I MISSED YOU, MY LITTLE BLOG!!!! I must get a laptop although I suppose it’s healthy for me to be away from everything else like emails and the news…. There were so many times I thought to myself—‘I’ve got to remember that for my blog’ and then promptly forgot of course. Too much to post at once so I’ll break it down into bits. Today: the trip out!
Overall the boys were great in the van. Best $2 spent in recent times at Target was definitely for the USA map placemats with dry erase markers. The boys could follow along where we were going and as I love maps it made me happy they liked them so! Much of the trip looked like this:
or this:
or this:
The first night we spent in Erie. Unfortunately we got there late and tired so we didn’t bring the boys to the pool to wear them out even though I had planned to. Big mistake. They were so enthralled jumping from bed to bed being pirates that they couldn’t calm down. I can only imagine what it sounded like in the room below us as they missed the other bed half the time. I finally turned the lights and tv off and said ‘O.K. WE’RE ALL GOING TO SLEEP NOW!’. So it was an early night for all which wasn’t a bad thing. The Fairfield Inn gets high marks for lovely summery bedding, the extra pillows that I had requested online and a decent breakfast in the morning.
The next day was shorter and we got to my favorite hotel of the trip—-a Holiday Inn in Springfield, MA, pretty early. It is the first time I really understood why people go to resorts or on cruises. Even though we got there relatively early and there’s tons of stuff to do around there I had absolutely no desire to leave our hotel. So we went down to the pool. Of course Leo refused to go in the water. He insisted on staying in the game room that adjoined the pool and alternated between standing there stiffly and playing a game. He refused to even come in and sit near the pool. So we ignored him and had a great time (while I asked Ernie ‘can you see Leo?’ obsessively over and over as I can’t see a thing without my glasses). Then we went for a drink and then ordered room service for the boys which they found VERY exciting. There was a brief debacle when the fries were found to have random flecks of black pepper on them but we wiped them off and Leo promptly ignored them and refused to eat. I should have that willpower! Then Leo decided he wanted to go to the pool. As he had refused to go in any water for the past several weeks I figured we better take him up on it so we went down and he had a wonderful, giggling good time. My sweet pea. Oh—and I LOVE my bathing suit. I have to remember to return the other three but I love it and it felt so good to be in the water. I’m an idiot for not doing that sooner.
On the way out of town we tracked down one of the highlights of a trip to Springfield probably ten years ago and it was still there…..the Donut Dip!! It was the first time I have bitten into a doughnut and thought it tasted like the ones my grandmother used to make. Very, VERY cool place. Ernie is now the proud owner of a Donut Dip t-shirt to top it off.
The next day was supposed to be a brief drive with time to stop at some antique malls. HA! Ernie and I are used to going to Maine in September….on a Saturday in August the whole world is also going to Maine so traffice was a nightmare and we all got a bit testy. The lines I waited in at rest stops….ugh. Oh well…we managed to get there at the appointed time to pick up the keys and trundled off to our little cottage which was absolutely wonderful. Sweet, sweet, sweet little place, just a few houses down from the beach and decorated beautifully.
That’s all for now….I’ll write more later. Today is my last day off before my new job. Wish me luck.