Here come's a catch up post. First of all, I am pretty sure that Ben wasn't too satisfied with one sorry post after seven whole days he spent with us. Let's see if this helps do the visit justice.
 

 One crisp morning we went in search of the famous Lake Winnepasaukee of "What about Bob?" fame. The leaves were just starting to change and the crowds have all gone away. It was a perfect day to visit.  
 I keep trying to come up with a caption for this one . .  and I got nothing really. Just posted it because it was also taken at the lake and I like it. And when you are 34 and can find a picture you like. .  I say go for it.  

Same thing goes if you can find a great shot like this of your brother in law. Check him out! He is exerting his very best efforts to destroy Brent's hard earned money. He wore out luckily before the tramp did.
  
I got a huge smile one day when I surprised him by popping these on his ears. I figured it was time to give him a break. He had offered the blessing on our food that morning and concluded with, "And I am thankful that I am all DONE raising my children".   
Marcus likes jumping as much as his Uncle Ben. They played this game for awhile at Dr. Dahlgren's home. While we were driving home from the lake we happened to drive right by the home of the dentist we bought the practice from just as he pulled into his drive. He showed us around his old farm house and attached barn built in 1840. 


The very last day of their visit we drove into Portsmouth and and onto New Castle Island. Past all the water and all the sail boats. It was almost more than Ben could stand who had just been talking non-stop about getting his hands on a large amount of Lobster. The measly one he enjoyed during Conference had done nothing to satiate the huge lobster appetite he had suddenly inherited upon finding himself in New England. On the way home we stopped and let him out at the grocery store. He came out, and jumped in with a bag of 8 lobster asking, "How much time have we got before the kids come home?"  

Ben was pretty concerned about the kids disrupting our big Lobster Fest. He asked me repeatedly to call their schools and sign them up for detention. At 3:00 he was just cracking into his third lobster, and with dripping butter fingers asked me if I would please go lock the front door, as Savannah was due home any second. Once again I refused.

I really don't think he was kidding. So we had to sacrifice and share our 8 lobsters with Savannah but we made good and sure we had it all put away an hour later when the rest of the kids came home. No chance of truly destroying the evidence, though. Boiling Lobster is one of the hardest smells to hide.  Each kid that came through the door, said "Aughhhhh! Did you cook Lobster again?" Not a one of us fessed up how very much they had missed out on though. EIGHT LOBSTER!

It was a really fun thing to do, though. Sit around and share large amounts of fresh lobster with our guests. I think we need to make a tradition out of this one. Thanks Ben for the great times. 


Grandma was pretty concerned when Marcus wouldn't come to her at the beginning of the visit. I told her not to take it personally. He won't even go to Brent most of the time. He is a momma's boy through and through. But she just started getting out his books and before long he was right there by here side every minute. They literally spent hours reading together. He never tired of it and amazingly Grandma didn't seem to either. She also spent a while with the UNO cards working on his numbers and letters with him. They were best of friends by the time the visit was over. Books are the way to his heart.


We had such a wonderful time and appreciate the week you both stayed with us! Come again. We know the drill now. Lot's and lots of Lobster.


Last weekend was one of my favorites here so far, thanks to living by a University. You already know all about my BIG race. We also enjoyed the UNH parade with some of the kids friend. Very sparsely attended and I think we ended up with the majority of the candy. . . thanks to the lack of spectators and the very nice posters the girls made to attract candy. Caroline is super upset here because her bag and sign are smaller than the other girls. She was convinced that she wouldn't never get enough candy with a smaller target.

 

For some reason people armed with Candy really enjoy "TARGET PRACTICE"

 

 Savannah and her friend were way too cool for all that. But if you look close you can see a bag behind Savannah's legs. And you know when the candy started flying she was right there in it.  Marcus held out his hat and was cute as could be. He was thrown a fireman's hat when the firefighters went by.

Savannah, ever the craft queen, organized a post parade candy craft the next morning while I was off running. They play with their candy before they eat it. Maybe we'll save some of these creations for our trick or treaters.

 And someone left out the Red Permanent Marker and Marcus did a little crafting of his own.

 Later that afternoon we hit up the FREE UNH carnival. My kids tell me I am a free magnet. 

