Tag Archives: vacation

Aloha Friday: Where Would You Go?

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It’s time for another Aloha Friday, the day that you take it easy and look forward to the weekend, in Hawaii and blog land anyway. As you should know by now, over at An Island Life, Kailani decided that on Fridays she would take it easy on posting and ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life’s blog. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

This week I’m feeling that deep down inside desire to get out of town. So I asked my husband to take us to a town nearby for a mini day trip. We decided a few months ago that we would not be taking a big family vacation this year – it makes sense economically, especially with a new baby coming this summer. Last year we took a trip in the fall which I loved, but we have no way of knowing what our lives will be like physically, emotionally or economically come this fall and I think it will be more realistic to stick to day trips for the year. Which of course means that my travel bug has been biting hard every month at least. The idea of being stuck in dodge for at least a year pains me. I love to travel. I also really want to move – knowing that won’t happen is easier to shoulder with the occasional vacations thrown in.

Right about now – I would be happy with anything – a fun tropical getaway to escape the snow; a fun New England getaway to embrace the snow; an exciting European vacation to get out of the US all together – they all sound fabulous. And you know, this day trip we’ll be taking tomorrow doesn’t sound so bad either. Anyway, blah blah blah, enough about me – here’s where you come in.

If you could travel anywhere this weekend for a little spur of the moment family trip, where would you go? What would you do? Tell me about your ideal vacation plans.

Top 5 Tuesday: Places I’ve Got To Check Out, Before I Check Out…

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This week’s theme is places you want to see before you die, or as John Mayer and I would so eloquently put it, “these are the last things I’ve got to check out, before I check out…” or something like that anyway. So you know my wanderlust knows no limits and I’m sure I won’t do this list justice, but regardless, here they are folks – the top five locations on my To Be Seen list in likely no particular order:

  1. Canada – let’s start small, right? I think it’s absurd that I’ve moved over ten times in my life and have gone as far as Germany, but I’ve never been to Canada. I’m a New Englander for Pete’s Sake! I’m hoping to remedy that next summer with a camping trip to Jellystone Park.
  2. Paris – I want to travel throughout as much of Europe as possible but Paris seems like the most logical place for me to consider a Must See in Europe – after all, I’ve taken ten years of French lessons and though I wouldn’t claim to speak the language, I think I’d fare better there than anywhere. And it’s the city of love! And desserts!
  3. Washington State – My mother lives there. I’d like to meet her before I die (the last time I saw her I was too young to remember it, so I’m thinking it doesn’t count). It just doesn’t seem right that I can’t claim to have met my own mother while she is living and breathing and I know where she is. If it weren’t for the cost of gas / air fare / time, I’d be remedying this pronto. And I hope to do it sooner than later.
  4. A Cruise Ship – I really don’t care which one, except I’d like for the cost to be reasonable, the amenities to be nice and also reasonably priced and for it to be fun with plenty of layovers and sight seeing. I’d love to go on a European River Cruise or this other fun one that goes from Maine to somewhere in Canada and looks all quaint and actually interests my husband. DH says we have to test the extent of my sea sickness before he’ll pay for a real cruise. I guess that makes sense.
  5. Washington DC – Why not round it out there? I want to see the White House and all those other important places where important decisions are made. I can’t help it, I’m a nerd.

I know this list doesn’t look terribly exciting. I mean, I also want to see Japan, India, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Nigeria, whatever. But those are all, “Wouldn’t it be funs?” as opposed to my top 5 which are more, “Really, if I can’t even accomplish these things, what can I really say about the quality of my life?” They are the more likely to happen and important to me as opposed to the dreamer side of me.

What 5 places would you most like to see before you die? To see other bloggers’ bucket list checking out to check out posts, just head over to Supernanny Where Are You.

Finishing What I Started: Vacation Photos

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Well picking up where I left off (or um, where MM left off…) here are the rest of the pictures from our vacation… This will show pictures on the road, at the hotel and at Storyland…

The wading pool at the hotel was literally like 1 foot deep, maybe less – perfect for my little not quite swimming 2 year old. This was probably about as deep as his bathtub is filled so he was feeling rather confident and had a blast.

