New Hampshire

i've been up tonight just rainbow looming with my elementary kid.  ah, the fad of the summer.  i also got him a pot holder weaving kit.  i lived to make pot holders all summer when i was a kid at our families summer home in maine.  good times.

we've been watching you tube videos made by little girls on new "techniques."

well, after indiana and niagara falls, we eventually made it to my parents home in new hampshire.  they built it the year after my father retired from 27 years in the army.  it's the house i spent my last couple of years of high school in.  it sits on a couple of acres that abut a wood and there's a pond in the middle.  jon and i actually got married there on the property.

my mother had a truck load of sand brought in for everyone to play with.  my older brother and his wife were there from tennessee with their two little girls too.

these chairs were my brothers and mine from when we were kids.

there's always a lobster night.

we all caravaned over to the coast of maine for a day.

don't let those kids in the water fool you...it was freezing.
that's my pop there.

one evening my dad's little brother peter and aunt mary kate popped over from burlington vermont.

i think jack looks so much like my dad and his brother.

 

in case you were wondering what i looked like as a little girl.

that's my mom and my nana who lives across the road.

the boys spent hours with my dad.  not hula hooping, but wood working in his garage.

the boys also spent hours on the paddle boat in the pond as explorers and pirates.  i sent them out to the "deserted" island in the middle with lunch as many days as i could.  lunch always included their own cans of root beer.

it may not be obvious, but i'm an expert frog catcher.

even snagged a turtle.

there were a couple of mini golf evenings.

and a trip to story land...the greatest small amusement park ever.  it's 15 minutes from my parents house, and it was my very first job when i was 15.

QUIP O'THE DAY

my summer jobs in high school included the gift shop at story land, a bagel shop, cashier at a ski and sports shop, the banana republic outlet and life guarding.