Vaca!

We are so blessed to have great friends in our life.  One of Jay's dearest friends from college and his incredible bride to be Tricia invited our family to join theirs on a trip to NH.  We took the 3 kids to Santa's Village and Storyland and it was a BLAST!  We stayed in a small little cottage (for free-BONUS!) in North Conway where we grilled, ate, drank and were quite merry. 

Day 1: Santa's Village AND Tricia's B-Day!

The morning started off very rainy.  When we first got in we bought the kids their own little umbrellas and got our free ponchos; and quite literally as soon as we were fully prepared to deal with the rain for the day...

The sun came out and it got HOT!  It was a perfect day, and I think God's little b-day present to Tricia.

We saw Santa's reindeer and their were rides for everyone to enjoy!  In fact Kyle and Hailey could have gone on just about every ride as long as they were accompanied by one of us.

Hailey and Kyle both got to go on this ride-ADULT FREE!

Santa's Village even has a water park now!  Al Tricia and Emma did the big water maze.  My little ones were perfectly content on the water pad.

It really was an incredible day.....the one downfall to Santa's Village was it was an hour away from where we stayed..so the kids fell asleep on the ride home; and despite complete and total exhaustion would not go to bed until 10pm.

Day 2: Storyland

Day 2 we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning.  A little tired from the day before, but ready for more fun! Storyland also offered a ton of rides which the kids could go on, as long as they were accompanied by an adult. AND it was only 15 minutes from where we were staying =)

As you can tell my little ones had a rough day.  They were so tired, but it did not damper our fun.  Jay even won this ENORMOUS panda for Emma.

Al and Trish were not ecstatic about bringing the bear home in their packed vehicle; but really what are friends for =)

It really was an incredible couple of days.  I recommend going to any parent, even to little little ones.  I can not wait to take them again next year!  The only thing I would like to do differently is spend more time in North Conway.  We did too much in 2 days that the kids were tired and couldn't enjoy everything as much at Storyland (day 2). It is almost a 3 1/2 hour ride up to North Conway from here; so I think next year we will leave here early in the morning to get the kids to bed at a decent hour. Day 1: Santa's Village. Day 2: rest- there is an amazing park the kids can play at, there are outlets to shop, there is a scenic train..there seems to be a lot to do in North Conway and I would like to take more advantage of all it has to offer. Day 3: Storyland. Day 4: rest, and then decide from there when we want to leave.

Take your kids!  Heck, come with us next year =)