Am I supposed to be ashamed about that? The cool thing about free events here is they don't get swamped like they would in Buffalo.  There was hardly anyone there.  We have always been too cheap for a family trip to Bounce Magic so this was our first time enjoying this kind of fun. We really lived it up for several hours.

 Caroline was the brave one that investigated the cotton candy booth and came back to tell us that it was also FREE!

 She went back again and again.   

Marcus was easy to keep track of. He stood by my side and munched. 

 We all tried the bungee trampolining. . . for FREE!  Kennon and Brent were the best at the flips. All day Sunday I was incredibly sore. It was either three miles or way too many attempts to flip like an acrobat.

 Brent participated in plenty of races himself that day. Kids can be pretty competitive when it comes to huge bounce toys. I think this is the one time he beat Camille on this course.

 

I barely convinced Kennon to hang out a free carnival with  family. I think she was glad she came. 

 

Caroline was brave enough to take on a formidable contender. They all Fought to Fight with Dad. 

By the time we made it over to the climbing wall I was cold and had no interest in getting to higher ground even it is was for FREE! Brent shimmied right up to the top though. 

Thanks UNH for some great family fun. I love living next to the University.

Kashann Runs a Race

I ran a 5 K today!  

This race marks the first time in my life I have ever ran 3 miles all at once. It also marks the first time I have ever run in a race. Unless you count all the races I was forced to run with Kennon around our trailer. She first beat me when she was 7.  I was 8 months pregnant at the time but that didn't matter.  Brent wouldn't let it rest that I had beaten by my 7 year old.


Last night I ran into Kris and Andy, Savannah's best friend's parents. They moved into the neighborhood about the same time we did.  Andy is retired military and now spends a good portion of his day just running. I have never once seen him wear anything but running gear. They told me that they were running the UNH Homecoming 5K in the morning and without thinking I burst out with, "Oh, I wish I would've known".


Well of course it wasn't too late to register and they picked me up at 8 a.m. this morning.


I had the worst pre-race gitters. I was sure that I would seriously choke in front of my friends.  Choke meaning -be forced to walk.  Before moving to NH, I wasn't even a runner. But we have the runningest neighborhood I have ever seen. It is full of hills and shade and it seems that there are constantly young fit people running by and I just couldn't help trying to fit in. Plus, Kennon joined cross country and I found out that the parents are invited to run with them on their last meet. So I clocked a two mile hilly course through my neighborhood and have ran it almost everyday the last couple weeks, still not sure if I actually was brave enough to run a real race with my daughter.


It hadn't gotten easy yet, like everyone told me it would. And now I was going to run 3? 


But guess who never stopped running? I made it just fine to the one mile marker but then right after that and I was searching hard for mile marker 2. I decided that once I got there I had to walk.  But it never came and before long the cheerleaders along the sides were saying, "You're almost there!"


I felt stupid for asking but I yelled back at them, "How far?" I was still looking for that 2 mile mark. "Just around the corner"  was the reply,. This should've encouraged me but by then I was having stomach cramps I hadn't ever had in my life and I personally couldn't see the finish line. 


I kept thinking, "It's time to walk".  I definitely could've walked faster than I was running at this point. But I knew that a fast walk wouldn't impress my husband who may be just ahead.  I hadn't seen Brent yet since I left him in bed that morning, and if I started walking right when I passed him I would be so mad.  Sure enough there he was right near the finish line, cheering like crazy.  I had nothing left to show off and sprint to the finish.


My time was 31:30. Brent had about given up on me. 

I know this is all kind of embarrassing to document how very hard I found my first 5K, but I figured it would be good to remember it all. Especially if I became a really great runner someday. This is how it all began.


And by the way, the course was FULL of Hills and I beat Kris and Andy by a minute and a half.

Brent and Ben kick off the weekend

It's only been 24 hours since our visitors from Washington arrived and already we are having the best of times.  Brent's mom just hit it out of the park during a short family softball game in between General Conference sessions today.  (General Conference refers to one of the two weekends a year that Mormons stay home and have church on the couch -broadcast from SLC, Utah. It is the best!)


