Home from New Hampshire

It's always hard for me to post pictures when I go on trips because there are so many and I want to post pictures that represent everything we did, so here is the brief about our NH trip. For those of you visiting Boston/NH look no further than this for your ultimate travel guide:
-New England Aquarium... I love the jelly fish and would seriously consider having a tank in my house if it weren't too expensive and if they weren't dangerous...
- Family get together. It was held at the same place Eric and I had celebrated our wedding with the family during our honeymoon. We were honoring my Nana and Grampy. Grampy Bud passed away in January or February. All of the kids and almost all of the grandkids were there. It was so great to see everyone. My dad's four littlest grandkids... -We took a great hike with the kids, my sister, dad and aunt, uncle and cousin. I remember taking the hike when I was younger. Such a great view overlooking the lake.
-The dock off the A-frame on Wakondah Pond. We took a canoe ride early in the morning with the kids and we saw one of the loons that nests on the pond up close. All the next week Ethan boasted, "I saw the loon on the lake." He loved it! It is just so peaceful out there. - Center Harbor beach on lake Winnipesaukee was where my sister and I would spend a lot of time during our summer visits. Our kids loved it as much as we did.

-Boston Children's museum... These pictures make it seem like it was empty, but in reality it was a mad-house of children! The best time was in the "art room". They only allow 15 kids (or so) plus their parents in, play classical music and let the kids (and parents) be creative. Who knew coloring could be so peaceful!-NH Children's museum in Dover. I loved this wall where you could make an impression on one side through the plastic sticks and it would come out on the other side.Ethan loved looking through their mask collection...

We also happened upon a variety show outside of the museum. I loved this picture of dad and Elia sitting together...One of my favorite places was the See Science Center in Manchester. It was small enough to not get overwhelmed, but still had a lot of great exhibits. The most impressive site was this lego replica of the mill district in Manchester. It took 10,000 volunteer hours and 3 million legos. It is the largest small scale lego display in the world. All of those buildings, the train, bridges, etc. are made of legos! The picture just doesn't do it justice.

A day at the beach... and the Hampton beach sand sculpting competition. Isn't it amazing what people can do with just sand and water?

I liked this next one because it was titled, "Bring your A game" (All of you Aggies should get this one). They had mentioned that the weekend before you could get free sand sculpting lessons. I think that would be cool to do sometime.

There were so many other things that we crammed into our visit. We had a great time! I took several pictures with my dad's camera that I couldn't post (I love, love, love the Squam lake science center)... and so many more memories that I don't have pictures of. The local libraries have free or discounted passes to several of the museums around so several of the museums were free or very inexpensive. Really though, it is just so nice to see family that we don't get to see very often, watch the kids interact with their cousins, grampy and yia yia, relax and enjoy having someone else do the majority of the cooking and cleaning, share the fun of goodwill and salvation army with my sister (who I think is a total convert now) and just enjoy nature. Oh, I forgot to mention the wonderful weather too. While Texas was having a drought and hotter than average temperatures, NH was cool and rainy... though not so rainy that it wasn't enjoyable.

But now we're back home and counting down the last month until the Petty Pea arrives! I can't believe how fast the time has gone!

Eric decided at 11 o'clock on Friday that we should participate in the Freedom 5K run on the 4th. Loving his spontaneity (which I joke is really just a lack of planning) we got up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. He ran the 5 K at 7 and then we did the family fun walk at 7:45. Of course Eric overdid it and is sore today, but I never expect anything else from him. I love that he just wanted to get up and do it on the fly.

After the race we found a group of people from church that also participated (notice all of the long basketball shorts:)). Eric's ready to make it a family tradition, but I'm pulling for the turkey trot race in November instead (who wants to be out in the Texas heat in July?). Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm not 8 months prego.

Well, another week's ahead. The days just keep coming and going. What can you do but make the best of them, right?