Almost Done

Well, the month of July has come and gone yet again. We did our last round of touring and visiting over the weekend: four days in a lakeside cottage on Lake Winnipesauke. Well, Kurt and his parents stayed at the cottage. Megan and I made day-trips over since neither one of us can sleep with the resident allergens. Rain was off and on, but the sun shone enough to get in at least one swim a day. Saturday's swim was shortened, though, for Megan and I because a large fish tried to eat our feet!

On Monday I drove up through Franconia Notch to observe one day of a Poetry conference at Robert Frost's farm. I think I was the only meat-eating person in attendance. I was certainly the only one not wearing a stitch of black. Still, it was incredible to be listening to a Norton-published poet lecturing on a peer of Elizabeth Bishop (one of my favorites)...in the barn that Robert Frost used. Kurt watched the kids for the day. I think his mom will have to be available for babysitting before I can even THINK about going for a whole week!

Tuesday, I got busy trying to fulfill all my promises to the kids. You know, those activities you are sure you're going to do since you think you'll have loads of time. After dropping Kurt off at Manchester Airport, I took the kids to the bookstore for comics & drawing books (for the train ride). We then saw the Pixar movie Wall-E...after getting some Ben & Jerry's in waffle cones. I fished the neighbor's dog's collar out of the stream (Megan had taken him off his leash) before having dinner with our friend from the UK (another house guest of my in-laws...they should open up an inn). By 7:00 I was in my pajamas getting the kids ready for bed early so I could take migraine meds. God bless my mother-in-law for staying up with them and tucking them in!

So today we will close the penultimate leg of our vacation by shipping our New Hampshire souvenirs, taking trash to the dump, picking up the last ears of corn at the farm stand, and waiting for one last family dinner at the trestle table. Illinois, here we come...again;-)

Cheers,
Jessi

Quotes of the Day:

Megan: (Under cross-examination surrounding the dog collar incident) I wasn't tugging McKabe's collar. Well, I did pull him back when cars went by.

Ian: (To the EBay agent at the pack & ship place) Sorry, I'm not bidding. I'm just browsing a bit.

Exhausted

Wow. It has been a whirlwind two weeks. So busy, in fact, that I have rarely remembered to take pictures. Me. Forgetting to take pictures!

We've been wading in the ocean at Ipswich (Massachussettes), complete with our traditional take-out lunch at the Clam Box. Kurt and I soothed our futbol-withdrawl by watching Fox Soccer Channel during dinner at a British Pub in Portsmouth (NH, not England). We went to Sanbornton's Farmers Market and Old Home Days. We've gotten together with many friends and family. And we've played in the rain.

I love rain. I don't think I always did, but living in dry California has given me a new appreciation for precipitation. We even braved touring the Squam Lakes Science Center in the rain...without umbrellas! Our friend has been trying to get us there for three years. So this year we vowed to go, no matter what. Her boys knew the place well since they are members, which was great because they showed Ian all the best things to play with. It was laid out nicely like a walk in the woods, punctuated by live animal exhibits with interactive materials in covered buildings. A naturalist was walking around with a broad-winged hawk. The hawk wasn't too sure he wanted to be stared at, but the naturalist had a firm grip on the leather straps tied to the hawk's ankles. (I'm sure there's a name for these strips, but I'm too lazy to look it up.) There was no way I was going to risk my flash going off in his eyes. The bear was the best part. He was just sitting, like on a sofa with a can of pop, and staring at a glass window in the wall. Every so often people would walk up to the window and wave. It looked like the bear was watching the Human Cable Network. (You have to view the picture full size to see it.)

We'll be off to a lake shore cottage tomorrow--without computer access, so you might not hear from us for another week!

Cheers,
Jessi