We were somewhere along the Kankamagus Highway, looking at a basin I think and I stopped and took a picture of MM… I just love how this shot came out, don’t you?

Another shot from the same stop – hubby took this of the two of us. Don’t mind the mess that is my hair.

The Kankamagus has all these great little “scenic view” rest stops set up just for taking pictures. We did a lot of landscape shots, but I also tried to get pictures of US, too.

This is self explanatory, right?

How can you resist pictures of a toddler in a teeny house that’s just their size? I love these two shots of him playing in the “cupboard” and looking out the  window at us. He kept flirting with girls when they came in the house – that was cute, too.

His aunt’s are like piano playing professionals (really) – I know they’d be proud of this picture. He loved this piano something fierce.

But this door here? This “3 4 shut the door” display, was literally where we spent half the trip. We could not tear him away from this “just my size” door. Much to my dismay…

Um, I just want the Bloggess to know, if she’s reading this, I totally took this picture for her. Actually I had my husband take it. And yes, Bloggess, I told him the story. He’s a big fan of your blog, too, btw.

(Yes I know she probably won’t read this. That’s okay. I’m only crying on the inside I swear…)

He picked out this little completely unrelated to Story Land pirate ship out himself. It was his favorite part of the trip. For real.

This was my favorite part of the trip. Chocolate has never tasted so good.

Okay I was going to post landscape pics, but now I’m worried those will be boring to anyone who wasn’t there – unlike the pictures of my kid – those were riveting, right? But if anyone is like, “Aw man, I totally wanted to see all the pictures of the rocks and trees you saw,” just say the word and I’ll totally post them. K?

t13: I Survived Nearly Getting Eaten at Santa's Village, and all I got was this guest post?

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MM here. My mom told me I had to show you all the pictures from our vacation – apparently it doesn’t matter that she took almost a thousand pictures, she said I had to “figure it out for myself.” I told her nobody would want to see 1,000 pictures of her trying to eat me, but she was pretty scary, and said, “Don’t say things like that – nobody tried to eat you! It was an amusement park!” But I’m telling you guys, that woman is nuts. But I don’t want to bore you guys with all my photographic evidence – lord knows mom probably bored you enough with all her talk before the vacation about how great it would be before she even left. I’m telling you she planned this whole thing. Anyway I know on Thursdays she normally does that Thursday 13 thing, so I figured I’d use that to my advantage and only have to post 13 pictures from that terrible day… instead of 1,000. Maybe mom will be so happy I memed that she won’t make me eat socks for dinner again?


  1. I know she looks sweet and innocent – but can’t you tell I was trying to run away?

  2. They tricked me with this slide. I thought maybe we were at a playground…

  3. If I could get that stick down, I could probably beat her with it…

  4. Look how she’s even making me drive this thing – what is this, a drum?

  5. Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree? Totally unrelated I know, but cool, right?

  6. If I say cute things like “Sloow and steady wins the race”
    …she thinks it’s great and it improves my odds of surviving the day…

  7. But then some clever genius thought to put this sign up at Santa’s House.
    It made her soooo hungry! It’s my fault for wanting to see Santa I guess…

  8. Thanks to this stupid sign, I now know how short I am.
    I got that from my mom’s side of the family. Thanks a lot mom.
    “Someday you’ll be big and tall like daddy…” Yeah right.

  9. MM: Are you sure you know how to drive this thing mom?
    Mom: Of course I am – haven’t you seen me drive before?
    MM: No. You know it steers itself right?
    Mom: Shut up.

  10. MM: I’m not so sure about this mom…
    Mom: Go ahead! It’s fine!
    MM: I didn’t mean to make fun of your driving…
    Mom: Let’s not talk about that – put your head in the giant cookie.

  11. MM: First a cookie, now a cupcake? What’s with this theme mom?
    Mom: What are you talking about? You look good!
    MM: Good enough to eat you mean, I’m out of here!

  12. MM: Muhahahah… she’ll never find me in this Igloo!
    Mom: You do know that you’re coming OUT of the igloo and not IN, right?
    MM: Oh noes!

