New Hampshire

So, first we went to visit Paul's uncle Taber and his sweet wife Becca.  They are such generous hosts.  Not only did they let us play with their ridiculously cute kids, but they insisted we take their vehicle and their GPS and drive for hundreds of miles to see the sites.  We are new to the world of GPS and it was quite intimidating to drive off into the forest having no idea where we were going.  Trusting that lady and all her "Turn Right, Turn Left" directions was exciting and we got where we were going every time.



























We went to Olgunquit, Maine and enjoyed chasing the seagulls in the fog.  Then we meandered around until we found some lobster in Perkins Cove.  This is us admiring the glass float balls along the windows while we wait for our lunch.  



Please don't mind my crazy eyes in this picture.  It's pretty obvious, I was excited. Thoughtful Paul saved one of the claws for Teya and we took it back for her to play with. I'm sure her mom appreciated her daughter's new smelly claw toy.



The next day we strolled on up to Vermont.  We stopped in Sharon to eat some delicious sandwiches and to eavesdrop on a couple old ladies discussing the affairs of the town.  My favorite quote from that meal: Question from white haired lady #1: "Is he an amorous man then?"  Answer from white haired lady #2: "Oh, he'll try to hug you."

We stopped by the Joseph Smith birthplace and enjoyed the little visitor center there.  There was a great peaceful feeling in that place. 



Then we made our way up the road to the Ben and Jerry's factory.  I'm not sure how many of you know that Paul and I are obsessed with Ben and Jerry's.  A couple years ago after one too many experiences of dissastisfaction with regular ice cream we switched over to Ben and Jerry's and have never been let down.  It is such delicious ice cream!  We were pretty excited to see where it all goes down.



I got an ice cream cone.



And we shared a pint of sorbet on the drive home.  Once again, we were not let down.


Then came our next adventure.  We convinced the Rigg Family to join us down in Dartmouth Mass in the beach house that Gilia, one of my AK friends had offered when she heard we were going to be in the area.  It's her family's and she spent time here in the summers of her childhood.  We were super excited for this part of our trip, but if we would have known how COOL it was going to be, we probably would have dropped dead from excitement.  It was SO COOL! 

This is the house.  It was RIGHT on the beach.


This was the path from the driveway.










I think one of my favorite memories from the beach house was the morning I let Paul and Becca and Taber make breakfast while I sat on the porch and read magazines.  That was a lovely breakfast next to the water.










None of their neighbors were around because it wasn't summer yet.  It was kind of cool to have the WHOLE place to ourselves.



Paul "The Explorer" Rigg was excited to search through all the winding passages of that old house.  There were endless rooms and endless cool little passageways.  Gilia's grandmother had left us a note of welcome and told us there was an egg in a nest by the door.  When Paul went to check it out this is what he found.


Paul will give a prize (imaginary, of course) to whoever knows what kind of birds will hatch from these eggs.

If I had to choose, I would say Teya loved it there the most of everyone.  That girl is serious about her rock collecting.  She wanted to be outside every minute. 


























And she is good at finding rocks!



And Paul is good at finding washed up lobster pots.



This is her colleciton.




We found a sandy island to play on one day when it was warm(ish) and sunny.  I'm pretty sure we all got sunburned that day.  I know I did and it felt GREAT!  We dug a hole in the sand that would fill up with water and the girls would jump in.  Camden was happy as a clam eating the sand.  Not just putting it in his mouth either...that boy was seriously chewing! Taber and Paul played frisbee for a while and the girls got buried in sand mermaid tails.  What a lovely afternoon. 


We didn't get many pictures of the grown-ups, but here is their beautiful family all together.  Aren't they cute?  We had such a great time with them.  I enjoyed winning Catan every night but one.  And I didn't mind losing that night because of how AWESOME Becca's victory dance was.  Not unlike Brinley's excited dance when we first got there.  Go figure. 


We were sad when it came time to part ways.  Thanks so much you guys for driving us around and letting us mooch off you.  We can't wait to see you again.

And here's one of Brinley eating my leg, because I think it's hilarious.