Brent and his brother Ben especially enjoyed the four hours they spent together hearing the voice of the prophet and other church leaders.

Here they can be seen kicking off the session New England style. They took off this morning together after Ben found out that we had NO Lobster in the house! He'd been complaining about it nonstop since I served him a chicken dinner last night. They came back just in time for Conference (see Elder Holland in the background) with lunch . . . for them.  Two lobsters. We were thrown a few scraps.  Marcus was the only one who wasn't screaming for their own lobster. He refused to even come to the table after Kennon forced him to watch his uncle throw the wriggling bug into the pot.

Once their stomachs were satisfied they finished "watching" the session together on the couch. We did our best to hear the broadcast amidst all the snoring going on after the lobster fest.  We definitely needed a bigger couch.

My buddy Marco

A couple months before we left Buffalo I gave a whole box of diapers away. We were done with them in this household. Marcus hadn't wet his pants in weeks. Even at night he consistently woke me up to take him. My 25 month old was the easiest, youngest, best trained kid out of 5.  For 3 months. 

Then we started loading the moving van. From moving day on -all through the vacation in Washington, trip across the country and back, and our first 6 weeks here he literally refused to go. I know this is normal to have these kind of upsets revert potty trained children but I couldn't believe how long this went on. I've also had tons of people tell me that summer time is the time to potty train your boys because they just stop and pee whenever they feel the need in the great outdoors. Whatever! I firmly believe that there isn't much a parent can do to push a kid to do this. I think the best advice is to stay positive. So Marcus took a big summer break. It wasn't easy staying positive through it all. But. .   

He is now 31 months old and potty trained. . .  again. I haven't had to tell him to go in five days.  I don't know what snapped inside of him.  I'm not giving away the large box of pull ups I bought yet but I thinking he has finally stopped punishing me for taking him away from his Buffalo potty. 

Heck, the kid SLEPT in a bathroom in Buffalo. (A large closet hooked to my bathroom). It was a tough thing to leave that closet and convenient potty behind.  The totally crazy thing was that all DAY this summer I had him wear pull ups. But at the end of the day, off came the pull-up and on came the undies for bed.  He wets all day, but has yet to pee his bed.  No matter how much he drinks he just has amazing control. When he wants to obviously.  He is totally backward, wouldn't you say.  I am not complaining. .  really.  I'm glad he's not a bedwetter. But, I'm just saying. . the kid is weird.

He is always taking off on his own outside since the kids when back to school.  He never bothers with shoes. He thinks our back sliding glass door  is his personal entry. He really is the only one who uses it so I guess it is. Whenever I unload him from the car he tells me, "Mom, you go your way,  and I'll go mine". 

I have let him explore the yard on his own because so far he stays in the perimeter, but I worry the whole time and check on him every 5 minutes. It's pretty easy to do a quick check. He is well trained. I holler a "Marco" out the door and back comes a"Polo".  The other day I followed the "Polo" and found him completely covered in black. Especially all the way up one arm. I asked him where he had gotten so dirty. He told me "from the hole in your car." I wasn't smart enough to figure that out on my own, so he led me out to the van's muffler. "See Mom, there's a hole". 

Gee that looks like tons of fun, Marco.

Besides the constant wandering of the premises, Marcus is a great buddy for me while all the others are away. First off he is an excellent shopper. This is unheard of for a boy, right? For some reason I have found it way easier to shopping train him then potty train him.  He will browse Target with me for H O U R S. Then we hit the thrift store. . for another hour and the kid is still rearing to go. Back in the car, he always asks where we are heading next then offers suggestions, "Should we go to TJ Max, Mom?" One reason he is so easily entertained in the shopping cart is because of his singing habit. He has only made it through 20 or so songs in Target and has way more in his repertoire for the next stop. One of his standbys is always at the check out when the checker tells us goodbye. "Have a good day" He immediately starts singing the American Idol song to them. "I had a bad day!"  He doesn't watch American Idol but he has sisters and they teach him way more than nursery rhymes.

Secondly,  he loves my shopping snacks. He's the only one of my kids that refers to carrots as dessert just like he was taught, and will snack on raw almonds all day with me. He also doesn't have the normal phobia's my other children do of green where they aren't expecting it. The other day he wanted PB and J for lunch. I only had a loaf of store bought white bread and felt horrible about giving him that. I decided to try an experiment.