  13. MM: Well I made it out alive – mom sure was hungry looking at all those cookies and cupcakes – but daddy tricked her and took her to the Santa’s Village Bakery – after 1 gingerbread cookie, 1 chocolate truffle filled chocolate chip cookie, and 1 really yummy macaroon, her appetite was satiated (for the moment) and I survived. She even let me have some of the cookies.

But my tale of woe doesn’t end here folks – this was just Santa’s Village, Day 2. The next day they shoved me in a car for 2 hours, so they could take “landscape photography pictures” of the Kankamagus Highway or something – I think that’s a dinosaur? And then they dragged me through another “amusement” park – aka – park of Terror – cleverly named StoryLand so I’d think it was supposed to be fun for ME – maybe tomorrow if I’ve gotten over all the trauma of nearly being eaten at Santa’s Village, I’ll show you some pictures from that. Another epic voyage I just barely survived…

Mom says to tell you to go here and read other Thursday 13 Entries – I asked her why and she said, “Because I said so you brat!” I’m going to go take my nap now… Maybe she’ll be happier when I wake up…

*Disclaimer* I hope this isn’t necessary to say, but this post was not really written by my two year old son. If it was, despite being annoyed at him for spreading lies, I’d be amazed at his vocabulary and writing style and signing him up for Genius School. We had a great time on our vacation despite MM’s less than enthusiasm for smiling for all our pictures – which is why we have 1,000 outtakes and 30 really cute pictures. These are just the ones from Santa’s Village like “MM” said – later I’ll post the rest.

Sleep-Deprived Travelers Say The Darndest Things.

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I go away for vacation and come home to 27 spam comments and over 500 new blog posts in my Google Reader. And you know, life, laundry and the purse full of reciepts to balance. Stuff. But I don’t want to talk about stuff. I want to talk about Funny Stuff. Funny Stuff that I noticed spilling out of my mouth during the long hours on the road of our vacation this weekend. Here is the good stuff that I managed to write down wherever I could, in between assuring myself that I wasn’t being an egotistical delusional freak for doing so:

“And another one bites the dust!!!!!” about 27 times give or take during the instrumental parts of “The Happiest Day” by Pink Floyd, much to my husband’s dismay, I am telling you – they may as well be the same song. Really. Go listen. I’ll wait.

“You should buy me a tape recorder for my birthday,” I said while looking for paper, wishing I could record every word I say when I’m not thinking about blogging – because those are the truly funny things in my opinion, the things you say when no one is listening… Anyway my husband replied, “You can do that with your cell phone, you know,” to which I replied, “that would involve learning to use the thing, and I’m hoping to get a new phone before that happens.”

I swear this was all funny at the time…

DH: “You fail at ripping CDs” because  a song got cut off. Except it didn’t. But hey, he tried to make a funny – how cute.

“L.B.I.” (reading a sticker on a car, then, guessing what it stands for… “Lesbian BiSexual Inaugoration?”

Anyone have an LBI sticker that wants to tell me what it really stand for? Was I close?

Me: “Why is that dirt biker looking at us? And why is he talking on his cell phone while riding a dirt bike? I should put a cap in his ass.”
DH: “You mean bust a cap in his ass?”
(dirt bike dude looks at us)
Me: “He’s looking at us again!!!”
DH: “It doesn’t help that you keep pointing at him, Jen. And I hope you have the cap busting skills to back up that statement, or should I say cap putting skills?”
*this joke was DH-Blog-Approved

(naming store signs) me: “The Curious Cow, Woodstock Emporium, a candy store… and I think I saw a gun store…” dh: [uncomfortable laughter]

“What? I did nothing on your ass!” (in response to “Crazy” by Aerosmith – have I mentioned that I loathe Steven Tyler?)

“Little River!! Do you think this is where the band is from??”

“Kankamagus… Kankamangus… Kankasaurus… Cankersore?” a few not enough caffeine-inspired variations on the world’s silliest Highway name. You guess which one is correct.

Me: “You know there are starving children in India who would kill to get a magnadoodle!” (to my son who was misusing his)
DH: “My mind hurts.

