the one with our visit to Groton, Conneticut

My sister lives in Groton, CT with her husband (who is in the Navy) and my niece, Samantha. We don't see her much (obviously).. its about a 5 hour drive, one way and well- everyone has work, school, etc and I mean, life happens.
This past few days my sisters husband was away for work and Dan was in California for a wedding so we figured this was the perfect timing for a ladies trip.
Me, my Mom, Tori and Ava packed up the car (what on Earth did we ever do without an SUV?!) and headed for Ct.
We left at about 9:30 am and made it in exactly 5 hours. That is of course not counting the two stops we made for nursing, bathroom visits and food. That time of day worked out perfectly because it went over Ava's naps so luckily she was sleeping for most of it. Tori did great, between talking to Mommy and Nonna, watching her kindle, a nap and playing with some toys she brought along, she did really well.
My sister doesn't live directly on the Navy base there but only about 10 minutes off of it. The neighborhood is cute and filled with a ton of kids. It is mostly military that live there so everyone knows each other pretty well and I was comforted to see just how much they all sort of become like family for each other since most of them come from far away. One couple was from Texas.. another New York, my sister and her husband from PA, etc. We spent the first day hanging out, cuddling, laughing, playing, getting a house tour, setting up sleeping arrangements and just overall trying to work some energy out of the kids since we had spent so much time in the car. We ordered out for dinner to this pretty good fire grilled pizza place. Pizza, a spinach/artichoke app and a smores dessert. When I vacation, all good eating goes out the window lol.
The second day we went and visited Mystic, Ct. It reminded me a lot of Kitchen Kettle Village in Lancaster. A cute little area that you could walk around, check out some shops, restaurants, etc. There was a pond so of course a LOT of time was spent chasing watching ducks. Those poor ducks.
We ate at a restaurant with outdoor seating, thank God. It was a beautiful day and the kids were super wound up so we needed to be away from people. After a lunch we barely made it through (due to Tori and Sams inability to sit still for longer than 1o minutes at a time) we headed across the way for some homemade ice cream. It was good, not Carmen & David's good, but good. We headed back to my sisters house and her and my mom put together a spread of breaded chicken, salad, broccoli and corn.. finished off with a couple of well deserved Coronas and a visit to the park which is right around the corner from my sisters place. That park saved us. Perfect for little kids and so close by, it was a great way to end the day before bath time and bed.
Saturday. The Nautilus Submarine Museum. This place was awesome. First of all, it was FREE. Thank you sweet baby Jesus. Second, besides the actual museum you go into and walk around.. there is an actual submarine that was partially submerged. It was old, huge and seriously awesome. It was almost surreal to walk through it and think about the fact that there were people who did that all of the time when they were in the military back in the day and that my brother in law does it now for a living. They slept on the tiniest bunks, the bathrooms were so small you could barely stand in (I don't know how you sit on the toilet lol) and even just the idea that you have no communication with anyone outside of the submarine for such long periods of time.. crazy.
The kids were mostly good at the museum, I guess since  it was something they could actually walk around freely in and it was also such a beautiful day outside so we really got lucky.
Fast forward to late afternoon and both Tori and Sam were spent. I don't know if it was because we all stayed together in one house so it was non stop excitement for them or what but they were borderline out of control. We tried the mall and basically got to go there to eat and that was it. They screamed, they cried, fits were had. Embarassed is an understatement. You couldn't get me out of that mall fast enough. I guess I asked for it though considering how before we even left I questioned multiple times if I should go along or just stay home with the kids. Tori has serious issues with being over stimulated. It really, truly messes up her brain. She goes nuts. Meltdown mode. Its bad. So bad.
Anywho, that brings me to us leaving a night earlier than planned. I really didn't want to sit around and deal with the girls being so tired that they just wanted to kill anyone and everyone and my mom started feeling under the weather anyways so at 5pm Saturday night we packed up the car and hit the road. Both kids were asleep by 7:30.. it was a 6 hour drive home INCLUDING dropping my mom off at her house and coming home myself.. I was greeted by my amazing neighbor who helped me get the girls inside, my other neighbor had changed my front porch light AND turned on one of my living room lights so it wouldn't be too dark for me when I made it home at 11 (did I mention my neighbors are AMAZING?!) and the girls both slept until 7ish the next day.
We really had such a nice trip, a big thank you to my sister for having us! Now onto some pictures, which most of you have alrdy seen via fbook and IG.