This weekend was one for the books, but not for reasons that you might think! This post is a little long, so hang in there with me!

A couple of weeks ago (I was way behind the ball this year), I decided to get us tickets for the Polar Express train ride out of North Conway, NH. Since North Conway is two hours away, and the train ride was only an hour, we decided to go up a day early and make a weekend out of it. North Conway is one of those quaint, adorable, towns nestled in the mountains. It is a popular vacation spot any time of year and this was our second visit this year!

We booked a room at the North Conway Grand Hotel which is a great location, with an indoor heated pool and restaurants on-site. I was SO excited. I had visions of this wonderful, magical, Christmas weekend! Turns out, it didn’t quite go as planned……

It started with snow and extreme cold before we even left our house! And on Friday afternoon, we got a text for a showing request of our condo. I didn’t think this was going to be a big deal, since we were going to be out of town anyway! What I forgot was how much work and time goes into having your place “show” ready. We had planned on leaving at 9:30 or 10am at the latest Saturday morning. We needed to stop for an oil change and drop something off at the post office. We had planned to be in NH by 1-1:30, just in time for lunch!

Well……

We didn’t leave our house until 10:20. The roads were unplowed and horrible. We didn’t get to the oil change place until close to 11, and then had to have extra work done on my car. We got to the post office around 12, and -finally- hit the road around 12:20. We had hoped once we got to the highway that the roads would be in better condition, but we were wrong! We ended up crawling at around 40mph for 30 minutes, until we realized we were low on gas. Of course. We get off at an exit only to realize that on this particular stretch of road, they had lost power. Nothing was open! The snow was still coming down, and the roads were still horrible. We kept driving and decided to stop for lunch. Thankfully, they had just gotten power back! After a quick meal, back in the car we went – got gas – and hopped back on the highway. It was now after 1:30 and we had driven about 10 miles!!

It took us almost 3 hours from that point to get to our hotel – it was now almost 4:30! We were tired, cranky and SICK of being in the car. Poor Gracie was so excited to get out of her car seat! We checked in, quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool!

And let me tell you – that “heated” pool? It was anything but! We lasted about 20 minutes and poor Gracie’s lips were turning purple! We sat in the hot tub (she sat at the very top with her feet in) for another 15 minutes and then decided to head back to our room and get ready for dinner.

Gracie was still bouncing off the walls, so we explored the hotel and checked out all the Christmas trees. They were so pretty! But my goodness was it COLD in the hotel! Granted, it was 15 degrees outside – but you would *think* they would have the place heated better.

We somehow made it through dinner – Gracie almost fell asleep on my lap but perked up when her dessert arrived. Then she spent the next hour bouncing off the walls again, running through the halls, singing and screeching 😉

We decided to all go to bed early – it was the only way that Gracie would sleep since we were in the same room! Her and I curled up in one bed, and she of course took full advantage of being able to ‘nuggle with mama. (She can’t say her “s” sound, which is actually quite adorable!)

We woke up Sunday morning so excited about the train ride! Gracie kept talking about seeing the elves, and Mrs. Clause but she did not want to see Santa – ha!

Unfortunately, she was in quite the mood – I imagine it had a lot to do with being stuck in a car for six hours and then cooped up in a tiny hotel room – but she was impossible. Three times out, several very stern conversations later, including one where I threatened to call Santa and tell him not to bring her “red present” – and we finally were all packed up, and headed out of the hotel.

We got to the train, got our tickets and got on. This is where I really felt disappointed. Maybe it was just the lack of information when I purchased tickets, but what I had hoped was an “express” version of the “Polar Express” turned out to be just a train ride, in a half decorated car, with two elves and Santa coming down the aisle.

I’m sure I was more disappointed than Gracie was – after all, she only wanted a train ride and to see some elves – well, wish granted! She even had a nice chat with Santa where she very politely asked him for a dollhouse 🙂 Sometimes she just kills me with her sweetness!

We got off the train, got back in the car (where she had yet another meltdown) and started to head home. Thankfully, the weather had improved (warmed up to a balmy 45 degrees, woohoo!). After about 15 minutes, she fell asleep. It was a pretty quiet ride the rest of the way!

I know this isn’t the most upbeat of posts. Typically, I’m the kind of person that keeps things positive and happy BUT I am also very real. My life is not perfect – we have hard days, we have really good days, sometimes things don’t go as planned and some days I just feel like we failed.

That’s how I feel writing this post. Believe me, I know how blessed we are. Blessed to have this time together as a family, doing something fun and making memories. I know that. Gracie got to swim and go on a magical train ride, and those were the only things she really wanted. Everything else, was on me. The expectations that I had set, the vision that I saw in my head – those were on me. Sometimes I try so hard to make things perfect for her that I lose sight of why I’m even doing these things in the first place. She doesn’t care about perfection. I’m sure she would have preferred to not be in a car for six hours, but she survived. We all did. And we are home now, and all sleeping soundly in our beds and she’s slowly getting back to her normal (aka not a terror) self.

This whole motherhood thing is tough – half the time I have no clue what I’m doing. But at the end of the day, all that matters, is that I tried. And that Gracie knows endless amounts of love and happiness. If she is happy and loved, – well, I didn’t fail at all. But really, I succeeded <3

 

Linking up with Biana today!