I spread the Peanut Butter on one side, jam on the other. Then I sprinkled side A with Wheat Bran and scattered side B with 6 baby spinach. The peanut butter stuck them all nicely together.

Lunch was served while I looked on. Marcus ate an entire half without comment. Then he picked up the other half and said, "Mom, why did you put salad in my sandwich?" "Because I knew that you loved salad, Marcus." "Oh, Thank you, Mom!"

I suggest you not try this on any kid over the age of 3. Gotta start'em young. . .  and even then somehow that hasn't worked out for some of us sisters.


While my little sister Alainna was visiting I found out he's way more stubborn than I ever imagined. Right after Alainna's visit with the dentist she was having lunch with us and was sitting next to Marcus. He was swinging his fork around a little getting more and more crazy, while Alainna was complaining a bit about how hard it was to chew with a numb lip. Suddenly he wound up right then swung hard left piercing Alainna right above her lip quite forcely. We all sat there stunned, especially Marcus. Alainna was numb and thus wasn't even sure if she was hurt or not.  She rushed to the mirror and found she was bleeding where she had been stuck. 

Marcus sat there not sure what to do.  So I told him. It was an accident but he needed to tell Aunt Alainna that he was sorry. He refused.  And the more I tried to convince the more upset he got. Finally he was placed in a timeout chair and told that he could get up when he was ready to say two little words to his aunt. 

He sat there for 20 minutes refusing and often screaming out, "I didn't do ANYTHING!" I was determined to teach him this lesson and stopped by often during the time to remind him that I know he didn't mean to do it, but he still needed to say sorry. Just two little words. Finally I convinced him he could whisper the words and that is what finally worked but man it was pretty funny to hear him so determined at 2.5.


I have been so lucky to enjoy several years of just one kid at home. Caroline had a couple years and now Marcus is having a turn. It really is fun to have a buddy. I need to think about a replacement for that because eventually he will leave me too. I can't imagine life without my buddy.

Visitors from Long Island

 

I am working on a new blog name. I feel like it I am back to coming up with a name for our dental office. That was brutal. I love to write, but I really hate to title. It's kind of the same problem I have with facebook and twitter. Too short and sweet for this girl. For now we are - In the woods by the sea. I  wouldn’t be surprised if my readers read that and decide that this blog just ain't what it used to be.  Something about being the biggest family in the neighborHOOD lent for some great writing. I read the buffalo blogs of friends since I have left and just laugh and laugh and really miss it all. It seems like nothing insane happens outside of Buffalo.  But who would go back? Not me. I am enjoying our life in the woods.

The thing is we don't have to go camping anymore for ambience. This is Friday night at our place. These woods surround the back of our house. The word is that they are full of ticks so we mostly stay out of them. I don't know how long this will last with Marcus. He is always right on the edge. Barefoot and usually barebottomed since his bottoms are often cast off because he wet them.  He's pretty easy to find though. He answers to "Marco" with a  "Polo". Everytime. Don't forget and call him Marcus or he won't say a thing though and you could be right on top of him and not know it.

I refuse to have any of us join the large population of people suffering from lime disease around here. Google it sometime. It is scary stuff. And all it takes is a couple days of an undiscovered tick and you've got it. 

So our paradise does have it's one big problem. But it's a great excuse to bathe your kids right.  I used to get notes from the school about head lice. Now the notes say,  "We went into the woods today. Check your kids for ticks."  

We are so happy with our schools here. They have 2 recesses a day! That's two more than we had in Buffalo.  And they have a pumpkin patch, woods to explore, and even have a slop box for leftovers at lunch to feed the local pigs. Caroline is purposely packing extra every day so she has plenty for pig slop.

 Camille competed in a small county fair and took second place. We drove into town and were looking for the fair that I saw advertised. I saw a small gathering in a park and asked some leaving if this was part of the fair. She said, "No, this IS the fair." 

