Are We There Yet?

I would love to know what EC had imagined when I told her two weeks ago that we were going to Vermont for a little vacation. I showed her Vermont on a map puzzle we were putting together. I talked about what we would see while we were there - the place were teddy bears are born and the place where ice cream is made! And I talked about how the hotel where we would stay had a pool to swim in and that there was a lake nearby. Teddy bears + ice cream + swimming pool + lake must have equaled some fantastical amusement park in her young mind, because when we got to Vermont, I quickly realized that she didn't quite grasp the concept of going to another state.

We piled into the minivan for our road trip north - we stopped along the way for pancakes and the girls watched movies on their individual tv screens. They were loving vacation so far. When we crossed from New Hampshire to Vermont, G and I cheered and announced that we'd arrived in Vermont, but EC was a little too engrossed in Veggie Tales to notice. And when we stopped for lunch at Friendly's to kill some time until we could check in at the hotel, EC asked when we were going to get to Vermont.

"We're here," I said, "we're already here - this is Vermont."

"Mommy, this is not Vermont," she said, "this is a restaurant."

I wasn't really sure how to explain it any better. The next morning, we visited the place where teddy bears are born and sped through the tour at Ben and Jerry's. LR was not a fan of factory tours - or perhaps just not a fan of missing her morning nap for them. EC had clearly forgotten all about what Vermont was by the time she was licking her vanilla ice cream cone coated in rainbow sprinkles. I guess maybe she decided that it doesn't really matter where you are as long as they have vanilla ice cream and teddy bears and swimming pools.