A Light at the End

When Gideon said he needed to go to Portsmouth, NH for his commissioning medical exam, I thought it would be a nice end of summer, before school starts trip.  It ended up being so much more.  In May after graduation and another batch of Marines left, I kept thinking we STILL have another year here.  After this trip though, I am thinking we only have one year left, which is a big difference. 

It was so nice to be near a military base and a Navy one at that.  I loved the area and the idea that Navy bases are usually located in large port areas.  I have had my fill of isolation. 

Our hotel was great with a separate sitting area where the girls slept, an office, and kitchenette/dining room.  We also found out this is pretty standard in most Naval Lodges. 

Along with it being a great rejuvenator, we had a lot of fun on the trip too.  We did a ton of shopping as there was a huge outlet mall.  We all got a lot of clothes and a few new kitchen gadgets for me.  There were so many options and we left with probably more than we needed.

In between all of the shopping, we visited a children’s museum, water park, and zoo.  It was all within 20 minutes of the base, and for those who have lived in VT you know how big a deal that is.  On the day we visited the children’s museum, Gideon had several doctor’s appointments, the real reason for the trip, so he couldn’t go with us.

While it wasn’t one of my favorite kid’s museums, we still had a lot of fun and kept busy all day.

Trying out the different masks from around the world

"Working" in the restaurant

Story time

Digging for dinosaur bones

Testing the strength of her aluminum foil boat she made

Caught by the crab

The next day we went to the water park.  It didn’t go as well as we had hoped.  Malia has developed a fear of slides and won’t go down them without one of us and Hadley hates getting water in her face.  Since this water park doesn’t allow parents on the kiddie slides and there were water sprayers everywhere we did very little. 

Our last day made up for it though as we visited the York Wild Kingdom.  It is a zoo-amusement park combo.  The girls enjoyed the animals, but their favorite was the amusement park.  There was a mini Ferris wheel that they loved.  The bumper boats were also a huge hit. 

On the paddle boat

Feeding the goats

Feeding the deer

How cute are these kiddie bumper boats?

It was a great trip and so much more.  While we have had a lot of fun in VT, I am ready to move on and this trip was a great way to show us what we are in store for next.