“Look a yard sale! …. So far… it looks like they are selling the yard…” Seriously I never saw anything for sale – just the sign. This happened by the way when MM fell asleep in the car and we decided to take a little joy ride and ended up in Vermont (we were staying in New Hampshire, but on the skinny end and Vermont, as it turns out, is only a 5 mile drive from the hotel roughly…

So, kids, what have we learned about writing down funny things to blog about later? That’s right, it’s never as funny out of context, no matter how clever you are. But it does give you a sort of inside view of our frames of mind that morning, with not nearly enough caffeine for our likings. But we had a GREAT time…

More on that later.

Lookin Fine by 2009: Week 2

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Well this update shouldn’t require much effort seeing as I didn’t put much effort into the past week. Sure Monday-Thursday were mostly honky dory I’m guessing with all my “I drink water now” and “I eat healthy meals.” But then “I went on vacation.” And I ate like an ass hat – if ass hats eat whatever they want anytime they want. I was on vacation people.

I only gained 7 pounds. I think that deserves a medal, don’t you?

So, yeah goals for this week – drink more water, learn what exercise is. Enjoy the wonder that is home cooking – for someone who loves to go out to eat, I sure did miss my own cooking by the end of the weekend. But to be fair, the hotel was kind of terrible in the amenities department and we travel with a two year old who Wants To Eat Now frequently.

But being on vacation did mean trekking through various amusement parks for hours on end. That’s kind of like vacation right? Which is why I’m so sore and tired? Certainly not the terrible hotel mattress…

My point? I kind of suck but I’ll do better, I swear. Oh yeah – Jen @ Daily Mish Mash‘s question for this week is:

What songs keep you pumped up during your workout?

I love Gwen Stefani’s Sweet Escape albumn for a good workout – haven’t used it in awhile but the whole CD is great – lots of building up in intensity and then slowing down just in time, but only for a bit. When I went to a gym, for that you know, month, a year ago – I rocked out to that CD the best.

Alert the Media: She's Back

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First and foremost…


My blog is worth $14,678.04.
How much is your blog worth?

Just thought you should know. So I’ve got many a things planned to fill you all in on my vacation just as soon as my End of Vacation Head Cold and Loads of Cleaning and Unpacking subsides. I’ve mostly finished catching up on bloggy world but to be honest, it was a haphazard effort at best – I am sure I just “marked read” a whole lot of your wonderful heartfelt posts and I’m sorry – did I mention the head cold? That no medication can cure? It’s fun. My son got one too. Sick two year olds are a blast. Especially when your husband nearly throws his back out so EVERYONE is grumpy.

You’re going to be shocked when I tell you we had a great time, but it’s true. We did. More on that later though. This post is just to say hi and howdy doo and how ya doin? More later for sure…

…I am driving up 85 in the Kind of morning that lasts all afternoon…

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As you read this I am likely stooped over in the passenger seat of our Toyota Corolla, drooling into my travel coffee mug, listening to the not-so-soothing sounds of the road, wondering why we woke up so early. But despite my stupor, I’m probably pretty excited – cause, dude, we’re on vacation!!!! We’re on our way to the White Mountains!!! For once, when I hear “Why Georgia” by John Mayer, you know that part about how he wants to keep his car in drive and leave it all behind? Yeah this time I can do that, too, even if it was planned.

I’m not sure when or if I’ll get around to posting while I’m on vacation, so I’m whipping up a few, or you know maybe just the one, pre/post dated entries, you know whatever that thing is when you type a post days in advance and tell your little bloggy entry thing to publish not today, or even tomorrow, but TWO days from now while you’re on vacation and thus not at home blogging. Today in particular will be a morning On The Road. We plan to wake up around 5-6am and hit the road by 6:30. Cause we’re on crack. Or want to beat traffic. Or something. I don’t know, ask the hubby, cause that was his genius idea.

My genius idea? Stopping here on the way. Yeah that’s right. Dumbass. Also, if we could have breakfast, that’d be great? Mmkay?

So now I’m realizing I don’t have much to talk about that will be for sure relevent for Friday (you know, today). Not that on Friday I’ll be able to do much better. But um, yeah, will this suffice for now? I’ll try to post at least once during vacation to fill you guys in on all the fun and happenings and such. Or not. You know, whatev.