Dan’s family takes a trip to the Adirondacks in upstate NY every year. They have been doing this for decades now. They stay at the same place and go the same week every year. While I would prefer to explore someplace new every year, I’ve learned to enjoy and embrace this great family tradition. Its always the week before labor day and right before back to school, so it’s a great way to end the crazy summer. In my profession of travel marketing for Niagara Falls, labor day also happens to be the last big, wild and crazy week of the summer tourist season too, so again its a great way to feel like I’ve wrapped up another great year!

This year, we went for 5 days. We don’t usually do a whole lot on this vacation, we have a beach, swing-set, and volleyball court all right at the cabins we stay at, so everything is right there. But the older Ada gets the more active I feel like we need to be, or maybe I just want to take advantage of doing something new on a vacation that we take every year. For Ada though, she is basically experiencing everything for the first time. Even if we did something before, she likely doesn’t remember yet.

This year we started the week out with a family kayaking trip. She loved the first 20 minutes of this, until we were way out in the middle of the lake and she decided that she was all done with this activity and wanted to go back to Grandma. Given that we were out in the middle of the lake, she wasn’t fond of the trip back and just wanted to get out. She did great though, and sat still for me until we got back. No major disasters, just a shorter trip next time. Attention spans are not great at 3!

We took her on an “easy” hike up Bald Mountain. We were off to a great start until she wanted to be carried. The way up she did half walking and half being carried. My favorite was Daddy carrying her while she sang every song under the sun! The ultimate lazy toddler. It was worth the hike up for the pictures alone. She did enjoy reaching the top (only because I had a bag of fruit loops for her to much on- and she drank everyone’s water- leaving those of us actually hiking pretty hot and thirsty- but you know, her needs come first!) I had to carry her ALL THE WAY back down by piggy back and she of course passed out on the car ride home. Being carried up and down a mountain is exhausting!

We took her out to dinner one night, where she was absolutely amazing. I really credit her great behavior in restaurants to the fact that we take her out frequently. We try not to eat out too much, but when we do, we like to bring her. And I really think she’s been brought up learning how to behave when out in public. I’m not saying she’s perfect every time, and she’s been known to unload every single sugar packet and sort them by color, (but who doesn’t do that?) I also try to make sure I have other “activities” stowed in my purse. Travel coloring books with crayons, sticker books, Little People. I sometimes even let her pick out a few small things that will fit in my purse, that way she is satisfied when we get there and I pull out the things she wanted and remembered packing. – After our dinner the views were just stunning so we had to go outside for a photo-op.

Our last day there was a little cool, but we still had fun! We made monster ice cream sundaes with all the other little cousins and took her on a boat ride, which she loved, despite it being pretty chilly. Ada even let us go out for grown-up night that evening with the other adult cousins (aka all the moms and dads) and she let the older kid cousins baby-sit her since Grandma had to leave vacation early this year. I was a little hesitant if she would even let us out the door, but she was awesome and we were able to have fun with the grown ups for little while. We made it back before bedtime and caught an amazing sunset!

All in all it was another great year in the mountains. We came back relaxed and ready to take on the fall. Next year we will have to find some new activities to do with her, but Its fun to just hang out with family, catch some sun and be a little active. Time off from work and time spent with family is something we all need to do once in awhile!