The drive through the White Mountains to Storyland was really beautiful. We stopped at one of the scenic overlooks and took this picture of Vince and Zoë:
Not all of the pictures we took came out as nice. In fact, I'm still convinced our family is cursed when it comes to trying to get descent pictures of us together. Here's a video Lisa made of a few pictures we took:
That's Vince fooling around and taking Zoë out, then Zoë stomping away.
We stayed at a little motel called the North Colony Inn that had an awesome playground for the kids. It was the only place that we could find with decent reviews that didn't require a 3 night stay for the long weekend. From what we read about it, it's great for little kids since they have an awesome playground. Here's a picture of the treehouse they had there (with Mike and Vince looking out the windows!):
Um, where can I get one of these for our backyard! This is the coolest little treehouse
Luca and Zoë swinging in the sunshine!
Storyland has a deal that if you enter the park after 2pm, you can come back another day. Since the park closes at 5pm, that's the perfect amount of time for the little ones. We went for 3 hours the first day we got there, and then back for more the next day. Here are some of the highlights in photos.
The kids got to meet Curious George, but Zoë wouldn't get closer than 10 feet. Instead, she insisted on a constant stare, like a deer in headlights, frozen, until we finally had to pick her up and carry her away. Only Vince went for the photo op, and he was a bit freaked by the giant George also.
Lisa, Vince, and Zoë taking a ride on the little train. Any surprise that this was the first ride they went on?
Lisa and Zoë on a ride. We couldn't convince Vince to get on, but this was towards the end of the first day and he was getting pooped.
The pumpkin carriage ride to Cinderella's castle, and 2 random kids.
Vince loved the pumpkin ride!
Zoë was overwhelmingly excited to meet Cinderella. Vince was too shy to go up to her.
Zoë had to ride the carousel three times before we could get her off!
On the Storyland equivalent of a ferris wheel.
Towards the end of day 2. We needed to give the kids something to keep them going, but maybe this was a little too much...at least she didn't yak that cotton candy/popcorn mixture back up! (although she sort of looked like she might when I took this picture)
Both days we were there we went to the Glen Junction restaurant for breakfast. The place has a train theme, and you can see the train track hanging from the ceiling in the picture below. It was probably Vince's favorite restaurant EVER, and it made for a relaxing meal for whoever sat next to him.
And it's Vince at it again, making sure to taint our family photos with a funny face!
After our second day in Storyland, we took a ride on the North Conway scenic railroad. The ride was about an hour total, and it was a nice relaxing way to end a long day for the kids.
our engine
Views of the White Mountains. We sat in an open air coach.
I can't believe that Zoë sat still long enough for this photo.
This was Vince's favorite thing to watch!
We'll definitely be making another trip up to Storyland at some point. It was fun to be able to go on some of the 'big kid' rides with Vince..... and makes me look forward to so many more things we can do as the kids get older! (including get more sleep... haha!)