Storyland 2014

Well I am in full Thanksgiving prep and, if I'm being honest, already thinking a lot about Christmas (decorations, gifts, etc.). This morning we woke up to our first snow on the ground. The boys were really excited to play in it. Dylan wanted to as soon as he got home from school. Cade kept saying "snowman, snowman!" It was unfortunate that we had to explain to them that 1) there was not enough snow on the ground to make a snowman and 2) it will have melted by the time you get home from school. However, I also got to tell Dylan about growing up with Texas and having really infrequent snow and how it's not the same here - we will mostly definitely be getting snow again soon so he won't have to wait long to play in it more.

Anyway, that was my long way of saying fall is on it's way out and winter is on it's way in. I love fall so much and it's the perfect season to hike and play outdoors in NH. So, to commemorate the end of the season, I thought I'd recap one of the best weekends we spent in it.

Mid October, we headed up to our place in NH Friday night. Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed even further north to Storyland. We've been there a couple of times with Dylan and once when Cade was about 6 months old. It's an amusement park for younger kids. And we were there for it's last weekend of the season.

Waking up to this view never gets old.

On our last visits, we've started going through the park counter clockwise. We mixed things up this time and started clockwise. It was a fun thing we did too because we started in an area of the park we'd actually never gotten to. The kids were always tuckered out by that point. We started in Storybook village where it's basically like a big playground based on kids stories. The kids loved it and we spent quite a bit of time there.

The Talking Treehouse

Mary Had a Little Lamb Schoolhouse (complete with lambs in a pen outside)

Little Miss Muffet's Tuffet and Spider

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater's House

Dylan was getting creative with his poses.

Eating Blackbird Pie

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Little Sambo

We finally had to encourage them out of the area so we would hit a few rides before lunch. First up, we went on a leisurely pirate cruise (which Dylan claimed was his favorite ride of the day). And so much for rides, it was back to the playground at pirate's cove.

Pirate Ship Selfie

Fire the Cannons!

And then back to more rides. We walked up to the princess castle but the princess wasn't there. So I took a turn on her throne. Then we road back down the hill in the pumpkin (complete with floating horses).

That was all we had time for before our stomachs started growling and we grabbed some lunch.

Lovely View of the Foliage

What's better after a meal than a roller coaster and a spinning ride? Pretty much nothing! Dylan opted out of the roller coaster so Cade and I went on it together. Whether he liked it or not is up for debate. Then we went on the Clockenspeil which is a spinning ride through a cuckoo clock. Pretty cool concept. Only problem, I just don't enjoy spinning like I used to. I think one or both of my pregnancies screwed that up for me. Mike didn't get to spin the boys nearly as much as he would have liked to.

This water ride was closed but Dylan got a big kick out of exploring all the "ancient Egyptian treasures."
He said he was "opening the tomb" here.

We pushed through Cade's nap time and he wasn't happy with us about it some moments. He kept saying he didn't want to ride the rides but I got proof that he actually enjoyed some of them.

Smiles on the Balloon Ferris Wheel

Whale of a Good Time

By far the most fun the boys had during the tired afternoon was in the Loopy Lab and the Submarine. The Loopy Lab is essentially a big foam ball pit dome with all kind of suction and shooting based toys. Cade and I stayed on the ground level for the most part. Cade was enamored with the ball vaccuum. Put a ball in front of it and it sucked it right up. But he would only use blue balls. He would spend a lot of time hunting around and collecting the "right" color to use. I think he could have stayed there for hours...he absolutely loved it. Dylan and Mike headed up to the second level where they found a ball gun and tried shooting at Cade and I. Then we had a good old fashion whole family ball battle where we all tried to pummel each other. Good fun.

Even though it was a cool day, the Submarine play ground was still shooting out water. We were able to avoid the water for the most part. The boys had a great time exploring.

Diver Dylan

Cade could not get enough of the submarine. He ran laps back and forth in that thing and kept yelling "fire the cannon" over and over.

Cade the Diver

As we were wrapping up our play here, I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw one of my coworkers and his family (small world). We hung out with them for a bit and all rode a ride together. At that point, our kids were exhausted and the park was close to closing. So we headed home for dinner and an early bed time for all. But, on the way home, we did stop to take some pictures of a beautiful place that's close to our hearts - the Mount Washington Hotel. It's where Mike proposed to me almost 9 years ago.

That red roof against Mount Washington is always a stunning sight.