Vacation North- Grammy & Grampy's

The second leg of our vacation was to spend the next two nights at Grammy & Grampy's house.  The kids almost immediately wanted to get in the canoe, fish, swim and play on the beach all at once.  I think that they had accomplished all of those things in our first 30 minutes there;)  Once they settled down they had a great time exploring the pond!  Day #1 we spent just relaxing, fishing, swimming, canoeing and playing.  After nap time Great Grammy Civiello came up to make gnocchi for dinner.  Our kids love to cook/bake (really just so they can eat whatever it is, hopefully undetected;)) and they were very excited to help with supper and take part in making the gnocchi, which I am quite sure they mistook for play dough;)

On day #2 we took on the adventure of "hiking" to the waterfall.  There is a chance that, other than the bears, we were the first ones to visit this summer.  How do you know that? you may ask... Well we had to carry the kids the whole way in because the grass was taller than they were... and we saw lots of animal feces along the way.  They best surprise for us were the great late season raspberries all along the "trail".  After a surprisingly short walk and some great navigating we arrived at the falls.  Besides the poor trail, another downside to the lack of hikers was all of the moss covered rocks down by the water... moss is pretty slippery when wet so both Gabe and Grampy fell... the upside was that no one dropped any kids, but as Gabe repeatedly told me, neither of them would have fallen if it hadn't been for the kids, so we are just happy neither of them sustained more than minor injuries.  After our hike we stopped to watch the rafters come through the cribworks and the kids got quite a show when some of them even jumped off a cliff close by... Ben didn't understand why he couldn't run free here, but he took his forced containment better than expected... Audrey slept in her car seat under that blanket the whole time:) 

Vacation North- Nannie & Grandpa's

To start off our annual summer trip north we spent the first two nights at Nannie and Grandpa's house. On day #1 of vacation we visited Uncle Jon's farm before supper.  Our stay was a bit longer than planned because someone (it was totally not my fault) locked the car with the keys in it, but that just gave the kids more time to drive the golf cart, play with the animals, and for James to pocket more fresh peas which I later put through the washer. What took the cake though was when Nannie drove the golf cart into the wood cages... it really happened and I thought I would die laughing, but if you ask her I think she may try and tell you that Noah did it;)

The next morning I traveled to pick up Trey and Lily as my sister is still not feeling well enough for a big sleep over party;).  To back up briefly, she had a hospital stay, was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, and is now home recovering. The top picture is of the painting James made for her while she was in the hospital (it is of Wallace and Grommet on their rocket ship just incase that wasn't clear). It was nice to just spend the day playing at the house.  As you can see from the pictures, everyone had a blast and slept well as a result.

NH Camping Adventures Day 3- The Beginning of the End of Summer

As a fun side bar to our trip my mom and I spent the last night of our camping adventure at the North Conway Hospital ED with my sister getting rehydrated from her illness.  Everyone woke "refreshed" in the morning, we packed up quickly and started our trip home with the hopes of relaxing after our *doomed from the beginning* camping trip;)  The top photo is of James who had maybe the largest "accident" of his life (seriously, I am not sure how one person can urinate as much as he did, even through a pull up, in less than an hours time).  Since we were hauling the camper we pulled off, for the second time in about 15 minutes because some one else had to pee that hadn't had to just a few minutes earlier, in an area that was a bit sketchy.  In an effort to hurry in our hastily packed car, this outfit was the first thing I laid my hands on... my pajama shirt and Gabe's gym shorts..... he liked the outfit so much that he insisted on wearing it for the rest of the day... it was a fitting end to the trip;)

Today we took the kids to their last day of swimming lessons for the summer.  They didn't swim, but rather had a "field day" inside the rec hall.  The top picture is of the Jello eating contest they were supposed to eat without hands... James didn't understand this rule, but they both left with bags of candy, so I guess it was a win overall.  We spent the rest of the day trying to take advantage of the last few swimming days of summer!

NH Camping Adventures Day 2- Storyland

Although long, we did have an excellent time during our full day at Storyland.  By the end everyone was ready to leave, but they did all mysteriously perk up at the promise of another campfire and more s'mores.  There was no chance for a group photo this year because Amy continues to feel worse and while we were all enjoying the park, she and Lily spent the day in the camper.  A favorite this year was some sort of princess show with Tinkerbell (James's current obsession)... the picture of he and Tinkerbell is probably the highlight of his whole summer.  Trey also really enjoyed the show and even made it up on stage for the fashion show!  Noah's favorite part (besides the rides) was the circus, particularly the act with the trick dogs.  All in all we had fun, but are probably all looking forward to going home tomorrow.