Break Week, For Some

Aiden's spring break was last week, so we asked Grandma Chris - had to really twist her arm, as you can imagine - to come up and stay to help watch Aiden while we were at work. Actually Aiden and Haley both got some special days with Grandma, so it worked out perfectly. On Haley's days she and Grandma played with play dough, had tea parties, dug in the sandbox, blew bubbles, went to the playground, and walked to arctic dreams for ice cream. On Aiden's, they got books out of the library and read together, spent a whole morning making a Garfield pillow, did some raking and yard work, got Aiden a haircut, and walked to arctic dreams for ice cream. On Friday, Andy, Chris, and both kids went to a family cooking class at King Arthur Flour where they made their own lasagna noodles and cooked an entire Italian dinner for themselves. Aiden is getting to be an old pro at making pasta, and Andy and I have been pricing out pasta makers on Amazon. Fresh pasta is so yummy!

I should say that through a good part of this week I was totally gone, running my annual new land steward training at work. The training was at a camp in Freedon, NH, near the Maine border, so I had to call home to hear about all the fun I was missing. They did save me a nice helping of lasagna though!

When I finally made it home late Saturday, grandma Chris was already on her way home, but I was so glad to squeeze my kiddos and Andy again. On Sunday we drove down to the sea coast for a "rocky beach/sandy beach" trip. Both rocky beaches (Aiden's favorite since he loves to explore tide pools) and sandy beaches (Haley's favorite since she loves to have sand tea parties) can be found in close proximity in Rye, NH, so it's a frequent destination for our family. We hit the tide just right for the tidepooling, and found all types of critters like green crabs, marine worms, sand eels, amphipods, snails and live mussels and clams to examine up close in our bucket. The salt sea smell in the fresh breeze was intoxicating- I was breathing it in in huge lungfulls and just realizing how much I have missed the ocean over this long winter. At the Seacoast Science Center, we added starfish, urchins, and sea anemones to the list of critter close-encounters, feeling around in the touch tank. One of the staff turned a sea urchin on its back and showed Aiden how it can use its tiny extendable sucker feet to right itself... It took a few minutes but was very cool to watch!

After a big seafood lunch -during which Haley enjoyed her first lobster- we headed to the sandy beach at Wallis Sands. Haley served me salt tea with sand sugar while the boys played paddle ball in the surf. When it got too chilly to sit on the sand without our jackets, we packed up and headed home... Little Doo was asleep as soon as Andy turned the key in the ignition.

Believe it or not, Monday was still vacation for Aiden. His last day, and parent teacher conferences. He and I took Kimball dog hiking up Silver Mountain in Lempster, a belated birthday treat for dergus. We enjoyed the hike and had sweet mountain tea and hard salami & cheese crackers for lunch on the exposed summit. Not many black flies yet, but a few here and there to signal a warning of things to come. Flies or no flies, I know we'll be busy getting outside and getting dirty!