Summer Recap Part One: Mystic, CT

I did a terrible job of keeping up with all our summer travels over here because I was really busy enjoying every (well, almost every) moment of them! I was flipping through my Instagram last night and it is literally three months of adventure! I feel so lucky to be able to do these things with my kiddos and to have a husband that is always willing to let me create these crazy memories together.

At the beginning of the summer we created a summer bucket list and on that was a trip to Mystic. CT. Matt and I had been briefly when we first started dating to sight-see with my grandparents while they were visiting from the West Coast but it was an ill-fated trip (I ended up in the hospital the next day with a kidney infection) and we only saw a little of it. This time around, we had big plans!

We drove down on a Saturday morning and headed to The Dinosaur Place, which is just a few minutes from Mystic. I had no idea what to expect and had gotten Maddie pretty excited about it, so was really hoping it was as good as their website was claiming it to be. Good news: it was awesome. There were nature trails to walk that had HUGE dinosaurs throughout and fun facts posted that we talked about as we looked at them (the dinos were really well done, too!).
It was a little cloudy and rain was in the forecast but that meant more room on their huge playground in between a picnic lunch and chasing Annabel around since the crowds were super light. And before the storm actually rolled in the girls put on their suits and hit up the splash pad, which was really awesome for both kids (and both would've turned purple and stayed all day if we let them). On our way out Maddie and Daddy took a run through the maze and Maddie did a romp in the Jurassic Moon Bounce before we picked one thing out of the shop (a dinosaur transformer for Maddie, the victory of not spending more than $10 for Mommy and Daddy). I really hope Maddie continues her goal of becoming a paleontologist or at least humors Annie someday because we would love to come back!

Maddiesaurus Rex

That face :)

Annie LOVES water!

After we had our dino fill we checked into our hotel to relax for a bit. If we don't rent a house we absolutely must get a suite so that there is a living room area and separate bedroom, which is always worth the extra money to us. Once the girls go to sleep we can watch a movie together in bed and not worry about waking anyone up to use the bathroom. We also like to have the fridge and microwave to save money on food for the girls, especially microwave popcorn, which is Maddie's jam on vacation (popcorn and a movie on the pullout bed!). Once we were good and relaxed and had hit the pool (another must when travelling with the girls) we went to Mystic Pizza because when in Rome....! I really liked the pizza, Matt really liked the wings and Maddie and Annie enjoyed the pasta, so everyone got what they needed. After that it was back to the hotel for popcorn in bed and an early night so we could get to the Mystic Aquarium bright and early the next morning.

Hotel room cuddles!

They love posing for me.

A lady at the pool told us to get to the aquarium early so we could beat the crowds and that is exactly what we did. We were probably the second family in and Maddie walked right up to the beluga whales to be greeted by a big ol' beluga smile! It was amazing! After having just seen Finding Dory she could not have been more thrilled!
We are lucky to get to go to the New England Aquarium quite but this was a totally different experience. It was really spread out and had a lot of different animals (like even more sharks!) and everyone liked it (especially Annie, once she woke up from her nap). We had a chance to see everything before the crowds picked up and both the girls had enough so we headed back towards Boston. Even though it felt like we were miles away from home, it took us just a couple of hours (with a stop for lunch in Rhode Island), which makes it a really easy weekend getaway.