July 2018 - The Trip Back East

Katie came back from Camp Oasis on Saturday, June 30th. She, as usual, had a great time. 

She participated in (among many other things):

Mud masks and manicures.

General silliness.

A capture-the-flag-like game called Pirates.

The Dork Dance

The Whale Swim (swimming a long, long way)

She had one full day at home to recover from all of the craziness (and peace sign flashing) of camp and then we were off to visit the East Coast.

Our early morning flight plopped us down in Boston by late afternoon.

Then, we trucked it up to New Hampshire to visit Huzbend's family.

A peace sign from Katie while the boy cousins swing and conspire.

The boys similarities were uncanny. Soon, they were calling themselves "bruzzins" (Brother/Cousins).

Say hi to Lulu. She's a sweety and LOVES to play ball.

Unlike a certain Labrador we know.

She's also very smart.

She knows exactly who to park herself next to to get the best crumbs.

The boys disappeared up to Matty's room.

I soon found out they were watching Star Wars together in a pile of stuffies.

After a delicious BBQ dinner, and a little craziness involving Nerf guns and such, it was time to wind down with VR/MarioKart.

After a long day - we got up super early - it was time for sleep.

Aunty Sheila pulled out the inflatable mattresses and all three kids shared a room.

Katie MUST have been exhausted from all her adventures because when I walked in in the morning I found that Katie's bed had deflated with her still asleep in it.

How she could sleep like that was beyond me.

The boys woke and played some more games.

Right about this time, Grandma and Grandpa rolled in for lunch.

Speaking of Ralph, our kids were REALLY missing their dog.

Lulu got LOTS of attention and giant hugs before we left to head up to the mountains.

It takes a few hours to get up into the mountains. 

The kids all rode in Chris and Sheila's truck and played video games together.

We chauffeured the grandparents. 

I'm guessing we had a much quieter ride.

For the next 4 days the ride arrangements stayed the same.

We made it!

We were staying in a VERY old hotel. It was also VERY hot.

VERY hot + VERY old = not good.

The AC wasn't functioning as well as it should've. 

It was above 80 in our rooms. Bleh.

Dinner time!

Despite the heat, everyone was having a good time. 

Huzbend regaled everyone with embarrassing anecdotes about himself and me.

This was an unfortunate trend that would continue for the trip. 

Unfortunate but not completely unexpected.

The kids were quite silly.

Mikey even managed to dump a glass of water all over himself in all the silliness.

Then, being soggy, he wasn't so silly anymore.

"Oh, the heat is getting to me!"

Is it time for the pool yet???

Yes. It was time for the pool. 

And a view of the back of the hotel.

Much fun was had with swirling up whirlpools and general pool mayhem while the moms and grandparents were eaten alive by mosquitoes whilst sitting on the pool deck.

Although I don’t mind a little cuddle time, even if it means I get ¼ of the bed.....

Huzbend got tired of the incessant kicking and parked himself on the floor. He did the same the next night as well.

It was the Fourth of July and we had plenty planned to keep the kiddos busy and happy.

First up, fun at Bretton Woods. They have all sorts of activities. Like…….

Go-Karts!

Archery!

Chair-lift rides to the top of the mountain!

After a stop for lunch - where we had to sign a waiver that our food allergic/celiac kids were NOT eating the restaurants food and we would be responsible for whatever happened to them - we decided to DRIVE up Mt. Washington.

There's a long story behind this, that I am not going to go into. But just know that driving is not recommended.

Take the train, folks. Even if it is way more expensive.

We made it to the top unscathed.

Well, maybe there was some emotional damage done.

It’s really beautiful up there. We took some time to wander around a bit.

Trust me, we were in NO rush to head back down the mountain.

We made a quick stop for dinner and then rushed back to our hotel to watch the hotels July Fourth fireworks show with accompanying patriotic music.

I was impressed. Not bad Mt. Washington Hotel. Not bad.

It was an exhausting day.

The next morning, people were feeling it…

Off we went on another adventure.

We ended up at Lost River: A place where you can climb around in caves created when receding glaciers left huge boulders laying about.

Loved this place as a kid and still love it as an adult.

And believe it or not, I FIT through The Lemon Squeezer.

Here’s proof.

Next, we stopped at The Basin: A picturesque short hike to some waterfall-y type things.

The kids climbed around.

You know my kids. If there’s water, they need to be in it.

It was pretty hard to convince them that we just didn’t have the time (or the backup clothes) for them to be diving into the water.

We made one last stop on our way back to the hotel to visit the ghost of the Man in theMountain.

We walked down to see what he USED to look like. So sad.

At some point we ate dinner somewhere. I have no idea where.

Kids and Huzbend and Uncle hit the outdoor pool once again. Then, they moved to the indoor pool and the hot tub.

Just as we were leaving the pool, it poured rain.

But, lucky for us, the rain cleared and no one else was outside (because everything was wet) and we got a fire pit to ourselves for Marshmallowpalooza.

It was Katie's turn to sleep on the floor.

Breakfast the next morning was a somber affair.

It was our last day in New Hampshire with Huzbend’s family.

But, that didn't that we didn’t have anything fun planned before we left.

Our first stop was another ski mountain, Mt. Cranmore, for some summer fun. They had all sorts of things to do.

Giant swing, tube slides, climbing walls, zip line, kiddie ropes course.....

We grabbed a late lunch and then headed to Funspot,  “The Largest Arcade in the World”. It was….okay.

Huzbend and Katie bowled with Grandpa, while Mikey, cousin Matty and I headed to play some arcade games.

They had lots and lots of old school games.

The first one Mikey tried to play was “Dragon’s Lair”. The most unforgiving game, like, ever. He quickly got fed up with that and moved on.

His quote, as he got more and more frustrated, “These games are HARD!”

It was getting late and we still had to drive about 3 hours down to Connecticut. Ugh.

With a few tears and lots of hugs, we said goodbye to Huzbend’s family.

We didn’t really eat dinner so we had to stop at a rest stop at like 10pm to grab something to keep us from falling asleep. We stopped at McDonalds. Yep. McDonalds.

Katie had a nacho Lunchable we had brought with us.

We got Mikey a Happy Meal, but believe it or not, Mikey had fallen out of love with McD’s burgers! We were secretly happy as he was obsessed with them a while back.

We made it to our hotel pretty late and crashed.

The next day, we decided to meet my side of the family at a Renaissance Faire. Crazy, right?

I would say the star of the show had to be Baby Jacob (who’s not really a baby anymore, but he’s younger than all the cousins so……..).

We did some axe throwing, some archery, ate some pickles…..all the typical Ren Faire stuff.

Then we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

YUM!!

After dinner we headed to my middle sister, Kelly's, to play. Katie decided to spend the night and we met everyone the next morning to see 'Ant Man and Wasp'.

After the movie, we headed to my youngest sister Kari's (mom of Jacob) house for a picnic.

Fun was had by all…even adults.

We call this the "Joey Special": ritz crackers, cheddar cheese & a dorito.

Watching her and her husband chase around their toddler made me NOT MISS running after littles. Not one teensy-tiny bit. But, it did make me miss toddler cuddles.

These kids aren’t related AT ALL.

Oldies and young'uns.....

No visit to Connecticut would be complete without a visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s dogs. This was high on the kids priority list.

I found my stash of comic books from when I worked at a comics store. Mikey didn't want to leave.

We stopped and grabbed some super delicious MEATBALL GRINDERS to eat for lunch and headed to a spray park. 

I miss meatball grinders. 

I want one right now.

I also miss lightning bugs.

And so, as if the kids didn’t get ENOUGH water, we went back to Kelly's house for some pool time. 

Jacob came along and it was his first time in the pool. That first time almost ended quickly as Katie accidentally dunked him under water upon entering said pool and he decided, “I DO NOT LIKE IT.”

After some coercing, he got back in for another try and had a good time.

Then it was time for another goodbye. Sigh. Goodbyes are never easy.

The next day, we were departing out of Boston to return home, but our flight wasn’t until close to 6pm or so. We packed up the car and headed out early. The kids were so tired they slept pretty much all the way from Connecticut to Logan Airport.

We came up with a plan to do a little sight-seeing in Boston before getting on the plane.

We found a water taxi service that would transport us from the airport to Boston proper and would hold our luggage for the day.

I’m so glad we made time for this. At the time, Mikey was reading the Magnus Chase book series, which takes place in Boston. So, we decided to visit some major tourist attractions that were also mentioned in the book.

Again, it was HOT. Like 90 + degrees. Not the best day for walking, but what are you gonna do.

First up, we walked from Rowe's Wharf to Faneuil Hall to grab some lunch.

Next, we hoofed it to Longfellow Bridge.

Mikey tried unsuccessfully to call the "Sword of Summer" from the depths of the Charles River.

Then, we stopped at the "Lets Make Way for Ducklings" statue in the Boston Gardens.

It’s a portal to the Nine Realms, y'all.

We left the Gardens and walked across Boston Commons, past the Park Street Church and quickly stopped at the Granary Burying Ground.

After all that, it was time to head back to the airport. We hoofed it back to the Wharf, across Boston Harbor and finally to Logan Airport by bus.
Phew.

It was a crazy traipse to the East Coast.

We jam packed as much fun and family into the trip as we could and were exhausted when we got back home.

But, there’s no rest for the weary!

There were only a few days and then Katie was off again on another overnight camp adventure!!