More Visitors :)

Hot on the heels of Grandpa Deegan's visit to NH, all the rest of the grandparents also came down/up to see our new place. My parents dropped off a load of our stuff (almost the last one) and stayed for a few days to help out with our list of chores. That included mowing our rather large lawn for the first time... it was so long that we ended up having to rake up the cut grass, much to Aiden's delight. He was a big helper that day.




It was a hot weekend so we took Aiden over to the town beach on Little Lake Sunapee for a swim. Ok, we wanted a swim too ...




Then Grandma Chris and Jeannie arrived for some quality time with Aiden. I started my new job the same day they arrived, and worked my first 10 days straight (more about that later), so I wasn't around for very much of the fun. Judging from the pictures, it looks like Aiden had a great week playing in the yard, swimming, and berry picking.

Jeannie and Aiden

Aiden not wanting his picture taken

A little driveway lacrosse

Gardening

Sunapee State Park

Highbush Blueberry picking in Warner, NH

The Big Boy Bed

One of the MANY transitions Aiden has had to endure lately (he's such a little trooper!) is a switch from his crib to a "Big-Boy-Bed." I think he knows he's supposed to sleep on this new contraption, but he spends a lot of each night snoozing on the carpet in his new room. For now, we just go in and scrape him up off the floor and tuck him back in a few times every night. Until he gets the hang of it...

Fourth of July weekend

We spent half of the holiday weekend up in Vermont at the Lake Champlain camp, and the other half continuing to work on our new house in New Hampshire. We did the fun part first (of course) and met my parents, Andy's Dad, and the Allens and Zepps up at the lake. When we woke up at the camp on the 4th of July, someone left a little flyer announcing a little "parade" on Kimball Dock Road at 10 am. So a few of us, including Aiden, walked the half mile or so over to Kimball Dock to check it out. It was a true grassroots Independence Day parade, is the best way to describe it. As far as we could see, the five of us were the only spectators. Everyone else within about a mile radius was in the parade. You didn't have to have any extraordinary talents or props to be in this parade! Just walk, cycle, or ride whatever vehicle or animal you can find. We liked "Betsy Ross riding the John Deere" best.

The parade began at 10:01 on the dot, and we hooted and clapped for everyone who went by. On our walk back we passed a woman on a bike who yelled "Where's the parade?" "You missed it!" we yelled back! It was 10:05.

This tickle torture was ordered by Uncle Dan and delivered by Grandpa

We spent the rest of the day eating, swimming, and relaxing. Mostly eating. Andy and I made some ribs in the smoker, and we all had sangria and relaxed on the porch. Aiden loved the "Big Water!" as he calls the lake. He likes swimming but mostly the jumping in and splashing.

Here was our high-tech pyrotechnics display. The guys lit some sparklers on the lawn while Aiden watched with mild curiosity (what are they doing, anyway?). Woo-hoo!

We made our obligatory early morning pilgrimage to Dead Creek on Saturday, so we could not see a Virginia Rail again. Works every time. We did see a snappy snapping turtle though.

Then, back to our new place in NH for more painting, unboxing, and furniture assembly on Sunday. Grandpa Deegan (officially "Dad-da" to Aiden) had a great time playing with the little man and got a TON of work done to boot. THANK YOU!!

One Berry, Two Berry...

My mom and Aunt Mary took Aiden on his first berry picking excursion last weekend while Andy and I cleaned our VT house before the closing on Monday. Like most toddlers, Aiden loves berries. Luckily, the Last Resort Farm (a short walk from my parents home in Monkton) has a patch of past-their-prime strawberries perfect for little pickers. We dressed him in all red so that he could smoosh, squash and macerate to his heart's content. He was apparently unwilling and/or unable to keep more than one berry in his container at any one time without eating it. It's a slow process picking a quart at that rate.

Mt. Kearsarge

I have been hiking up the closest mountain to us, Mt. Kearsarge, several times a week in between painting rooms in our new house. It's a short drive to the trailhead (10 mins) and a 1.5 hour hike up round-trip - well worth it for the expansive views of the white mountains! The summit is only at about 3,000 feet, which is pretty high by VT standards but not in NH. Anyway, it's good stuff.

We left the porch light at our rental house on all night by accident, and we had these two Luna moths on the side of the house in the morning. They stayed all day, probably wondering what kind of strange tree they had decided to roost on, and left the following night.

GoMini Blues and Moving Crews!

Here's a moving tip for all of you in the New England area... DON'T use a Mullen Moving Co. GoMini!!! Because we didn't know how fast we would find a house in NH, we had searched far and wide to find a PODS-type company that would deliver a storage container to be filled and then moved to our new location once we needed it. To be honest there were not a lot of choices, but we went with Mullen GoMini and ordered our 20' box months ahead of time, which they assured us they'd deliver on June 20th. You can probably see where this is going... Anyway, they called me up the day before it was to be delivered (I assumed to let us know what time it would be dropped off) and informed me that they did have (oh! well, gee, isn't that nice!) a 20' box but they had to get it from their MA office so the price of our contract (which had already been charged to my credit card) would be more than double. Nice. After an entire DAY of arguing with different people at every level of the company, we had gotten absolutely nowhere... and because they left us less than 24 hours notice, we really had no other choice than to go with them. It very well be a scam that this company uses to get more money out of people- they never let us know that this scenario could even be a possibility because they said this NEVER happens to them (yeah right), but yet they weren't willing to eat one cent of the extra cost. Aaaarrrggghhh! I'm still so mad about it.

