Summer Vacation: Part 2

Our "vacation" came in two parts this summer, and although the parts were both reasonably close together, it took me a while to make myself sit down and write about them.

One week after our trip to Boston, we headed to New Hampshire to spend one day at The Whale's Tale water park and the next day at Santa's Village. To say that the kids had fun would be an understatement. They had an incredible time.

Josh discovered that he is just big enough to be able to ride all of the big kid and adult slides at the water park so he spent the first day shrieking with exuberant fear as he tried every slide in the park.

Katie discovered that the water park held plenty of options for her as well, although she definitely showed a preference for the Lazy River and the heated pool. When our day at the water park was over, both kids were completely exhausted. We drove thirty minutes to our motel right across the street from Santa's Village, took the kids out for a nice dinner and then turned in early in preparation for the next day.

We had invited Grandpa and Grandma Kelley to join us at Santa's Village and they showed up bright and early the next morning. The kids were already bouncing around the room with excitement by the time my parents arrived so we headed across the street and started another day full of fun.

For a four-year-old and a seven-year-old, Santa's Village is a paradise. The highlights of the day included the flume ride which always managed to get Amy and I wetter than the kids, and the roller coaster. Katie had been begging to go on a roller coaster since her brother had gone on one

at Granby Zoo at the start of the summer. However, she was too small for all the other roller coasters that we had found. The Santa's Village roller coaster was different. It had an age limit

instead of a height limit and our vertically challenged daughter was able to ride as long as she was with an adult. So the whole family rode the coaster several times. It was fast enough to get a few screams out of Amy and I. Katie, screamed almost non stop, breaking only to add "This is fun!" at the top of her lungs.

After the obligatory photo op with Santa, we packed it in and called it a day. The park was closing and we had two very tired, happy children on our hands once again.