My husband took Dede for a weekend away when I was still pregnant with Artie, or maybe he had just been born, which seems like a big difference but honestly it’s all kind of a blur to me. Ever since she’s been asking nonstop if she and Dada can go back to the “footmountains” together — Mama and Artie not exactly welcome but not expressly forbidden either. Lex initially planned a trip for them both but I muscled my way in because Christmastime with two kids is short and the number of Christmas experiences I was able to put together was even shorter. It was also worthwhile, we thought, to see how the kids would take to travel at their current ages. Dede is four, Artie is nine months old.

And, well, Artie screamed almost the entire drive. There were times he screamed so much he seemed to pass out, only to wake up half an hour later and scream some more. Despite this, he seemed totally fine every time we stopped the car and took him out.

The main objective of the trip was to visit Santa, who was waiting out in the rain for kids that first night. Very devoted to the job. Dede asked for a camera; Artie didn’t really know what was going on but he was having a good time.

We also saw trains! We headed to the Railtown 1897 State Park, which didn’t have trains running this time of year but did have a tour, plus plenty of space to run around in. We put Artie in the grass for the first time expecting he’d panic like most babies too but he dug it.

As always, the kids enjoyed exploring the hotel room at least as much as any of the sights we saw. We could probably plan a hotel room-based vacation and they’d like that just fine (just not too far by car, Artie pleads).