New Hampshire Weekend

Acorn collecting in the wilds of NH

We found corn kernals in all sorts of nooks and crannies after this

Notice the kid's hats... my Mom bought these for them about 2 years ago at the Gap outlet. Clearly something was awry with the sizing because Parker's is a size 18-24 months... and it's still huge on him! I think Brandon's is 3T and also still huge on him. You will see these hats on them in pictures for years and years to come! They may never outgrow them.

P knows just which way to go

Shooting corn cobs at targets... Brandon actually hit one! He's a real dead-eye

Lou & Margaret's backyard is a blast for the kids - big rocks to climb on, acorns to collect, bears to hunt for...

We had a great weekend in New Hampshire, visiting Uncle Lou & Aunt Margaret. We lucked out and got a beautiful day on Saturday, which is the day that we had planned for all of our outdoor adventures. It was chilly, but it eventually warmed up into the upper 40's, so we'll take that. In the morning, we took the kids to a farm with a gigantic corn row maze, cow train ride, corn cob air shooters, corn kernal sand boxes, etc etc. Basically, it's alot of corn-based fun. A celebration of corn, if you will. Anyway, this is our third year there, and we always have a great time. The kids love the maze, especially, and we pretty much let them make all the choices for where we go (with some nudges along the way from Mom & Dad). They do a pretty good job blazing our trail though, because we only got turned around once. Oh, the maze was super muddy this year! By far, it was the muddiest conditions I've ever walked in. I had on slip-on shoes, and then kept getting pulled off my heel when I walked! But, it sort of just added to the fun and amazingly no one took any major wipe-outs, even though we were all slipping alot as we rounded the corners.

After the maze, we went home for lunch and the boys did some acorn-hunting. They LOVE picking up acorns from the ground, so Margaret hooked them up with some baskets and away they went, acorn-hunting. I went out for a beautiful run on some of the picturesque roads near where Lou & Margaret live - so nice to run on a fall day and take in all the colors and see the B&B's and the Halloween decorations. After that, we all headed to the local fire station to climb on the trucks and eat at their spaghetti dinner. Not the best meal I've ever had, but hey, at least it was supporting a volunteer fire station.

Sunday we did some shopping at the outlets and then hit the road home. Where we ran into snow... what?? It was snowing pretty good for the last couple hours of the drive, and I was amazed to see that we actually ended up with around 1.5 inches accumulation at our house. Very unusual for mid-October and not great driving conditions! We stopped about 30 minutes from home at this triathlon store because I wanted to pick up some cleats for my spin shoes... and I totally strolled into the store with my belt unbuckled and snap undone. Yep, that's just how I roll. In my defense, we stopped for a big mexican lunch as we were leaving NH and then we sat in the car for 2 hours before this. My jeans were digging into my hips in all kinds of way, so I undid the top. And I specifically remember thinking, "I gotta remember to redo this before I go into the store." The guy at the store gave me a really good deal, and Chad was like, "well, yea, you walked into the store with your pants undone."

One other funny thing from the weekend is that Parker picked up saying, "Oh, Fooey!" somewhere and put it into play several times this weekend. As in:

Parker - "are we almost home?"

Beth - "we have about another hour to go."

Parker - "oh, fooey!"

Seriously, it is the cutest thing ever. Where did he ever pick that up? Who says that anymore?

Yesterday morning, I woke up with the tell-tale scratchy throat and slightly heavy head that you just know means a cold is setting in. By yesterday afternoon, I was feeling really rough. But, just in the last hour or two, I've started to feel better - weird how you can actually feel your body responding to the cold. So far, no one else has come down with anything. My fingers are crossed!