Boy it’s been a whirlwind two weeks with my trip to Ireland the fourth week of July and then my real vacation the week after. The majority of our summer vacation was spent at a cottage at the NASWA Resort in Lake Winnipesaukee with the Roberges. We stayed Monday through Thursday in a two bedroom cottage right on the lake. We were lucky that we ended up in the last unit which not only gave us a bit more privacy but also access to all of the kids play things (three slides and a swing set) as well as a fire pit and furniture. It was a really nice cottage; though a bit small and dated it was able to serve our needs quite well.
We actually planned the vacation around a teaching conference that Rachel had to attend which meant that we spent time with Josh and Heidi during the day and had Rachel join us at night. We took the kids down to the Weir’s Beach area (about a 15 minute walk from the cottage) and played in the arcade and visited the public beach, which is quite nice. Our cottage had beach access as well and the boys and Heidi enjoyed floating around the swimming area in their inflatable motor boats. Zach liked it so much that he refused to leave even when his teeth were chattering and everyone else had already gotten out. There were some resident ducks that liked to swim around and visit several times a day and they provided great entertainment for the boys. Adam would walk to the water and exclaim “Where are the turkeys?” (every non-flying bird is a turkey to him) several times a day and get really excited if he found any.
Our biggest fear was that the boys wouldn’t sleep well away from home. It took a bit of work on the first night but we successfully established a routine that resulted in nighttime and daytime slumber. There was so much new stuff around that we didn’t have issues with boredom (and thus hitting, kicking, obstinacy, and other general grumpiness) until the last day. They boys and Heidi seemed to enjoy each other quite well and it was very nice to watch them play together. Though Heidi is a year younger she didn’t really have any problems keeping up with our two crazy two-year olds. I think they provided quite a bit of entertainment for her.
Overall the NASWA trip was a success. We had a really great spot with a lot of privacy and had time to do a bunch of fun stuff with the kids (swimming, golfing, picnics, shopping, arcading, beaching, random desserting) and even some time to kick back and relax as adults. I would definitely stay at our cottage again in the future. After packing the cars full (again) on Thursday morning we continued our vacation by heading to Glenn to visit Story Land. The park is really great since it is designed for kids. All of the kids loved it! There was so much to do that Adam couldn’t even keep up with it all. We walked all over the park (even went on a few rides – the tractors, the swan boats, and the whales) and the kids enjoyed every minute. They were quite tuckered when we left and some of them (Adam) even napped.
We rounded out our week on Friday with an adult-only trip to Canobie Lake Park for Sally’s department summer outing. We hung around with Ken and Brittney and had a great time going on rides and seeing Michael Jackson once again. Saturday was busy as well hanging out with Larry and Jess for their annual summer party and then dropping into the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts’ Susan Kare exhibition. Susan Kare is the artist who designed the icons for the original Macintosh. She donated some of her works to r.MFA private collection where they will be on exhibit for the next two months before being moved to a permanent location. I let Matt borrow my original Macintosh for the opening night.
All in all it was a very busy but fun week. There were lots of events with some relaxation sandwiched in between. Somehow I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation still but that’s probably because I don’t want to go back to work yet 🙂
Relatively Ambitious 