This was my kind of fair. No carnies, large crowds or worries of losing your children, no overpriced ride passes to be begged for. Just a small town of 4 thousand enjoying the day together. Very quaint and very wonderful. They had an egg and spoon race also. All the kids ate their hard boiled eggs after. They were brown eggs so I figured some chicken farmer in the county raised them.

Kennon joined cross country and is living up to her roots. Not mine. No, No definitely not mine. My side is not known for speed.  But the other side is a different story and I have really hoped that I might be raising some runners to keep up with their cousins.  She insisted that this first meet was not a race.  Though it clearly was since she placed.  She wasn't nervous, lined up at the back at the pack, then talked much of way with a friend running next to her, and didn't even sprint at the end since she says she didn't even know it was over till it was. But even taking it all in stride she finished the 2.5 mile in 17:10 which I was thought was amazing since I am still trying to beat my best mile time set in 8th grade - 8:01.

Now she understands the whole racing aspect I am really excited to see her next meet.

The trampoline continues to be the best thing to ever happen to this family. And it is a bit of a novelty around the neighborhood. We may be the only one's with one and I guess that's why when I met a lady from a few streets away at the cross country meet she said, "Oh, yeah, I know that street. That's where the trampoline house is". The fame spread all the way to Long Island and our nearest kin came for a visit. Actually Alainna came to avoid paying to visit a dentist, and her husband Stephen came along to compete with Peter for favorite uncle. He jumped with them for hours and easily won the new title. 

 He even let them carry him off to the dress up room, where they worked hard to find something for a 6 footer. I think he fit into almost everything in width but they were way too skimpy in length . . so I guess that's why I don't have a picture to share with you.

By the end of the visit, though wonderful as he was Caroline was still calling him Uncle Peter.

I just posted this one and asked Marcus who it was and he told me, "Uncle Peter" then started singing "little Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his ear." Some thanks after all the books his Uncle Stephen read to him.

They are less than five hours away from us if they plan it right. That means driving through Manhattan between the hours of 2 and 4 a.m. They arrived at 7 a.m on a Thursday and left at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. Talk about being trapped on an island.

After completing his Phd we think he should apply to teach piano at UNH and live by us. We tried hard to show them how good life might if they should so chose . On Saturday we hiked around the bay a few minutes from our home. 

It was a gorgeous day and once again I myself was convinced that I have a found a little peace of heaven. Mom, I have come a long way from the days when I used to complain about your enthusiasm for hiking. I now am all about these kind of family activities.

It was pretty easy as hikes go but there was this one hill that we had to scale. 

 I even thought to bring trail snacks in my backpack and we found the perfect spot.

Several people have told me that though the wooded Northeast is truly beautiful they could never live there because they get claustrophobic surrounded by beauty on all sides.  Maybe in Altoona PA that is possible but not in seacoast NH. 

Okay, so you all know after recent blogs that I am thoroughly in love with our choice of locales. If you will all remember with me now though, it was such a hard decision to make and so doesn't it make sense that now I go on and on about how happy I am  and that it feels so good to be here? It's just so interesting how things work out after all the worries. I had a church leader tell me during an interview in February that we shouldn't rush into any decision if we didn't have an answer. We needed to wait upon the Lord until it felt right. That was not what I wanted to hear when we felt like we weren't getting any help at all with this decision. By the end of April his words were haunting me. How long were we going to have to wait?  Finally we announced the PA decision because we had been stewing over it forever and thought we would never feel sure so we just needed to jump in and do it. We would make it work. Almost immediately life got amazingly worrisome and stressful. 

And when you are in the thick of that it is so hard to see what seems so clear now. It wasn't a good decision. We felt so trapped and worried and we hadn't even made a commitment yet.

Now it's all so clear that we had to wait till this practice was available so we could come here. I think maybe there are multiple places we could've gone and fit in and and made contributions.  

But we had specific requests. We wanted to go somewhere where we wouldn't have regrets after all the choices before us. We wanted to live somewhere beautiful and exciting. I think it is so good to reflect and remember when the Lord gives you the exact thing that you asked for. And just to be clear I know that the there will be many trials ahead of us.  And though life is good it's definitely not easy now nor do I think it's all downhill from here. But I am so grateful that he has  provided us with peace in our lives, especially since that is specifically what we were asking for above all else. 

