Our Second Home

Last week we were in NH again.  Who could pass up an opportunity to have a live-in babysitter (thanks Mom!) free food, laundry and unlimited swimming in an in-ground pool and hot tub?  Certainly not me.

Bob drove with us and stayed for the weekend, and MiniM.E and I stayed until the end of the week.

We didn't do anything particularly exciting, but I think that's part of what made it awesome.  A nice relaxing week...

To keep your reading time to a reasonable 5 or so minutes, I will avoid a photo bomb and instead try to recap some of the cuter highlights from our trip.  Note the word try.

Swimming with Daddy

Toss the baby

We had a toss-off.  Daddy won.

Playing with pool toys

Finding MORE pool toys

In the baby-friendly hot tub

Going for a walk

Playing with a broken pair of glasses.  Looks even more fun than the pool toys.

In the hot tub with Gram

Finger up the nose

Testing a smoothie

 C & H came over for a play date and we broke out the long-lasting bubbles.

Bubbles with H

Come back here!

Love this photo.  Might have to replace the engagement photo from this post.

Walking with Auntie Jen

Standing alone!

Just woke up

and wasn't too happy about all the pictures!

The Victoria Pool and the Philadelphia Orchestra

We had a pretty eventful Saturday this weekend.  Usually my posts are filled with 17 too many photos because I take 50 and after the painstaking process of choosing the best ones, I can't not post 17.

This post you get one.

Half-naked baby!  So cute!

And its not even a photo from this weekend... though it is from the pool.  So its half legit.

Why you ask?

Well...

We got up early as usual, packed a lunch, some toys, some diapers, some more toys, some baby food, some towels, an extra bathing suit, some toys, some drinks and of course, sunblock.  We were ready to go to the Victoria Pool at the Saratoga State Park... when somebody needed to take a nap.

So... instead of arriving early to get a great spot, we didn't arrive until 2.  Fortunately, our friends were already there and had been staking out spots for about an hour.

As we arrived we saw a line.  Yes, a line.  Of hot, sweaty, irritated people that just wanted to go swimming.  But instead, had to wait as the pool was filled to its capacity of 344.  HOLY. CRAP.  That's a lot of people.

30 minutes later we were inside.  Dying to get in the pool.

We parked our 35 bags near the one lounge chair and one other chair our friends had procured (good thing we brought our own) and tried to nestle our cooler into the tiny spot of shade provided by our half of the shared umbrella.

We had a blast.  MiniM.E. loved the water and we swam most of the time.  I planned on being Photographer Extraordinaire, but between swimming with the baby, keeping her off the hot pool deck, pulling her out from under the lounge chair, making sure she didn't eat the coffee stirrers, park maps, and rocks that kept finding our way into our space, and the "reusable swim diaper poop-splosion", I really found very little time for snapping pictures.  (I won't get into the gory details, but suffice it to say I'm soooo glad I'm not using cloth diapers for anything but swimming!)

When we'd had it with the heat (and MiniM.E. passed out cold and slept in the grass), we headed home for a rushed two hours of unpackingrepackingtakingashowerbathingthebabygroceryshoppingmakingdinner.  That's how it felt.  And headed back to SPAC for the Philadelphia Orchestra.  They were fantastic.  MiniM.E. was super cute and I had a much needed glass of wine.  Then MiniM.E. stopped being cute and started being fussy (not to blame her... after a short afternoon nap in the grass and it being two hours past her bedtime) and we left after the first half.

It was SO nice to fall into bed when we got home.  I figured MiniM.E. would sleep like a log after all the sun and heat and water and orchestra... let's just say I'm still tired...

NH: The Weekend

Friday we practiced clapping

 climbing

 and crawling.

 We played with a plant

 And the flowers it lost.

 And we hung out with the cat.

Did I mention my kid is an expert speck of dirt finder?  She LOVES my kitchen floor...

A plane? Bird? Cloud? Nope... probably a ghost or something...

And went swimming.  And took naps.  And ate food.  And went shopping.  But those things aren't glamourous enough for photos.

I lied.  Shopping with a baby is always photo-worthy.

Yes, I bought the book.  For the record, it is an Indestructible.  Best invention ever.  Which, I should have thought of so I could be a millionaire.  However, I didn't, so I'm not.  Sad face.

And then Daddy came to meet us.  MiniM.E. was very excited.  Well, she didn't actually say that, but she kicked her legs a bunch.  And then we had to put her to bed because it was late.  Oh well.

Fortunately, we had Saturday to play in the pool with Daddy.

And go to the Concord Market Days.  Which was an ok outing, but seriously USA, get on the street festival bandwagon.  A street festival (a la Dresden) must have A. bratwurst stands (or at least some tasty greasy food), B. beer, beer and more beer, and C. beer.  Did I mention a street festival should have beer?  Eh, its ok.  I've learned over the past year to lower my expectations of street festivals.  We don't have cute wooden figurines, or cold fish sandwiches, or little huts in which to sell goods...

After the market days we played in the pool some more, had a BBQ, relaxed on the deck, and enjoyed being taken care of by my parents (thanks guys!).

PS: above photos were taken by my sister.  I am petitioning for her to leave her job and come live here to be my permanent photographer.  No, I lied.  Though that would be awesome.  But she should probably be a photographer, right??

I forgot to mention we put the cat in the baby swing.

We couldn't leave Sunday without swimming some more... and as MiniM.E. went down for her second nap of the day, we left.

It was so nice to relax for a week by a pool while having my mom make me food and do my laundry... and have two or three other people fuss with MiniM.E. a bit.

Now it's back to the grind... (because playing with toys, sitting out in a kiddie pool and taking walks are such taxing activities...)