Vacation Photos

So I know we went on vacation 2 months ago, but I've been meaning to share some pictures from our trip to New Hampshire, and, well, tonight seems like a good time! So buckle up ... there's a lot of pictures here!

 So, first up was The Beach. Yes, with capital letters because we live smack in the middle of the country. We don't see oceans and beaches and waves for as far as the eye can see! So, getting to head East and get on a beach is an awesome time for us!

The kids did some boogie boarding and LOVED it! I think the 12yo enjoyed it more than the 8yo, but she was also willing to go farther out into the water and I think that helps!

I stood up for a few minutes, took some pictures and then sat my butt down and relaxed. And knitted. Because I am me. Keep in mind, the 8yo and I had left Chicago at 9pm Friday night. Got into Boston at 1 (or 2? can't remember) am Sunday morning, got up and hopped on another train at 9am Sunday morning and met up with the others just after lunch time. We practically headed straight to the beach so to say I was a bit tired might be an understatement!

So basically, the beach was just lovely! 

I think if we lived near a beach, I would spend a lot of time there. It is always so relaxing.

Quite a few years ago we traveled to The Beach as part of vacation (on the East coast, but not to the same spot) and I slept outside one night. It was lovely. And sunrises over the beach? Lovely.

This vacation was just a day trip to the beach, so there was no sunrises to watch, but the few hours were there, were so wonderful! 

 Two of the days I was out there we did some hiking. One was pretty uphill and up a mountain. The mountain was HUGE.

Okay, okay, it wasn't really huge. But I've lived my whole life in the midwest. You know what is considered mountains out here? Things that would make people in New Hampshire laugh. Because they aren't very big.

So, yes, we climbed a huge mountain - that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Just don't ask my in-laws to collaborate that because they will tell you the hike we took up the not so huge mountain was rated as easy in their Hikes to Take Your Children or Your Daughter In Law Who Don't Really Know What a Tall Mountain Looks Like But Thinks Little Ones Are Huge book, or something like that.

It was fun. No, really, it was fun. It was also painful. And when we got home from this hike up the world's tallest mountain, I immediately just fell asleep.

But, for real, it was worth it.

The view. I mean the view from the top (that wasn't technically the top of the mountain, but do I look like a mountain climber? No. So this was good enough!) was gorgeous! And it was just gorgeous for miles around.

It was seriously beautiful. We live in a very urban area, and we have forest preserves and places to hike (without mountains), but they aren't very big areas. Well, some are. Comparatively. But I'm always amazed when we go out to New Hampshire, how much space there is. Of trees and forests and mountains and streams and rivers. You turn 360 degrees and just see nature. Everywhere. It is fabulous. 

The next day, we decided to take an even easier hike. There is this great area where you can go and dig for fossils and granite. Now, my 12 year old loves rocks and minerals so this was specifically picked for her. My 8yo just loves digging and fossils, so he was equally excited.

Except our little hike turned into a 40 mile-not-sure-where-we-were-going-and-thinking-we-might-need-to-be-air-rescued-and-saved.

Alright. Much like my HUGE mountain, I might be stretching the truth a bit. We probably walked for about 4 miles. And we figured out part-way we were on the wrong path, but we were on a path none the less, so we weren't really lost. And we didn't need air rescue. Or ground rescue. Or any rescue.


And it was fun to not know quite where we were. And it was exciting that there was a 0.000000000001% chance we were lost!

Okay, it wasn't. I lied. I kept thinking my husband is going to kill me if I die out here in a forest with two-thirds of the kids just the day after being so accomplished and hiking the world's tallest mountain ever! Thankfully, we made it back to the beginning.

And amazingly, we were able to find the right path. And walk another milish and get to the dig site.

Which was actually fun and exciting. And the kids had a great time. They each took a few bits home with them (it was allowed - I promise we were very respectful of the forest). And it was so fun.

I would absolutely do all of this again. But I might not do two hikes on two consecutive days! Because I had to sleep for like 3 days straight to recover from all that hiking. Not that I was actually able to sleep for 3 days straight, but boy, did I get a lot of good sleep for the next few nights! ;-)

Anyway, just some fun from our trip. The kids and I had a great time.