Souvenirs of a Long Weekend

Gee showing Kenzie how it's done!

Two weeks ago, we spent a long weekend with the grandkids. We traveled to a lot of places in a short period of time... a Lake Champlain Cruise (Nan and Pop joined us), Church Street, Burlington Mall, White River Junction train station, Montshire Museum of Science, Powerhouse Mall (in New Hampster), and all sorts of restaurants... and Lukey and Kenzie came away from the hectic weekend with a few little souvenirs. Even Gee came away from the weekend with over a pound of Lindt truffles which she shared with all of us. (Hmmm... I don't think I bought myself anything though.)

As we were heading to the Montshire Museum of Science on Saturday morning, the kids still didn't have a clue where we were headed. As one would expect in a situation such as this, during our long hour and a half drive, the kids kept asking, "Where are we going?"

After a half hour of unsuccessfully trying to distract them from this repetitive and focused line of questioning by simply talking about other things, I decided to start making places up to keep them entertained and distracted. 

The next time they asked where we were going, I told them, "Hey! We're here! We're in North Lukeyville!" They laughed but were quick to disagree with Papa. Shortly afterward, I said, "Now we're in Lukeyville Center!" They still didn't believe me...  then, "Now we're in South Lukeyville!"  

A short while later, they repeated their focused line of questioning... I then said, "Hey! We're here! We are in Mackenzington Station!" They laughed again... mostly at the long, funny name... but continued to disagree with crazy old Papa...

A little farther down the road, they again asked where we were going... I then said, "Hey! We're here! We're in Lizaville Junction!"  They laughed... but knew we weren't in Lizaville... "Liza", after all, is mommy's name.

A short while later, we were at our first surprise destination... White River Junction and their historic train station. Amtrak was about to pull into the station so, at the last moment, I thought it would be nice to make a quick surprise stop here to watch Amtrak. We were really on our way to the Montshire Museum of Science.

As we were searching for a place to park (we were surprised to find that there was a big fair at the station and, as a result, we never did find a place to park), we had to stop for a little train loaded with children, mommies and daddies to cross our path as it was traveling down the sidewalk... the kids found this amusing. 

After having difficulty finding a place to park (and knowing that stopping here was just an afterthought so there was no disappointment), we decided to continue on to our next destination... the Montshire Museum of Science. I will write more on our fun visit to the Montshire in another blog entry but the kids really enjoyed it and I have a lot of great photos!

We visited LL Bean at each of the malls and we also visited a toy store in each mall among quite a few other stores. At each of the toy stores, however, the kids got to pick out one small toy to purchase.  

At the Burlington Mall, Kenzie chose a tiny tabletop makeup vanity with mirror... she decorated it in glitter and stickers when we arrived home... and Lukey chose a shiny new F-16 fighter jet to add to his small squadron of fighters. 

Lukey's new "Railboat"...

At the Powerhouse Mall, Kenzie chose a Hula Hoop and Lukey chose a new train for his wooden train set... a "Railboat". I think the yellow and white sail on this "Railboat" caught his eye because it looks very much like our Minifish sailboat sail. 

Sunday was a relatively quiet day at the house of playing with the new toys, playing with some old toys and then a nice dinner when Mommy arrived from work. 

It was a busy and very nice weekend with the kids and I think it is safe to say that everyone had a great time through all of our travels from beginning to end!

Playing with some trains while waiting for dinner...