Summer: Sat., 7/7

Our last full day in NH. Booooo. Everyone slept in nicely and Greta and I read books in bed until Lucia woke up. We hung around the house in the morning and then set off to hike to the top of Mt. Ascutney, something we've done many times before and love. It was a perfect day for a hike--sunny and not very hot. The woods were cool enough for a light sweater and jeans. We hiked to the top, had a snack, climbed to the top of the fire tower, and then hiked back down. We had ice cream afterward at our favorite ice cream place, a final visit of the trip.

Ice cream was basically our lunch, so when we got home L&G and I began a project we'd talked about at length during the hike: photographing Caramel Judy and Wee Wee in different outdoor tableaux, with the idea that we'll make a photo book about their vacation, with captions for all the pictures. So we took them into the woods and put them in all kinds of different places. Pot Belly, Roary, and Homer also had turns.

A bit later, a local guy came around to take a look at the stand of fallen trees we lost in last fall's windstorm, which are still lying across one of the fields. We're hoping he can remove them. He said he'll come back next week and start cutting into the wood to see if it's viable for selling. Let's hope. This is way bigger than a chainsaw. There are twelve trees or more that have fallen, and more are leaning against other trees and need to be removed.

Late in the afternoon we took a final swim in the pond. There was a lot of hysterical scream-laughing about seeing/touching the turtle (he never actually appeared). The Cabbage Patch Preemies came down to the pond with us, and we took some pictures of them to include in the vacation photo book. They hid a lot in the high grasses. (All of these toys have taken on somewhat alarming animate lives this trip, even more animate than usual.) When we were done, Andrew took down the rope across the pond, and we deflated all the raft-boats.

We ate dinner outside and both girls took turns dressing up as me, by putting on my usual hat and sunglasses and carrying my book and phone. It was pretty accurate. After bedtime Andrew and I had one last firepit.

We've done laundry and cleanup intermittently throughout the day. It's always a feat getting out of here after a long trip--getting the house back to zero takes some doing, and we tried to do at least some of it today.

And tomorrow we leave. None of us want to. This has been an incredible week.

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