The only way I can describe our long weekend there is magical. Ollie and Peyton had so much fun that by the second to last day, O started (wishfully) calling our hotel room "our new home"
We go on lots of trips to places that the kids have been before, usually to the homes of family or friends. But we rarely go on vacations which require a hotel for more than one night. So this was kind of special to begin with. The inspiration to go to North Conway was actually Oliver's: he found a brochure for the Conway Railroad with Thomas the Tank Engine on the back and asked, "We go there?" And so I started researching.
A friend told me about the Red Jacket Mountain Resort, which has its own indoor waterpark, so the lodging decision was really a non-decision. We didn't discover until we got there but the resort is actually located such that every activity we had planned was no more than 7 minutes away, so no cranky kids asking 'are we there?' love it love it love it. I also didn't realize (even though there is literally Resort in the name...) that it would offer so much more than the average hotel. Upon check-in, we were given a sheet of paper with all of the activities going on around the grounds each day. We were able to join in on some of the activities, like roasting marshmallows by the campfire each night and the horse-drawn wagon rides. Some of the other events we (regretfully) missed- like movie and popcorn nights in the great room (Turbo and The Croods), popsicles by the pool, and the kickball tournament- but just the fact that they offered them made our stay there that much more special. What I'm sayin' is, if you're going to North Conway with your brood, we would absolutely recommend this place. The rooms are big (though, admittedly outdated... but then, we weren't there for an interior decorating convention, so no biggie).
We made the mistake of going to one of our stops, Storyland, straight off the road without even checking to the hotel first. I think we naively thought that the kids would enjoy the fun and leg-stretching after hours on the road, but in reality, they were just tired and cranky. So after paying the (in my opinion, hefty) entrance fee, we spent about 30 minutes asking the kids if they wanted to to the Lazy River ride ("Nope") or the Cinderella's Tea Party ("Nope")... It started to feel like we had just shelled out a bunch of cash for nothing....
STORYLAND
Look at them. So happy. Hmm.
It was nothing a little ball pit action couldn't pull them out of, though:
^Little Man's got some serious camouflage going on in here. It's like, where's Ollie?^
And with that, my little grumps started to get into Storyland. Or, Candyland, as they both insist it's called.
^I don't even know. She was punch drunk at this point...^
^Lookin all cool like, yeah we just did Candyland... what of it?^
Candyland gets a thumbs up from Peytie girl.
Oh, and if you're curious, the answer is yes: I dress my kids in florescent colors when we go to parks and museums so I can easily spot them. They are tiny little flight risks.
Some serious World Cup watching in the morning...
On Day 2, it was off to the Island of Sodor (also known as Conway Scenic Railroad) to meet and ride on Thomas. We got there an hour before our ride, but there was plenty to see and do:
DAY OUT WITH THOMAS
^He actually talked. Peyton was screaming with excitement^
^There were about 10 train tables set up. Ollie's playing it cool in these pictures, but really, kid was psyched.^
^When you're Peyton, you have an entourage of face painters at your service.^
And then we got to ride Thomas. And it was epic:
We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool, and after a quick nap we went to dinner at Flatbread for the second time (Three times, okay. We went there three times. We would have gone a fourth but we left too early on Monday...)and followed it up with a round of Pirate Adventure Golf:
HOTEL POOL
^Always making friends, big and small...^
^O learned a new trick- after watching some other kids do it, he now holds his head under for 5-10 seconds. Adorable.^
FLATBREAD PIZZA
^The gods were good to us and set us up at this couch/coffee table so our kids could be the gremlins that they are and not really disturb anyone else, namely Jon and me while we're fighting over the last slice of Punctuated Equilibrium.^
PIRATE GOLF
^P was very concerned about the captive pirate in the cave and brought a few people up to assess the situation^
^Don't even ask cause I don't even know^
^Had I played, Ollie definitely would have easily beat me. No joke, the kid's a natural^
^Aargh^
On our last day, we went to the indoor water park, called Kahuna Laguna, at the hotel. It was awesome. So awesome, in fact that I barely took any pictures. I was having too much fun.
^Loved it^
This is how hilarious my kids are: At the end, Ollie scraped his toe and it was bleeding pretty bad. As he was showing it to me, he got some blood on his thumb. I was about to grab a napkin for him, and he wiped it across my forehead and said, "Sim-ba" (you guys have seen the Lion King, right?) I still get the giggles when I think about it.
Here are a few of the other things we did:
HORSE-DRAWN WAGON RIDE
ICE CREAM AT LICKETY SPLITZ
This place was awesome- they had a playground on site.
Before we left on Monday morning, we played some Pacman (and fine, I'll admit it, we let Peyton play Buck Hunter too...) in the Game Room, and then we borrowed some binoculars from the front desk to check out the beautiful mountains one last time before we drove back to our flat home...
It's funny, Jon and I stayed in North Conway for our First Anniversary and aside from a couple of nice dinners and some outlet shopping, we didn't do much of anything. I love being a mom for a million reasons, but one of the big ones is that I get to be a kid all over again. It's so incredible discover all of the fun and exciting things that this world has to offer through the eyes of my kids.
I'm pretty sure the kids will remember this vacation for years to come... today they were pretending to drive my car and when I asked them where they were going, Peyton said, "We go-nin to Ham-sure."
"Yup," Ollie said. "Our new home."
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