We recently took a mini vacation to Vermont. This is what it looked like.
Three weeks ago Peter had a whole week off from work and because we could not decide on what to do with this time he had free, we waffled on whether to stay in New York or actually go somewhere. Sunday night I suggested we take a few days to go to Manchester, Vermont.
All five of us (Hugo too!) got in the car at 8pm and drove to Peter's parents house in the Berkshires. We spent the night there and then first thing in the morning took the kiddos out to breakfast at a local cafe that Zelda LOVES. She loves it because all over the dining room are lollipops and chocolate treats. I took a couple for the road and we were off driving the remaining 2 hours to Manchester and the Equinox hotel.
It was very pretty, there was a cute town and outlet shopping nearby. I thought it would be a blast. We checked in, which took awhile and then unpacked, which took some more time. Then we decided we should get outside, after a nice lunch Peter thought we should try a hike. Zelda saw the trail headed into the woods and started crying. She wanted to look at ants and dandelions instead, so I stayed with her while Peter tried to walk with Portia in the jogging stroller. This was pretty difficult so he joined us quicker than he would have liked.
After Peter and Portia's walk we all took a little swim in the hotel pool. I was pretty nervous because Zelda had been having some pretty heavy poops during the weekend and I didn't want her to have one in the pool. We double swim diapered her and everything seemed to be great. The water was cool, the girls were having fun and Peter and I were exhausted.
It was almost dinner time so we packed everybody up from the pool and went to the room for dinner. Peter was going to walk around town and look for some good food while the three girls stayed at the hotel to walk Hugo. When we got back to our room Zelda had pooped all over herself and needed to be changed. Then, she pooped all over herself and me and the carpet so I needed to change her and clean up the carpet and change my clothes. Then, Portia needed to be changed and Hugo still had to be taken for his walk.
After taking Hugo outside for about 6 minutes we came back into the lobby of the hotel. Zelda pooped again and started to point to the carpet and cry. I scooped both girls up in my arms, grabbed Hugo's leash and ran back to the room to deal with her dirty diaper. But... I had forgotten my room key. Down we went back to the lobby, past the poop, to the front desk with both babies and the doggy and we asked for a new key. By the time we got back to the room the poo was all over all three of us and everybody had to have a good scrub down.
Poor Zelda was not having a good time and kept asking if we could go home. I explained to her that we were spending the night and that this was Vermont! Vermont was a fun place to see tall trees and flowers and ants. I couldn't convince her that Vermont was super special (probably because we have more ants in our kitchen than there are in the gardens of the Equinox Hotel). She started to cry very hard and I found that she was becoming very sensitive because of all the wiping from her poops. I told her not to worry and that she could have a lollipop when her dad came back with dinner.
Peter came back home with dinner, but no lollipop. He had parked the car and when I asked him to find the lollipop Zelda started to cry harder. He told her to wait for him by the window, it must be in the car and that he would find it. After he searched (for ten minutes and Zelda sobbed) he came back and said he couldn't find it. He did, however find some poop on the carpet and the wall that I had missed when I was cleaning up the girls. Peter continued to look for the little lollipop until I noticed some chocolate on my pillow from turn down service and thankfully Zelda was just as happy to get that and she stopped crying.
The rest of the night and next morning went pretty much the same way. We had some crying, some looking for things we couldn't find and lots of diaper changes. At 10am on Tuesday we decided to head home. When we got the car all packed up to go and were driving down the highway I found the lollipop in the dashboard.
