Tuesday, July 7: NH: Winding Down

It's awful, but we're winding down our stay. How did it go so fast? We have just three more days until departure day, and there is so much we still want to do.

Today Andrew and I had to work; Greta did geometry; Lucia read and studied for the SAT. It rained a lot for much of the day, and late in the afternoon, when it stopped, Greta and I took Farrah for a walk and saw two red efts. We all played Rummikub. Lucia and Andrew went for a run. Andrew took a quick dip in the pond. We finally got maple creamees from Frazer's, which had been closed all of last week. The girls got dinner there too. While we ate, we planned out the next three days, making sure we get all of our favorite things in. Back home, we played Scrabble. 

Usually, by the end of our two-week stay we are all ready to leave. There have been years when the physical discomfort of no AC, a tiny, hard-to-use shower, insects, and just general roughing-it have made us ready to go home midway through that second week. There have been years when one or both kids was covered in hives by the end of our stay. There have been years when we've cut the trip short by a day or two. Not this year. This year, we wish we could stay longer. Many factors make that impossible, and we have no choice but to head home as planned on Saturday. But this has been a particularly wonderful time, despite the heat wave last week. Being here resets us as a family. It always has.  

My phone fed me a collection of "July 7 Through the Years" today. Five years ago, four American Girl dolls accompanied us to NH, and there were pictures of them frolicking in the yard and lined up on the road. Other years, other toys, two tiny little girls. We have never not been here at the beginning of July.

What We're Reading:

Andrew: Proust 

Margo: The Book Thief

Lucia: An Arcane Study of Stars by Sidney J. Shields

Greta: The One that Got Away with Murder by Trish Lundy