Our weekend started in earnest on Friday (as one might expect) but I was able to get a few quick photos of the kids playing at the local middle school playground and fields on Thursday, so I’m including them here.

On Friday we decided partway through the morning to pack up a picnic and take them to the state park – I had already taken the day off to hang out with my friend Julie, so I put together some bags. Our state park is only about 30 minutes away and has a beach (it was super muddy), a creek (very cold, but a lot of fun), a playground, and lots and lots of trail. We took a long walk up to The Big House to see the museum (just one room, but fun for the kids). Both kids picked flowers for me, which I just loved.

Bob got more photos than I did, so it may not look quite as fun as it was (which was really fun!)

Saturday came up rainy, but we decided to risk it and go to Midway State Park anyway. Midway is kind of like a permanent carnival. But the rides are run by state summer help and are all like college kids. It rained the entire time (in varying degrees of intensity) but that really didn’t matter to the kids. We had outfit changes ready for them so they didn’t get too damp or chilly, but I think they might not have noticed either way.

We all went on the tilt-a-whirl together.

They loved it, by the way. Much more than I did – to spinny for me.

On our drive home from Midway, we were behind this thing (I took photos on Bob’s phone, but didn’t grab them for posting here).

We saw the trailer had Vermont plates, so I googled until I found it. Our initial guesses of “tiny cathedral” and “chuppah” were way off. Instead, it is the result of a project executed by students at Green Mountain College. Read more here.

On Sunday we took the kids to see their first movie in a theatre (Planes: Fire and Rescue). I sat between the kids and while I got my hand squeezed extra hard a few times from both sides, overall they really enjoyed it. Nothing was scary (just intense) and since they both love Dusty so much, their minds were blown by the size of the screen and the whole group viewing experience. Eleanor decided about halfway through that maintaining an inner monologue with regard to plot was for suckers, so we were lucky the theatre was 90% empty.

The weekend was so busy and fun that on Monday, Henry took a two-and-a-half-hour nap at daycare. I think we all would have liked a nap on Monday, honestly.