New Hampshire Camping Trip Day 4: Santa's Village

We spent the fourth and final day of our trip at Santa's Village. The only part of this park that I remembered from when I was a child was the talking Rudolph at the entrance to the park.
We had a great day at Santa's Village. In my opinion, this was the cutest and most fun park of the three that we visited during this trip.

Gabriella and Ava had the chance to get on Santa's "Good List" early this year! Ava seized the opportunity, but Gabriella, once again, wanted no part of getting near Santa!:

Gabriella had fun on all of the rides at the park.:

Gabriella had a great time on this ride, but, just prior to the ride starting, Gabriella had a bit of a meltdown and actually hit poor Ava. Gabriella is not typically a hitter, but this tantrum got the best of her and poor Ava got to experience the brunt of it.

Ken won this turtle for Gabriella and Gabriella enjoyed playing with it.:

Each of the three parks had trains and both Gabriella and Ken love train rides!:

The gingerbread family!:

Gabriella had her second of two major tantrums during this trip (not including the tantrum on the ride that I mentioned above) near the end of the day.:

The advice I've been given as to how to handle these tantrums and fresh behavior is to ignore them and, if it is safe to do so, to walk away. Obviously, I couldn't walk away from her while in the park, but I did move a few steps back. I had to let all of the passers-by know that she was with me so that security wasn't called! Then, Gabriella proceeded to take off her shoe and fling it. Little stinker! She soon snapped out of it and we were on our way again.:

Gabriella got to hand-feed Santa's reindeer "Reindeer Cookies.":

Having a snack:

Taking a break:

We had ice cream. Gabriella took a lick or two...:

...and then proceeded to eat the cone...from the BOTTOM! Silly girl!:

She has two new funny facial expressions that I caught on camera during this ice cream break. The first expression is one in which she puts her head down a bit and then looks up.:

The second expression is this cute scrunched mouth and nose face!:

It was a very hot day so Gabriella was cooling off with a cold, refreshing slushy drink.:

We had an amazing day at Santa's Village.

Day five of our trip was spent packing up and heading home to attack the unpacking and lots of laundry! This is always the most unpleasant part of any trip! We had such a wonderful time with our amazing friends. During our final evening we booked our trip for next year and we are really looking forward to doing it again!

New Hampshire Camping Trip Day 3: Clark's Trading Post

On the third day of our trip we went to Clark's Trading Post, best known for Clark's Trained Bears. The two main attractions of this park are the trained bears who perform in a show and a train ride in which you try to "outrun" "Wolfman."

On our way in to the park Gabriella was finishing her Dunkin' Donuts hash browns. I love this picture because she looked so cute with her leg crossed!:

Waiting to see Clark's Trained Bears:

Enjoying a lollipop while waiting for the show to begin:

I wouldn't want to bump in to him on the street!:

Gabriella LOVES animals and enjoyed watching the bear show.:

After the bear show we went on the train ride:

Gabriella thoroughly enjoyed being with Ava. If they were separated, Gabriella would say, "I need (everything is "I need" lately!) Ava (she pronounces it as Ahva with a short A rather than with a long A as it is correctly pronounced)!" It was so cute. Gabriella loves Ava.

We walked around the gift shop prior to leaving and we put this cowboy hat on Gabriella. She looked precious and she knew it!:

We brought a small tent with us for Gabriella and Ava to play in so that they would not be in and out of the tents that we would be sleeping in. While waiting for dinner to be cooked, Gabriella and Ava enjoyed an Elmo DVD in their play tent.:

Another fun, eventful day!

New Hampshire Camping Trip Day 2: Storyland

Gabriella survived her first night camping and sleeping in a tent! We all got ready in the morning, had breakfast at the camp site, and then headed to Storyland.:Walking through Storyland brought back vague childhood memories of visiting as a child. It is such a cute park and was well-suited for Gabriella's age.One of the most clear memories that I had of my visits to Storyland as a child was of playing in the little story book themed houses. Gabriella enjoyed playing in them as well, but she was still a bit too young to really "understand" them or know the corresponding nursery rhymes and/or stories. Gabriella had a great time exploring the park: Gabriella and Ava played in a ball pit. I love this picture of Ava taking Gabriella's hand to help her in! So sweet!: 1, 2, buckle my shoe...:

...3, 4, shut the door...:

Gabriella loved going on all of the rides:

Gabriella gets very moody when she does not have a nap and this trip was not very conducive to napping, so, by the end of each day, Gabriella was very irritable. The only naps that she got were during the car rides home from the parks back to the camp site. This was the first of two major tantrums of the trip!:

After her tantrum, Gabriella decided to get up and take a stroll by herself! We were, of course, near her and watching her, but she did not even check to make sure we were nearby. Notice her hands in her pockets, she has recently discovered pockets! Too funny! My little stinker!:

After the tantrum and the "stroll," Gabriella was being sassy.:

Little Ms. Sassy Pants!:

Gabriella, Ken, and Ava waving to a train that was passing by.:

We had a fun, tiring day at Storyland. It was so neat to reminisce and give Gabriella the opportunity to build the same types of memories that I have.

New Hampshire Camping Trip Day 1

Ken, Gabriella, and I spent four nights (8/12 through 8/16) camping in North Conway, New Hampshire with Kathy, Kerri, Dave, and Ava. We had often vacationed in New Hampshire during summers when I was a child and I wanted Gabriella to have some of these same experiences. We originally had planned to stay in a hotel, but had also wanted to take Gabriella camping this summer, so we were able to accomplish both tasks at once, vacation in New Hampshire and camp! It was so much fun to relive childhood memories and share the same experiences with Gabriella.

The campground was one that Ken had camped at as a child. It worked out perfectly for the wormen because it was essentially located in the parking lot of the North Conway shopping outlets, so we had lots of fun with that!We arrived at the camping grounds in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day getting set up. Gabriella had so much fun exploring and "helping.":
It started raining in the early evening, but luckily it was the only rain we got while camping. Gabriella got very messy in the mud after the rain stopped! While we were waiting out the rain, Gabriella helped Aunt Kathy look through brochures and plan our vacation itinerary!:

Gabriella was so excited when Ava and her family arrived. Since it was so close to Gabriella's birthday she was still kind of in birthday-mode and she and Ava had fun trying to blow out the citronella candle.: Gabriella enjoyed a very big slice of pizza! Not a very traditional camping meal, but we got pizza delivery because we were not unpacked or set-up and it was rainy.:

Ken putting the "finishing touches" on the camp set-up:

Gabriella did not have any trouble sleeping in the tent. She fell right to sleep at night and slept straight through the nights.:We were on the go, go, go the rest of the week and had a very excellent time.