are really, really nice.

The second noteworthy comment came from Julia, after spending all of one vacation day telling me how she's really going through a Mommy phase.

JULIA: Mama, I wish that YOU could put me to bed tonight, even though I know it's Daddy's night, because I'm just REALLY in a Mommy mood lately.
ME: I know.  You're so sweet!  Why do you think you're feeling so in love with me lately?
JULIA: Well... (thoughtful)  maybe... I guess maybe because, like, I used to live INSIDE your body.

Well, there is that.  Very true.

And now on to our last full day of vacation.  We decided to bite the bullet and take the kids back to Storyland for another visit.  Interestingly, our trip was once again interrupted by a thunderstorm, but this time we left the park the moment we heard thunder, rather than waiting for the downpour of rain and the screaming puddle of panic that was Julia on our first Storyland trip.  We spent our second visit exploring the areas we had missed out on during our first visit, as well as re-visiting a few of the most favorite rides and attractions from our first trip:

Since Julia has always been sympathetic to losers, she simply had to produce a head for this poor red-coated guy.

As I mentioned, we left Storyland once the thunder started, but luckily the storm was short-lived, allowing us an afternoon at the hotel pool, as well as a trip to the nearby waterfalls:

I'm not quite sure how it is that Julia had a total terrified break-down over the rain at Storyland, despite the fact that we were under shelter and many rides were still running, yet when we visited the waterfalls, she was hastily clambering around slippery rocks in water currents, asking me to play "Follow the Leader," or, when I nixed that for safety reasons, "Do What I Do."  (I'm sure the latter game is COMPLETELY different from the former.)  We finally settled on a standing still game of "Simon Says" in order to keep her from venturing off first into less safe areas of the falls. 

For our last dinner of vacation, we headed back to the Mexican restaurant we had loved so much on our second evening, and Julia celebrated with - what else? - a bowl of mac 'n cheese:

Our drive back today was not too bad, although the girls were both awfully bored in the car, and sad to leave vacation.  "Are we going home, and vacation is staying HERE?"  Madeleine asked, as we pulled out of our inn and onto the New Hampshire roads.  Luckily, the girls kept themselves entertained for about 3/4 of the ride by coloring in their jumbo coloring pads.  Since they had both picked identical coloring pads when we stopped at the CVS en route to New Hampshire, they had the exact same pictures to color, and it's interesting for me to look at the contrasts between their artistic interpretations. 

A page from Julia's book:

Madeleine's version of the same page is starkly different.  Perhaps the frequent thunderstorms we encountered while in New Hampshire inspired her dark clouds, but I'm not sure what to make of the black unicorns of death:

At any rate, we are home safe and sound, all a bit wistful about leaving a wonderful vacation behind, but grateful to have the weekend to recover before it's back to the grind.  Ah, if only we could have taken vacation back home with us instead of leaving it to stay there in New Hampshire...