Pics

It's Friday, and neither Dad nor I want to cook. We're all headed to Bennington for some fine dining at Bat's Italian Restaurant. I love it, because I've been going there since I was 6. Also, because it is located next to a dam, and has no compunctions about using the slogan, "Best Food by a Dam Site". You gotta respect that. Lastly, some of my favorite, "I can't take you anywhere" lectures happened there as a child, along with my father's counterpoint lessons on how to lick your plate clean in public after eating spumoni ice cream. I don't know if it's on any Zaggat's "Culinary Highlights of NH" lists, but I love it.

We also visited the Hopkinton Cemetery, c.1765, in search of the grave of the Revolutionary War soldier who they say fired the Shot Heard Round the World. We didn't find anyone marked as such, and unfortunately any google searches on the topic only bring up the time that Michelle Bachmann congratulated New Hampshire on being the state where it happened. Which is ok, because that was awesome.

This afternoon we went to the lake and saw a loon, and also one of those birds that dives underwater a long way to get fish. One of the two is pictured here in his pontoon boat, which was blaring, "Please Come to Boston" (you know, she's the #1 Fan of the Man from Tennessee) as it puttered along the shore. As he got farther away, I think I heard enough to conclude that he was listening to Time Life's "Singer/Songwriter's of the 70s" collection, which should make me like him more cause I own it. But I'm pretty sure there is a law about blaring anything other than James Taylor on a pine-fringed New Hampshire lake in August.

Our friend Cooper accompanied us to the lake. He and Griffin found several abandoned fish hooks (yay for water shoes) and rigged up a makeshift pole, pictured here. Another boy helped them out by finding a slug in the woods, which, along with half of the hook, was promptly consumed by something under the water. It was very exciting.

Happy Weekend!

Love,

Sarah & the littlest Dedmon boys.

Rain

I'm getting ready to put together a pot of Auntie Jo-Jo's White Chicken Chili. After about 45 days of 100+ degree temps, I had given up on cool weather ever happening again, and had started cooking winter dishes in July. So, we have had this yummy soup recently, but it will be extra special to eat it here in the chilly weather, without the side effect of a full body sweat.

This weekend past, Aunt Liz came to visit us, and stayed the night. She has a new car, which I should have photographed. She took us touring all over town, to my favorite yarn shop, and to 2 thrift shops to satisfy Griffin's early addiction to junk. Look out world. On Sunday we met her lovely boyfriend, Jason Parker, and Dad took us all out to dinner at the new Italian restaura

nt in Hillsboro. Lots of wine, very nice.

The rain began early on Monday and has carried through until late this afternoon. Because we are still finding our way in Dad's house, it is no easy thing to be cooped up here with two energetic boys. The house *is* full of toys, but think Paul Bunyan, not Lego.

So, we have made forays to a distant grocery store, to Dunkin' Donuts, and several walks out on the lane with umbrellas. All children love having a portable roof in the rain, and this road is great for its small streams and orange salamanders. There are nearly no mosquitoes this year.

Highlights: Playing cards with Quinn on our bed while Dad mashed potatoes from the garden for dinner. Having cinnamon tea and cookies with Griffin while playing Go Fish. Throwing rocks in the marsh at the end of Old County Lane. The boys walking 15' along the rainy road, then yelling out, "Umbrella Fort! Umbrella Fort!", then stopping and making a small house of their 2 umbrellas. Ok, actually, that was a little annoying at first, but once I realized this was not going to be an exercise walk, it was cute.

The rain stopped this afternoon, and the temps are in the low 60s. Tomorrow we will go along with Dad to an appointment in Contoocook, and then drag him along to the Planetarium or NH History Museum in Concord.

Off to finish making the Chilli -

Love,

Sarah

Deering

Just a quick post with some pics from our 1st two days here. The boys and I have been walking every day, we visited our friends down the road, toured our neighbor's new Christmas Tree Farm, picnicked at the lake, dug potatoes from the garden for dinner, and had ice cream at the High Tide.

It's 65 degrees right now. Today we will visit Concord for some errands. Among them will be finding some sweatpants and sweatshirts for the boys on these lovely chilly mornings.

Love,

Sarah

Arrival

The boys and I had a lovely trip yesterday, even including the 3 hour delay in Philadelphia. We left Love Field easily at 9:30, after meeting another Mom and 3 year-old who were NH bound on our flights. We stopped in Houston, but did not deplane. Then on the long haul to Philly, Quinn took a nice long nap and I was able to listen to a book and do some needlework. Griffin enjoyed some books and his DS.

We stuck with our new friends, Sonja and Jackson, while we had our extended Philadelphia layover. Sonja lives in the DFW area now, but comes from Laconia, NH. So, I visited with her, we traded off watching kids, and the time passed quickly.

While we were boarding we met another family who came from TX but now lives in VT, and Griffin made quick friends with their 9 year-old, Max. They sat together and played DS, Quinn and Jackson sat together and watched Cars, and we did alright. A storm kept us on the plane, on the runway for about an hour and a half. No liquor was served, so Sonja and I deserve a special medal.

Grampa hid behind some trees at the airport and jumped out and grabbed Griffin by his backpack, and so we began our time in New Hampshire. I'm going to have him wear a bell so that we can walk in the woods without fear of a repeat Sasquatch impression, like the fateful spring of 1978. Not that Christie and I didn't enjoy that. My cardiologist just thought maybe I should stay away from that kind of fun for a while.

This area is Boy Heaven. Grampa's house is like one big attic of tools and cast-offs from the younger Craighead children. Griffin discovered half of a tank (score!) and an old castle this morning. Oh yes, and a mouse skeleton in a mouse trap. They rode on the tractor, picked cherry tomatoes and a few raspberries in the garden. And as I type this, Grampa has taken Griffin off in search of his own corncob pipe. You know, to keep the blackflies away. So, Griffin's transformation to country bumpkin has taken 20 hours.

I'm looking out the window at green as far as the eye can see. The apple trees in the side yard are covered with small apples. The white pine between our house and the Nazer's are towering now. They look about 3x the height of the Nazer's house. The small pine that planted itself on the granite step by the pear and birch is now nearly as tall as the pear tree. You can see it in this picture above of Griffin, holding a pear.

The light is different here. August in New Hampshire is very soft and pleasant.

Wish you were here!

Love

Sarah

But Who's Counting?

It's not that I don't like the weather in Texas. It's just that I can't stand the weather in Texas.

This morning it was 54 degrees in New Hampshire, and 98 degrees in my backyard. At 8:15am. These kinds of temps should be the exclusive domain of 17th century men forging iron, and people with names like Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego.

We will climb to 110 again today. To work around this fact, we stay indoors, or in our car. Indoors is preferable, because the fact is that your car never cools down again after you take it into the sun for more than 12 minutes. Around 4pm, the A/C downstairs starts to think, "Aw hell, what's the point?" and stops reaching for the brass ring of 78 degrees. 80, 81, until the sun goes down and it recovers its will to fight.

In 6 days, the boys and I will head to Love Field and hop onto one of 3 Southwest Airline flights that will take us to Manchester, New Hampshire. The boys will love the novelty of flying, and I will love the sight of scorched earth disappearing behind the aircraft.

Packing commencing today.

Best -

Sarah

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