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.

NH Camping Adventures Day 1- Trains & Storyland

For this year's Glidden family vacation we decided to change it up a bit and make our trip to North Conway a camping one... 2 campers, 1 tent, 5 adults, 6 kids (6yo, 4 yo, 3 yo, 2 yo, 4 months & 2 months... maybe seeing it written out like that would have made us reconsider...;) Things were a bit chaotic as is the norm, but we did celebrate Nannie's birthday the first night with a "special" cake from Walmart which Ben managed to step on in the car (thankfully with the cover still on).... we will call this ominous warning #1 (if the whole set up wasn't enough). The first night the temps dipped into the mid 40s and the daytime temp barely reached mid 60s with gale force winds (Nannie even had to break the bud light sweatshirt in an effort to fulfill the camping persona)... in August... we will call this ominous warning #2.  We had an exciting first morning taking a train ride where Amy started feeling ill (ominous warning #3) and James found his love of photography and took LOTS of pictures both inside and out of the train window.  I will try and add them to the slideshow on the side bar.

After the train ride Gabe and Dad had, what I think will be the highlight of the whole trip, a chance to golf.  As you can see from the above picture the winds died down for perfect conditions..... and maybe more so a great break while all of the kiddos napped. In the afternoon we headed for Storyland to get in the last few hours before our full day visit tomorrow. Storyland was so FUN this year!  Ben is tall enough to ride on all of the rides despite not yet being two.... he was fearless!  Gabe and I were able to take our 3 boys on all of the "big rides" including the roller coaster (which Ben somehow knew how to climb aboard himself and tried to close the safety bar before I had even sat down), the water raft ride and the log flume.  Everyone was pretty tired, but we were able to enjoy a campfire to end the night.