The plan was for us to drive up Friday, spend the weekend at Smugglers’ Notch, in Cambridge, VT, and then return home on Sunday night. The drive was approximately 4 hours. We thought we could leave mid-morning, stop around lunchtime, then the kids could nap the rest of the way.
And so we did.
We left mid-morning. The kids ended up sleeping much of the way to lunch, so we weren’t sure what the rest of the trip would look like. We stopped at a fast food restaurant (their first experience) in VT, although we suspected that we’d actually stepped into a sci-fi movie of some sort.
We ordered, quickly ate, and let the kids walk around a little to stretch their legs. They make friends everywhere they go, but at this stop, they made best friends. . Everyone in the restaurant either had a set of twins, was a twin, or was with a set of twins. Everyone. There were two other sets of twins there, with their families. The couple sitting next to me had grown twin sons. The couple sitting behind us each had twin siblings. And so on. Everyone.
We stopped drinking the water we’d ordered, changed diapers, and loaded everyone back into the car.
They fell back asleep pretty quickly, and tag teamed us the rest of the way. Before we knew it, the whining had begun. We tried to keep them happy by singing their favorite song, over and over. It worked for a short period of time. Thankfully, it worked just long enough. TT Dad had planned a quick pit stop for us on the way, and we finally made it.
The Vermont Teddy Bear Company, in Shelburne, VT.
We weren’t sure what we would find, and after a couple of hours of whining and crying, I was thinking we should have just gone straight to the resort. I couldn’t imagine that a store, a tour, whatever it was, could make it worth getting everyone out of the car, just to put them back in again, and have to hear another hour of crying.
January 22, 2016. I was wrong.
This was the perfect stop. We decided to try a tour, so we let the duo wander around the store a bit to get their wiggles out, until it was time. When our tour began, we learned about each of the teddy bears that are produced, as well as many other little bits of fascinating trivia.
Unfortunately, the day had been crazy enough, and the duo weren’t interested in learning about the teddy bears. They had their mind set on returning to the store. So, we ducked out early. We returned to the store, and let them explore a second room, which was even better than the first.
Cabinets meant to be opened!
Books!
Cuddles
Teddy Bear Tea Party
There were perfect sized tables, chairs, dishes, books, toys, and huge teddy bears to cuddle with. I am pretty sure we could have spent the weekend there, and had two happy kidlets. That wasn’t the plan, though. There was plenty more fun on the way!
We had to tear them away from the toys, and load their sad faces back into the car. We hit some traffic in the last leg of our trip, but we were so excited, we barely noticed. We arrived in the dark, but the signage was clear enough that we knew just where to go. We were thrilled to find a little table, chairs, and crayons for the kids while TT Dad checked us in.
Our adventure had begun!!