Anyway, our very expensive box was delivered on the appointed day, and thanks to the roving Turner-Nocito-Bruhns work crew, we transformed it from this...

to this.... in just one afternoon. Most of our stuff did fit in the box, thankfully, so there isn't too much extra to transport ourselves. We would never have been able to get it packed so quickly with just the two of us and a toddler, so it was so great to have the extra help. Aunt Chris and Uncle Preston are masters of using every bit of available space!

Aiden played around and generally stayed out of the way while we were hefting furniture and boxes out of the house. He does like to hang out on the front porch steps, so we sort of had to navigate around him once in awhile. We had a nice BBQ dinner and drinks after we were finished, complete with a celebratory round of Brennevin shots (an Icelandic schnapps). There was no consensus on whether Brennevin is worse or better than Aquavit and GammelDansk, but all agreed it's a true punishment to drink. I think the definition on Wikipedia sums it up best: "Brennivín (see also Brännvin) is an Icelandic schnapps, considered the country's signature alcoholic beverage. It is made from fermented potato pulp, and flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ("black death")."

Exploring

This past weekend we had a little opportunity to explore our new surroundings, since we have a small break before we will be spending the next two weekends packing the moving truck and cleaning out entirely from Huntington. We took Aiden to Lake Sunapee State Park on Saturday morning (forgot to take any pics, sorry!) and despite the brisk wind and 68 degree temperature he was determined to get as wet as possible. He loves it when we both take an arm and swing him way up in the air and let him crash down into the water with a huge splash. He could do it for weeks straight, i think. We cut him off when his lips started to turn blue and headed down the road to The Fells. The Fells is the lakefront estate and gardens of John Hay, who was secretary of state (i think?) under President Lincoln. Actually, part of this former estate is owned by the Forest Society, where I will start work in a few weeks. Anyhow, we didn't think Aiden would put up with a historical tour of the house, so we stuck to the garden paths and small ponds.

The Fells

Sunday was Father's Day, of course, and we had a quick visit from my parents on their way down to Manchester to fly Florida for a week. We gave them a brief tour of our new house (closing in 4 days! yay!) and downtown New London and had a nice Father's Day take-out lunch. Aiden is always very happy to see his "Ba-Pa" and "Ba-Pa" (grandma and grandpa both come out "Ba-Pa"). Then after nap, we scooted over to Mt. Kearsarge and bolted up the trail to the top (as fast as you can bolt carrying a toddler in a backpack up a rocky slope) because the park gates closed at 5pm. It was a cloudy day at the bottom but the top of the mountain was above all the fog and it was a gorgeous blue-bird sky. Wish we could have stayed longer, but those gates were set to close... oh well! We did see a golden-crowned kinglet and a blue-headed vireo on our way down though.

Happy Father's Day!

Some recent pics of Aiden...

Inspired by Aiden's cousin William, we decided to brave the barber shop with Aiden too! Here are some shots of him post-snip. We think he looks a lot older...like a real little boy hooligan!

Having a juice popsicle on the front porch of our rental house

Potter Place Depot in NH

Wow! a real train!

At Bucklin Beach in New London

Picnic Snack

A few updates...

Hello! Sorry that posts have been sparse lately...we are really in between two worlds (NH and VT) and we hardly know what stuff is where, including the camera, computer, etc., etc. We found a house to buy in New London, NH and hope to close on it as soon as possible. It's not large or terribly exciting, but it has a big yard and is right in the village of New London. Andy's commute to work will be a 1 minute walk, and Aiden's to daycare will be even shorter (across the street!). It will be a different world from our rural forest hideaway in Vermont, but hopefully the benefits (walking to the library, playground, restaurants, shops, etc.) will outweigh the drawbacks. We're apprehensive, but hopeful, I guess is the best way to put it.

Although I wasn't planning on jumping back into work right away, an interesting opportunity came up at a state-wide land protection organization, the Forest Society, and I decided to apply. A couple of weeks later I was offered the position, so there goes my lazy summer with Aiden! They would have liked me to start right away, but agreed to let me have a month and a half to get settled and get Aiden adjusted to life in a new place. So I start mid-July- I will be developing a program to train and assist land stewards in maintaining and managing the Forest Society's 150 or so preserves throughout NH.

So, it appears all the pieces are falling together for us. We know we should be grateful, because relocating can easily go much much less smoothly, but it's still difficult to handle all the changes and take a leap of faith that we will like this area as much as the one we're leaving . Stay tuned...

Aiden is getting much more comfortable around trucks and tractors!

And he loves his crazy sprinkler on hot days (thanks Grandma Chris & Uncle Kenny)

Andy catching the "big ones" out of my parents' pond

Ok, so Micah's trick of holding the fish way out in front of you so that it looks bigger.... doesn't really work for panfish