just get in the car

Best things about a spontaneous road trip:

no itinerary.  Hey, you wanna stop at the silly little cut out face thing on the side of the road?  ok.

learning funny little tidbits about your spouse of 7 years.  you know, like where he lived in college, where he took classes, specific bushes where he threw up in.. all that good stuff.

taking a break from being in the city... and seeing the weird things that go on out in the country.

That's a Dead & Breakfast, in case you can't read it.

last but not least, quality time with the kids.  confined in a car, or out in the great outdoors. it's all good.

Pocasset Wrapup

Notes and stuff
1.  Going on vacation with kids is fun and hard.  I'm more tired now than when I left, but it is was so nice to be out of our usual routine.
2.  Ben's favorite part of the vacation ( I asked him):  "Going to the beach and it was not windy."
3.  Ben's 'not favorite' part:  "Going to the beach and it was too windy and I was a little cold."
4.  Lillian's favorite part:  "Playing"
5.  Mommy's favorite part:  Perfect weather and sunsets every night.  Also, Blue Moon in a can. Why does it taste better that way?
6.  My $10 used tripod bought out of the back of some guy's car works OK. aka It held my camera up.  I got to do some slow exposure stuff on the rocks by the beach.  I was being eaten alive by bugs and tried to pretend I was Peter Lik on From the Edge, to no avail.  I only got a couple shots that came out because I realized afterwards I should have set the timer on the shutter instead of pressing with my finger. next time.
7.  Lillian slept in a big girl bed with no issue every night.  Back in Boston, she's in a crib and wants nothing to do with that big bed in her room.  mystery.
8.  We played a rousing game of baseball with all the grandparents.  Literally about 5 seconds after we finished Ben said, 'when are we going to play baseball again.. that was SO AWESOME'.. I agree, it was awesome.  We laughed and we didn't keep score and we drank beer.
9.  Playing Catchphrase with old people is hysterical.  They are downright viciously competitive for no apparent reason!!
10.  I think it might be a good thing that I was only away 5 nights but still excited to come home.

Here are some highlights!

sunrise panorama on the bay

going nowhere, and everywhere

serious about pouting

grampy

belly laugh

watching trash tv with gigi

ISO 100, f/22, 0.80s, 24mm - trying to get that cool smooth look on the water. ok for first try!

FIVE!

the 'happy' cake

the right way to eat cake

Project365 gets hard around August. I'm tired of posting every day. But I can't give up now.  Am getting so close! Must muster some motivation.

saturday

friday

me & my boy

family baseball

run, gigi, run!!

thursday

FOR NEIL!

blue sky at night, vacationer's delight

old men, tellin' stories

flying the kite

being silly

tuesday

found in the water today: one pair of inexpensive awesome fashion sunglasses. lillian & i are going to fight over these.

where you can find me this week

Things I learned on our trip to Storyland this year:

• If your two year old demands to wear cinderella undies all weekend instead of diapers:  let her, she might actually know what she's talking about (fwiw we were in undies the entire weekend and had NO accidents!  yay lillian!).
• If your kids want are still up at 10:30pm bouncing on the hotel room bed: don't worry, or scold them - you will get to sleep in until after 8am the next morning!
• Do not attempt to go to the North Conway Grand Hotel on a romantic escape without the kids.  This place is crawling with little ones, big ones, screaming ones, yelling ones, etc.  It's a like a mini Disney World.  It's not our typical scene but the kids did love it.  On the fence about a return visit.
• Horsefeathers makes the best chicken, broccoli, penne anywhere. Hands down.  Clean restaurant, good service, great food & drinks. Perfect.
• Do NOT leave North Conway at 1pm on a Sunday.  The 3 hour drive turned into 5 and we had more than our share of meltdowns on the way home.  
• Always travel with M&Ms for aforementioned meltdowns.
• Have beer on ice for your arrival home :)

welcome to north conway

     

flume ride: not exactly as expected by this 4 year old :(

    

scary souvenirs

hotel nap

1 year later

Mini escape...

...to Storyland this weekend. I don't like amusement parks but this place is so cute it falls into a different category I guess. Plus, North Conway is such a fun area to be in.

My favorite photo of the weekend:

Body Parts

a runner up: