August Biggie

Okay.  So you thought the July post was a big one.

Wait till ya get a load of August!

We really like to jam pack a lot into August and this year was no exception.

First up, a trip to the good 'ole North East

for a little fun, family and ants.

We stayed at Huzbend's parents campground which is beautifully located in the middle-western-woods of New Hampshire.

Here was our (and the ants) camper-away-from-home:

After a not very eventful overnight flight, the first order of business upon arrival was....

HIT THE POOL!!

And the second was to eat S'mores.

The weekend we chose to visit was the 10th Anniversary of Granma and Granpa owning the campground.  A big shindig was planned with a potluck and music.

And so Uncle Chris, Auntie Sheila and Matty were there along with some of their friends and THEIR families.  My mom came up with both my sisters and THEIR families.  Huzbend's Aunts and Uncles came.  GiGi and Granpop came.  It was a regular family reunion type thingie.

All in all there were.....hmmmm, let me count them......9 kids in all (I think - math is hard)!

That first day was filled with the excitement of meeting and playing with new friends.

The kids were EXHAUSTED.

Here they are sleeping in the next morning.....

But, who can sleep when unnaturally green flume water awaits!!!

SPLASH!!!!!!!

We packed up 7 of the 9 kids and took them up to Santa's Village.

It was only 2 frickin' hours away.  Really.  Everything in NH is FAR away.

Even Walmart.  Ask my sister.  Took her an hour to drive to Walmart from the campground.

On the way there I saw my first real, live, not-in-a-zoo, not-a-stuffed-animal moose on the side of the road.  It's only taken 38 years and I even lived in the damn state for about, like, 6 of them.

I also saw Matty use a potty in the back of his jeep.

Never seen that before either!

On to Santa's Village....

Before we got to the park we stopped for lunch.  As we left lunch and arrived at the park, torrential downpours hit the area.  We were trapped in our cars with our fingers crossed it would subside.

It did.  We threw Katie in her swim suit figuring the rain would continue at some point.

Boy, were we right.  But for now, we were good to go!

"Come on!  Let's goooooooo!"

Did you know that in the off-season the reindeer are in NH eating crackers?

Neither did I.

Santa's Village was really fun.  I was impressed with the friendliness of the staff and the cleanliness of the park.  The rides were great and very appropriate for the age range of our kids.

Everyone had a great time.  Until........

.....the rain came.

And OH MAN, did it come.  We had finally made our way up the water playground

area of the park.  And then the rain came and it DID NOT STOP.

At one point it became Forrest Gump rain - coming at us sideways and then at one point up from the ground.  Everyone and everything was drenched and we decided to sprint across the park to our cars.

Just like any touristy type place, you had to exit the park through a gift shop.  The gift shop had

had a river of rain running through it.  There were puddles on the floor and workers were trying to sweep the remaining water out.

Here's the family after our desperate run to the car:

Everyone got a change of clothes and a pizza dinner to warm them up.

The next day was a "lake/beach day".

With the added benefit of kayak rides.

And a grown-up catered hot dog lunch.

Cousins Joey and Sophia had come in the night before and joined us at the beach for some sand-digging fun.

On a side note, leeches are gross.  Mikey had one attached to this achilles heel.

'Twas nasty.

It didn't bug him a bit, but it creeped me out.

Later in the day, we all gathered for the potluck celebration.

Sticking with the theme of the trip, it rained.

Again.

Wet.

And an oweeee.

If this isn't a guilty look, I don't know what is.

Luckily, after the potluck there was some music and dancing.

There had to be SOME way to work off the sugar in all those

rice krispie treats and cupcakes.

After a crazy night of partying, it only seemed fitting

to enjoy a liquid breakfast of orange juice and chocolate milk while enjoying CARS 2 with Matty.

After that, it was playground and coloring time while everyone packed up their campsites.

It was time to go home.

This must be why there's so many frowns in this picture.

But then someone (yay, Matty!) put the request in for some Ring Pops and the mood got considerably lighter.

And, of course, Mikey turned his Ring Pop into a Green Lantern

power ring.

CHEWWWW!  CHEWWWWW!

To keep the kids occupied, we took a trip up to Granpa's Workshop

to see his motorcycle, his tractor and all his cool tools.

After that, it was time to say goodbye to all the kids new friends (and our old ones) and family.

Boo-hoo.

Lots of hugs and tears.

That afternoon, we headed up to The Polar Caves with Matty for a little exploring.

The kids had a great time climbing around in the dark caves under the huge granite

boulders.  It was pretty hot in 'dem 'der caves.  Not very "Polar" like at all.

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Then we had to say goodbye to Matty, Uncle Chris and Aunty Sheila.

We headed off in search of dinner and ended up on Lake Winnepesaukee at an Italian joint.

It rained.  Again.

Hard.

That was okay, because we were in the restaurant.

But, then the power went out.  

Luckily, we had received our food.

Eating in the dark is weird.

Next day we were off to the water park.

On the way, I gave Mikey an activity book that included it's own

"washable" markers.

He did not use the book for his activities instead choosing something else as his canvas.

I hung out with Mikey while Huzbend and Katie went off to do water slides and such.

We hung out in the kiddie pool and the hot tub.

After running through water all day.  Mikey was exhausted.

He told me he wanted to go to sleep, "right here!"

And, I think he did, for a little while.

Katie was still going.....

and going!

That night there was a big lightsaber battle.

Good?  Morning.

Next up, The Flume Gorge.

A really cool water-made valley through rock.

It kinda reminded me of home with all the moss and all.

"Ooooooooo.  It's SOOOOOO pretty."

Family pic time!

There's lots of these back East.  All over.

Katie likes animals.  Even stuffed ones.

Two more stops....first up, The Cannon Mt. Tramway.

Up, up, up the mountain we go!

Below is a picture of Katie's favorite part of the tramway trip.

The hand dryer in the bathroom was super powerful.  It could almost blow her backwards.

She stood there for, like, five minutes playing with it.

At the top of the mountain they had a observation platform you could climb up.

It was really high.

Katie didn't like it.

Mikey was consoled by the fact that he could force jump to safety if he had too.

Last NH stop.  The Man In The Mountain.

He's still there.  Sort of.

He fell down in 2003, but they put up this cool memorial where you can line up

a face on a stick to where he used to be.

Here you go...

Last night in the camper!!!  Bye-Bye ANTS!!!

Not quite.  Our flight got cancelled.

Oh well.

That was okay.

That meant more time to watch Phineas and Ferb with Granpa.....

.....pretend to be a Camping Queen.....

.....ride Granpa's motorcycle.....

.....and fly, I mean, swim in the pool!

It was also Katie's official 6th birthday.

After an exhaustive search, we finally found a nut-free ice cream cake.

The next day, it was REALLY time to say good bye to the camper.

After one last ant squoosh, of course.

Thanks, Granma and Granpa!

We love you!

Good times.

We drove down to Chris and Sheila's house to spend the night.

They're twenty minutes from the airport.

They had a CUMBIES!!!
Ahhhhh, childhood memories.

Here's a glimpse at some GEN-U-INE "Cousin Craziness".....

Thanks for having us for the night!

The first thing we did when we got home the next day was open presents!

Katie had to wait two extra days.  She was SO excited to rip 'em open.

Katie sends out a great, big "THANK YOU!" to everyone.

Our trip also had an unforeseen consequence.

Seeing all the big kids, especially his cousins, using the potty inspired Mikey to take the leap into UNDERWEAR!

And as if we couldn't get enough, we went camping the next weekend too.

Tent camping this time.

"Can we eat marshmallows now?"

"Dad, do you need help with that?"

There's a WWII fort you can explore.  It's a little dark in there though....

No worries!  Head lamps for all!

After exploring (and yelling) in the dark (and echoey) fort, it was time for a Tylenol and a hike to the beach.

Mikey may be wearing underwear, but he still wants to be carried every where.

There was a big, giant hole behind our campsite.

It was awesome.

Potty break.

Followed by.....

....marshmallow time!

GIANT marshmallow time.

Sticky and hyper.  Just what every parent wants their kids to be.

This is how big the marshmallows were.  They took up

half of Mikey's face.

As it got dark, it was time for little reflection.

Everyone was sitting quietly in thought.....

Daddy:  "Next time, we should bike up here."

Katie:  "I wonder if Daddy will let me have one more marshmallow?"

Mikey:  "I wonder if Ninja's can use lightsavers?"

Snuggle time and then.....

....sleep time.

Chocolate cheerios.

The camping breakfast of choice for crazy-haired 6 year olds.

Also the choice of Mommy's of crazy-haired, not-wanting-to-share 6 year olds.

Mikey decided on instant oatmeal.

And, as all good campers do, we pretended to be super heroes for a bit.

On the way back home, we took a ferry across Puget Sound.

Some of you might think that this is Katie's normal hair.

And if we weren't standing on a ferry, you'd be right.

My sister and I were just talking about people bragging about their kids.

I guess, if you wanted, you could consider this bragging.

But, I want to put this here so I remember it.

In case the internets are still around when I'm butt-ass old, I can come back here and sigh.

We were at Fred Meyer.  Katie bought herself a Lego Ninjago set.

Mikey decided he wanted a Star Wars set.

Then we got home.  Mikey was upset.  He wanted a ninja too.

I told him that he had decided he wanted Star Wars.

He cried and cried and cried.

Katie decided that she would take the 5 dollars that she had left in her piggy bank and buy him

his own Lego ninja guy so that he could be happy.

So, we went back to the store and she did.

This is a copy of her first receipt.

T-minus one week 'till school starts!  Time for the Fair!

And that means........

...time for rides.

(Mommy spending 40 dollars in tickets so we can ride on those rides.  Ugh.)

Next up, a break for a bit of lunch.

As was promised upon the successful completion of lunch, we went in search of a "special treat".

The only thing in our vicinity was strawberry frozen yogurt.

The offer was made to wait and try to look for something else or eat the yogurt.

Katie chose the yogurt and, obviously, was not happy about it.

After the yogurt debacle, it was time for Katie to fall in love

with every single animal at the Fair.

Giant bunnies......

....cows.....

...and piglets.

Katie heard an announcement about some dancers that were going to perform.

So, we headed off in search of them.

They were traditional Aztec dancers with totally wicked costumes.

Of course, Katie could not resist the invitation to dance.

And, of course, Mikey did resist deciding instead to be a goldfish-munching spectator.

School starts for Katie the day after Labor Day; 1st grade and going to school all day.

I hope it won't be too hard of a transition for her (and me) (and Mikey).

She's very excited to start.

Mikey starts preschool on the 10th.  He is not very excited.  I'm sure he'll tell me the next time that I mention preschool is starting soon that he, "doesn't wanna go."

He says that all the time.  I anticipate a rough start with drop-offs being full of tears and cries of, "DON'T GO!"  Sigh.

Stay tuned!