All good things must come to an end, and vacations always fly by much too fast. Just as the kids start to get acclimated to the new structure, it's time to go. And with little ones, it seems like we just didn't get as much time to spend chatting and catching up with family and friends as we would have liked.
But we got a "date day" courtesy of Nana. She spent one afternoon with each child, having lunch in town, bringing them to see the (great) grandmas, driving them around until they fell asleep in their car seats. Then she took both of them so Ray and I could spend some time together.
We went to Walmart, bought stuff for the kids, and watched the last Harry Potter Movie.
On Saturday, Effie took Maia on an errand while we were packing up. On the way back, they stopped at the locks to look at the boats and check out the visitor center. While there, Maia watched a video about how the locks work, and was reportedly fascinated. Nana also bought her this purple visor, which she disassembled on the way home.
Eventually, the car was packed, and we knew it would soon be time to hit the road and head for our hotel for the first leg of our trip. As usual, Maia was excited about the hotel... but, well, she didn't really want to leave.
She was fine for a while. Maia and Parker took naps, played with toys, books and each other.
(okay, the video and picture is from the ride out, but static-head is always funny)
But after driving for a while, she dissolved into tears. I miss Aunt Tara! I miss Nana! I miss Aunt Candy! (Maia, Candy is your cousin, not your Aunt) I miss my cousin, Aunt Candy! I want to go back camping. Right Now! So we tried to focus on dinner and the hotel. Okay, we're okay with going to the hotel, but we'll go back to camp tomorrow, right?
Unfortunately, she was exhausted, and so sweet funny Maia didn't make much of an appearance that afternoon and evening. Parker was a bit out of sorts too, but was wonderful for 90% of the ride. Both were difficult to settle at the hotel, which we've started planning on, and factoring that into our travel time. That translates to make sure you get to the hotel before the driver is completely exhausted, since it will take 1-2 hours to get the kids settled down after they've explored the room and jumped on the beds and dialed the in-room phone and tried to eat and/or lose the TV remote.
The last leg of the trip home was much better, and I think both kids were happy to be home, although Maia still says (several times a week), I miss ________ (insert loved family member here) really bad!!! We are going to camp again, soon, right? We are going in two days or something!
Sounds great to me, kid. Sounds great to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment