Happy Half Birthday Quinn!

Quinn turned 1 1/2 yesterday at 7:54 pm EST. We didn't celebrate as Chris is out of town, but we'll surely have cupcakes when he returns.

Dad and I are taking the munchkins to the Concord Planetarium today and then Abigail has another horseback riding lesson. Here are some recent photos! I have not uploaded in a while!

Love,

Sarah

Hello from NH, again.

It has been some time since I've posted, probably nearly back to when our niece Abigail joined us. We have been very very busy!

We spent last week up in Maine as the house had not rented that week. Before we left the last time Chris, Dad and I agreed that this week would be less rigorous. Fewer home projects and long sight-seeing drives, more unscheduled time. Chris took two vacation days at the beginning of the week, and we drove up on Saturday. We even managed to arrive before nightfall, something I think has happened only once before in 5 years of going there.

We had a great week, with mostly wonderful weather. We hiked the sandbar several times, and Grampa brought a small trap to put out at low tide. We only emptied it once, and it had captured three small green crabs. Heaven only knows what is in there now, we'll have to check again next week! We took Tuesday to go to Mt. Desert Island again and took the kids hiking on Ocean Drive, which takes you between Sand Beach and Thunder Hole down to Otter Point. It is a very busy hike but the views are fabulous and the rocks are really fun for the kids to scramble on. We hit Bar Harbor for dinner and some shopping (candy) and went home. I'm sad to say that all three adults were pretty much racked the entire next day from over-exertion. What it says that Chris and I were as spent as my 67 year old Father, well, he should feel pretty good about but I'm questioning myself. Gillie also loved the hike.

We came back here on this past Saturday and it looks like we're headed up yet again next weekend. We just can't bear to let a week languish when we work so hard for that wonderful spot! However we did resolve to hire a cleaning crew to come in when we leave, rather than pack, clean the house from stem to stern, then drive 350 miles in one day. I think that will be money well spent. We were all exhausted on Sunday.

However, Sunday was a glorious day, beautiful weather. Griffin and Abigail and I headed into the woods in the morning to pillage a small garbage dump there. We came home with some lovely pieces of broken blue pottery and a nice collection of bottles. They are all arrayed on the lawn until I figure out how best to clean them. Then we went down below the garden with Dad and picked two quarts of raspberries and ate lord knows how many, they were perfection for breakfast. After that I took all three kids and walked down the hill to see Leslie at Spinner Farm. When we were growing up her land was just a field, part of John Snow's farm. But it has since been divided and her portion is a horse and sheep farm. Naturally I am very excited about this. I can now purchase Alpaca fiber on one side of Clark Summit and Romney roving on the other side! AND she's a spinner, too! Anyway, it was really for the kids, of course, you know I wanted them to see the horses. We spent a good long while down there and they had a blast and we scheduled up some riding lessons, which they took today.

After a long push of the stroller back up Old County Lane, I made lunch from Dad's garden and some remnants of Ed and Diane's bread and some local goat cheese. Excellent. Same harvesting for dinner; a salad with Dad's romaine, radishes, onions and raspberries, also fresh green beans from the garden. The peas are late but should be finished shortly.

Griffin is having a great time with Abigail and Abigail is having a semi-great time with Griffin. Of course a 10 year-old can't be expected to get as enthusiastic about a 6 year-old as he is about her, but when left to their own devices they seem to find ways to have fun together. Both my boys make moon-y eyes at her, they adore her.

We have our Griswold's Family Vacation moments, to be sure. I seem to be enjoying wine a lot more lately. It is amazing how much Practice Makes Perfect with the drinking, huh? Luckily I have a natural breaker which is complete exhaustion. More than 1 glass and I'm asleep at the table :).

Chris flies out to CO and CA tomorrow, returns Friday. Dad and I have some museums in Concord to take the kids to, then on Wednesday we are going to do Boston.

Wish you were here!

Love,

Sarah

Hello from Sunny New Hampshire!

We arrived here at Dad's house two days ago. Getting out of Maine was a tribulation on par with something usually reserved for bad Egyptians. All we needed to round it out was some kind of locust plague. We worked for 7 hours straight to pack up the stuff we brought and to clean, then we departed Machias at 2:30, stopped to visit with Alan until 3:30, and arrived in Deering after Midnight. I imagine the pilgrims arrived at Plymouth looking a little more refreshed than we did.

But the good news is that the sun has been seen in these parts for two days running now. And there have been no snake sightings inside Dad's house. Yesterday we went for a walk down to visit Suzanne and her boys, then we went to Concord where, despite Dad's efforts to stop me I purchased more candy from the Granite State Candy Shop. Also bagels from Bagel Works, and then we went out to dinner across from the State Capitol. Griffin was feeling a little punkish so while we waited for the food he and I took a little self-guided historic tour around the State House. FYI You NH folks the Time Capsule is scheduled to be opened 6/7/15. Wanna be here for it?

We left Gillie in the house, she managed to lock herself into the green room and then try to chew her way out. Gillie is a love, but she cannot be accused of above-average intelligence. We have some door reconstruction to do now.

So today we might mosey down to Suzanne's as she has rented a post-hole digger machine to put in the posts for her Alpaca field. We're going to climb clark summit and we're cooking out for the 4th. Liz is coming over and we're grilling steaks and veggies, and I'm making homemade strawberry shortcake. We will not see any fireworks here because they're not in Hillsboro until the Carnies come to town next weekend, and because it isn't worth it to me to drive to Concord for them. Unfortunately fireworks of any note are illegal here as well. Of course Dad has like 18 guns so we could make our own, but I've heard of that ending badly so we probably won't.

Hope you're going to have a festive 4th!

Sarah