Skipping Town

The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. Sadly, geometry for Lucia (and Andrew) had to carry on regardless. While they toiled, Greta and I read in hammocks and then played gin and Chinese checkers. After lunch, we went to the creek--both sides, the regular creek side and the other side with the lagoon. Farrah seemed to enjoy herself, bounding from rock to rock, wading in up to her belly, drinking copiously from the creek. A huge tree had cracked in half on the creek side; a stand of thin trees had fallen across the creek--perhaps recently--on the lagoon side. I spotted a small brown tree frog in the leaves. We were all overheated after walking back from the creek, and changed into swimsuits for the pond. I decided it was time for me to float around the pond on one of the boat-inflatables--something I enjoy every year. Andrew was back at the house, so it was just me and the girls. I swanned in gracefully, pushing off from shore, then flipped onto my back to float. Glorious. It felt c...

We had a plan for the day--strawberry picking--that got derailed when it rained all day. It rained almost the entire day, with blustery wind, and was very chilly. It felt like it did when we used to come up here in the fall. So, an inside day. We did go out to West Lebanon to get some groceries and pop into Books-A-Million (Greta got three books, Lucia got two), and then stayed home the rest of the day reading. Glorious. Lucia also did geometry, and Greta and I played gin and Chinese checkers. Then the girls and I played two rounds of Rummikub. Tonight we had our annual Fried Dinner (chicken tenders, eggplant, zucchini, onion rings), a family favorite. It is, however, the absolute messiest dinner we could have up here, and I'm not sure why this became a NH tradition instead of a tradition in a place with a normal kitchen. Moot point, by now. It was delicious as always. After dinner, all four of us played two rounds of Rummikub.  A rainy but pretty idyllic NH day nonetheless. What W...

River rafting day! It always feels like a triumph to make this outing happen. It was a lot cooler today than we'd anticipated, but we had a wonderful float. The water was moving fast, so we didn't have to do too much arduous paddling, and we were able to stop for a long time at our favorite rocky outcropping. We collected rocks, waded around in the river, skipped rocks (Andrew), and swam/floated (Greta and me). The water was cold, but the setting is so pretty, and we were the only people for miles around, and I just had to get in.  We navigated around Hart Island, which isn't always possible, and stopped there for a bit too. Then it was time to pull the raft out of the water at the stopping point. We spent a little time there wading around and exploring, and then we pulled the raft to the collection poing and walked through the Path of Life sculpture garden back to the outfitter.  As is our tradition, we changed clothes and ate dinner at Harpoon Brewery. Always a welcome en...

Last official day of work for a few days!  Lucia did a bunch of geometry first thing in the morning with Andrew, and then she and Greta went to the pond for a long time. The snapper did not make an appearance. My workday was very busy, but when it was done I read in hammocks with the girls for a long time, and Andrew even took a break to come out too. My very favorite New Hampshire activity. The girls spent a while today exploring artifacts from an old bureau in the upstairs hallway. A medal from a Harvard regatta was one fun discovery, as well as a photo of a woman sitting outside with a rabbit snuggled up next to her and a turtle on her lap. Who is it? Is the turtle the ancestor of the snapper? What other buns were part of Andrew's family history??  While Lucia finished up her geometry later in the afternoon, Greta and I played Chinese checkers (I won three times) and gin (Greta won three times). We went out to our favorite ice cream spot before dinner for the summer's first...

Another sunny, beautiful day. Greta and I got up very early to go for a run (Greta kept passing me on the road as she did 2.5 miles), and then I had to work. Lucia and Andrew worked on geometry, and then Andrew had to work as well. I took a break to read in hammocks with the girls, and then to go to Rite Aid to get some allergy meds for Lucia. (Her allergies have been insane here, untouched by Claritin. I got her some Allegra and allergy eye drops, which helped.) Later in the afternoon, while Andrew finished his workday, the girls and I went to West Lebanon so I could pick up our Amazon-ordered drone from the UPS store (our locak pickup spot). Andrew had the idea to bring one up here, and I think it's going to be really fun if it actually works. The girls demanded to go to Books-A-Million again while we were there, and each bought a couple of books.  We went to the pond after that, and the snapping turtle made its first appearance of the summer! The girls were on the floating dock ...

The rain is gone and it was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, I had to work; I took a lot of days off to be here, but I have to work a few days too. I had to put on makeup and do a bunch of zoom meetings. It felt very strange and wrong not to be doing regular NH things all day. Andrew and Lucia worked on geometry, Greta read a lot, and the girls went to the pond. I joined them to read in hammocks in the afternoon. They had an online math tutoring appointment at 4, then we went up to our cousins' house for a drink (me and Andrew) and a swim in the pool (the girls). Andrew grilled burgers and zucchini for dinner. The girls read while he cooked; they're tearing through their books from Books-A-Million. It was a late dinner, and by the time we made a fire in the fire pit, it was pitch black outside and all kinds of WILDLIFE began to emerge. Well, we didn't actually see anything emerge, but we began hearing significant rustlings in the woods, barn, and pond, so we went inside. I l...

