Storyland 2010

Storyland is one of my favorite places in the world for a family trip! Granted we haven't been to Disney yet (November 2010, here we come!) but for all that it offers Storyland really is a great start! We used this trip especially to see how an all-day Disney visit might go. We went from 9-4pm one day and I'm happy to report Seth did just fine and even was ok to go out to dinner after! I did realize that we should have a stroller for Ben at Disney. He can be VERY slow walking and gets tired even though he refused to let us put him in Seth's stroller. He'll just have to at Disney!

But back to Storyland! This year we rented a condo in North Conway with my cousin Cassie and her family. It was great not to have to be in a hotel and even better not to have all the kids in the same room with us! We didn't have to go to bed at 8pm! The first morning we took the advice of a guide book and went to Diana's Baths. It was a half mile hike to some "cascades" and some nice flat rocks to climb on and shallow water to wade in. The kids thought the "waterfalls" were awesome and had a great time hiking and climbing! I was psyched that it turned out to be as good as it was. Luckily we got there early because as we were heading back about 40 people were heading up to the falls to spend the day. They were bringing up coolers and inner tubes (even though there was no real place for an inner tube) and looked to be settling in! Then Cal went to the pool at the condo with Eric while Ben and Seth napped. We went to Storyland after 3pm the first day to get another full day ticket free. Below are the pics from our trip!

Cal had begged to do this the first day so we let him the next day earlier on so he was Spiderman and Ben was a dragon for the whole day! They loved it.
And now I am a pretty, dainty dragon!

He was very patient and sat very still!

Cal talked the entire time his face was being painted - no surprise there!

Storyland cont...

Seth loved vacuuming up the balls!

So did Cal and Ben!

The Crazy Barn - serious spinning and dizziness!

hahaha

Seth psyched to be on the train ride!

All aboard!

It's Humpty!

It amazes me how enthralled they were with Mother Goose. They stayed and talked with her for a good 10 mins.

The "Polar" Coaster. You can't really see the car in this picture (it's on the left) but this is a decent coaster for a kid. Ben went on this year - woo hoo!

Meeting Cinderella is a magical moment every time!

You're nothing but a pack of cards! Take that!

He he he...a big fat hen!

Never a dull moment...

Bat crawling on screen in porch


So we had been back from our Storyland vacation in North Conway for an hour tops when I discovered this freakin' bat flying around the house!! After getting NO help on the phone from animal control services we managed to get it trapped in the porch...to be continued...


Ok, I feel relieved enough today, a day later, to write about my bat experience. EVERYONE in my neighborhood has a bat story and mostly I just thought SO it's a bat, come on. Um, yeah, it's a little different when it's flying in your own house! So as I mentioned we had just got back from Storyland, eaten lunch and Eric left for work. The kids were all playing in the playroom while I was unpacking. I went up to their rooms to put their pillows in their beds and turn on their ACs since it was unbearable hot in the house from it being shut up for 3 1/2 days. So I'm doing good, got all the rooms ready and just as I'm about to step out of Ben's room I see this thing fly around the hall. I scream and shut Ben's door. In the split second I had to think about this I think, hmm..maybe it's a bird although I KNOW in my heart of hearts it's a friggin' bat out there. I open the door again and there it is WHOOSH WHOOSH....I'm screaming my head off now and completely aware that it is definitely a bat. I didn't give myself too much time to think since ultimately I was now stuck upstairs and had to just take my chances that I wasn't going to get hit by the bat while I booked it for the stairs. I was mostly hoping that it didn't rush at me while I was trying to rush the stairs and I didn't plummet to my death or anything. Also, in this 30 seconds I'm thinking, I should really get the hell down the stairs before one of the kids comes looking for me and the bat attacks them.


So I peek out the door and I don't see anything. Luckily, since all the ACs were turned on I KNOW it can't be in any of the kids rooms and this gives me a small sense of peace, like at least THAT went right. It's either in the bathroom, my room or downstairs somewhere. I run down the stairs and grabbed the phone. I take the playroom stairs two at a time as I speed dial Eric. I tell the kids under NO circumstances are they to open the playroom door. NONE! I scream to Eric that there's a bat in the house, then hang up to call my neighbor (I needed some moral support). He advises I call animal control. Lady there is on vacation and it gives an emergency dispatch #, which I think is just the police station. I tell the dispatcher there's a bat in my house and I have 3 small kids. She's like, well, he's another nuisance control #, if that doesn't work then call back and I guess I could send a police officer out to help you get it out of the house. Call the # and I have to leave a message! Ugh! Now at this point, remember, I have no idea where the bat actually is. I get on the internet and google bat control or some such thing and call another place. The guy that answers proceeds to tell me, "Open a door or a window. It'll fly out". Thanks a lot sherlock. As I'm in disbelief that this guy doesn't think this is a big deal, I start walking through my kitchen toward the front door/living room and all of a sudden WHOOSH...the thing circles the living room. I scream into the phone and tell the guy forget it, thanks anyway. I'm actually near tears now because the thing has pretty much just scared the shit out of me. I repeat my earlier mantra to the kids NOT to open the door and go outside to unlock the front door and try to get it open while calling my neighbor to come over. I kick the door open karate style and jump down the stairs. Ok, mission accomplished. Door opened. Bob, the neighbor, and I go around back to see if we can see through the slider in the porch and determine the bat's location. We come around back and he's like THERE IT IS! It was crawling on one of the screens. I hadn't realized that Eric had opened the slider since it was so hot in the house so the bat had already made it out to cooler air. Hallelujah! We friggin' raced around to the the front door, tennis rackets in hand, and slammed the slider shut. Bat was trapped - yippee!!!


At this point, the kids now know there's a bat and are outside watching it crawl and fly around the porch. We kept it contained because Bob was worried about it having rabies and thought I should make sure it didn't need to be tested. So the bat flew around the porch for a couple hours before I got a knowledgeable guy on the phone who said it was ok to let it go. I hadn't seen the bat for quite some time by now so I did open the porch door but still don't know if it's in the porch or if it's flown out. We're having them come to inspect the attic (I'm sure this is the origin of the bat) and he's going to check the porch to make sure it isn't in there. What a way to come home from vacation!