I had a good weekend. Looking forward to more visitors.

Photos by Kristen

One of the last things we did in Buffalo was to get the whole family together for a very long overdue photo shoot.  This actually was our first one ever with a official photographer,  and that means I'm not counting Penny's Portrait studios.  And the only reason we finally got this one is because it was FREE!  Two years earlier at a Christmas party with some friends I had been the recipient of "a free photo shoot by Kristen".   Not only did she take 150 photos, but edited them all -and spent who knows how many hours?  Kristen Hassell, you are the best!  That what's I call an awesome white elephant gift.

 

  

In the rush to get 7 people ready I failed to notice that Kennon put on eyeliner, and Camille clipped on earrings. I did notice that Savannah was wearing her high top converse and those were switched out for the first half of the photo shoots.
Kristen we miss you and are so glad you squeezed in the time to make good on your gift at the last minute. Her husband was leaving in a just couple days for officer's training when she took these. I have nothing but good to say about this woman. She sings, plays the piano, is a dental hygienist, speaks spanish, dances, writes, and takes care of three boys at her house all in addition to be the best photographer around. Check out more of her amazing photography here.

Labor Day

I can never remember the purpose of labor day but usually feel pretty let down if there isn't one last big summer BBQ involved. This year was one of those years that I was sure to be jipped. We have no BBQ (since we were forced to leave ours in the buffalo backyard when it didn't fit) and no invitations came our way.


In the a.m. we worked at the office. Always plenty to do around there. Here is Camille earning $10 bucks, actually $8 after her Dad saw all the stuff she missed.

 I have been asking around for a local place to go swimming besides the beach. The beach is awesome but you can't exactly swim there. Everyone told me to head to the University Pool.  So we checked it out early in August since it's close by.  But when I saw the crowded pool and found out it was $7 a person- it just wasn't going to happen. I hate swimming in community pools and I couldn't spend $7 x 7 even if my kids hated me for it. With all this water around there I was determined to be swimming for free.


I mentioned this to the Bishop Sunday night while we had dinner there. He told us where his family goes. No beach, but a bridge crossing the river. They like to jump off there. So Monday afternoon when the work was done, we found the spot up in the woods 3 miles from our home. It was a bit crowded with new UNH coeds, but they were super nice and didn't seem to mind our family crashing their party.  I was the first to jump. It looked way higher from the top. The water was way warmer than the beach but definitely the blackest water I have ever swum in. But it smelled clean and I knew there was no chance of alligators so it was just fine by me.

Caroline went next, thanks to her father dropping her off the side. I told her that parents get arrested for throwing their children off the bridge.

He almost threw his son over next but I stopped him. We are easy to recognize in this picture. Brent is the white bald head giving his 6 year old a pep-talk before "helping" her over the edge. And my girls were the only ones not wearing bikinis as usual. Doesn't anyone besides senior citizens wear a one piece these days? Not on my side of the country.

Caroline wasn't the only one Brent gave a lift to. Savannah had a bad day and didn't swim at all. She was still recovering from an injury she sustained on Saturday after they finished setting up this.

 Our first trampoline ever. And already a sprained ankle. Five kids worked for 3 hours on this thing. Even Marcus was a ton of help. He carried off a 1/2 dozen screws and the girls spent an hour scavenging the yard for them.

The girls had to come up with a combined $100 and Dad paid the rest. It was a NH promise. Something to bribe them away from Washington. 

They insist that he also bribed them with a promise of a dog in NH. That was before he knew about ticks. Now we are both too worried about it running around through our woods collecting ticks and then brushing them all off in our house. It's pretty impossible to have outdoor pets here with the long winters. I don't know if they will ever talk us into that one. We already regret the trampoline. Even an enclosure doesn't save your ankles.

After most of us jumped and swam (Savannah sat and babysit on the bridge) for an hour we went home to shower and out for the burger that mom was craving. Did you know we don't even have a Red Robin in NH? We settled for Applebee's. And the burger was the only disappointment of the day. It was good, but when you're craving Red Robin since you can't grill at home, it's hard to substitute with an Applebee's burger.  Not the same. We should've bought a grill instead.