Another rainy day, but full of NH fun. While Lucia worked on geometry this morning, Greta and I made bracelets, read, and played gin and Chinese checkers. After lunch, the girls went to the pond even though the temperature was in the high 60s. They have an elaborate setup with all the inflatables, with lots of screaming whenever one of them slips off an inflatable into the open pond water. No sign of the snapper/s yet this summer, but it's still early in our trip. It began raining when we were at the pond, and Farrah and I returned to the house. It wasn't thundering or lightening, so the girls stayed in the pond--even when it began pouring. Andrew and I stood at the kitchen door and could see them dancing around on the floating dock, scream-laughing and occasionally covering their heads with inflatable rafts. They were having a grand time. Because it was so cool and rainy today, we decided to run our errands today instead of later in the week, when the weather is supposed to be...

 We had a very full and very fun New Hampshire day. It was rainy in the morning, but by 11 it stopped, so Andrew and I headed outside to start all of our NH setup. First, we weed-clipped all the bushes and weeds that had grown up over the path into the woods, and then clipped all the weeds in our hammock area. Then we hung the four hammocks.  Next, we took our clippers to the back of the house and clipped all around a big tree back there that has an excellent branch for a swing. We cleared a nice area around and under the tree. Then we got out all the random carabiners and cords we'd brought from home, along with the swing, and began the difficult task of figuring out how to hang it. We are not engineers, and unfortunately our brains are engineering-deficient in exactly the same way, so there was over an hour of us attempting to figure out how to "winch" a strap around the (very high) branch while still being able to reach the end of it to attach the swing, etc. We used a...

We're in NH! We left at 6:30 a.m. and arrived a little after 5:00 p.m. Nutmeg willingly got into her cage this morning, but when Andrew carried the cage out to the car, we discovered that we'd used the wrong cage. Her smaller travel cage was in the basement. So Greta and I had to transfer Nutmeg to the new cage by moving all her things over and then aligning the doorways so she could hop through. Thank goodness she didn't escape--we were in the front hall to make this transfer; if she'd escaped we would've had to call off the trip and spend the next two weeks trying to find her. Neither pet seemed to enjoy the drive at all--a rest area is Farrah's deepest circle of hell, with people splitting off from the family group to go into the restroom; and Nutmeg just glared at Greta from her litter box--but it was overall fine. We had a lot of rain, but no traffic and no carsickness. So that's a win. We arrived and unpacked, then Andrew and the girls went out for gro...

A full and busy day of work, and then an evening full of packing and final NH preparations. Greta spent part of the afternoon with a friend, going to Posman Books and lunch in the Strip. Lucia worked on geometry. Our fridge is now empty, and it's still blazingly hot, so we went up to the club for dinner and a swim.  The girls are SO excited to go to NH. They were very excited also to make their snack boxes for the car. I think we're ready to go!

Greta got her braces off today! So exciting. She has retainers for top and bottom for the foreseeable future, but her braces are off. Andrew took her to her appointment at lunchtime, then he and Greta and Lucia got bubble tea and pizza.  We started packing up for New Hampshire tonight--there are always so many things to bring for two weeks. Books, beads, coloring books, swings to potentially hang in a tree, a drone that Andrew is going to play around with the kids, new inflatables for the pond. Oh, and clothes and toiletries and some food for the ten-hour drive. Will Nutmeg get into her crate easily at the crack of dawn on Saturday? We can only hope.  She actually did get into her crate today because the cleaners were here, and I'm too afraid of her being stepped on to let her stay free roam. Greta easily got her to hop into her crate this morning without any drama, and she even hopped in and out for the rest of the day. When she was finally free again, she ran into my closet ...

Andrew and I both had a day off work today for Juneteenth, and last week we'd made a plan to take the girls to Sandcastle--one of their summer bucket-list items. Only Lucia had ever been there--last year, with friends--and, with the temps in the 90s, it seemed like a good day for a water park. We got there right at opening time and, for a while, had a pretty crowd-free experience. The girls rode a bunch of water slides, and Andrew and I even went on one (twice). We jumped waves in the wave pool and floated on the lazy river. By our second visit to the wave pool, the park was extremely crowded, so after a final float in the lazy river, we called it a day. A fun way to spend a day off (at least, until the crowds took over). I overheard a new employee talking to her supervisor while we were in the lazy river. She was complaining about the boring assignment she had, overseeing the lazy river. The supervisor told her that if she did a good job, she'd eventually score a much better a...

I thought having the kids home from school would make our days less crazy, but somehow their presence at home seems MORE insane. I'm constantly worrying that Lucia hasn't woken up, that they haven't remembered to take Farrah out, that they're wasting the day on screens. Some of these happened today--Lucia wanted to wake up at 8:30 but didn't get up till 10; they forgot to take out Farrah, then Greta took her out but forgot to bring her in and she was outside in the heat for an hour. Etc. It's not ideal. (But they're not on screens.) I went to work until early afternoon, then came home to do my final work from here, which was fine but my attic office is sweltering--I'll be getting a freestanding AC when we get back from NH. Then I drove the kids to their summer tutoring venue, where they worked on math with their new tutors. It went well, and I think it'll be a good addition to the summer. Afterward, we went to the pool for a swim and dinner. Hardly a...