Mimaw and Pipaw Play in NH

We've just come home from another great weekend with family in NH. This time, it was Mike's sister and her family. Hopefully, I will blog about it down the line. For now, I wanted to share what we did last time we were up in New Hampshire. It was just after Dylan's birthday with my parents.

With so much work going into the party, it was definitely time to let my parents play for a bit. Plus, the last time they saw our place there last summer, it was still studs on foundation...they've never been to the finished product. On Sunday evening, we cleaned up after the party and Monday morning, packed up and went north. My Dad, who pretty much won't sit down if there's anything at all needs to be done anywhere around (he's a big helper, that one), headed to our deck immediately upon arriving and was found reading there anytime we were hanging out at the condo. I'm glad he got some much deserved R&R.

That afternoon, we visited Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves. We had only been there once about 6 years ago so it was definitely time for another visit. The weather was threatening but we someone escaped with only a few sprinkles falling on us.

The boys made a new friend!

Heading Down Into the Gorge

As you can see, it's a beautiful area. And, as the name says, there are caves that you can climb through. Now, we frequent the Polar Caves and I've carried both of my boys through those caves in backpacks (carefully). These caves definitely don't allow for that. Most of them required crawling, climbing and some even squeezing. Mom bypassed a few, I braved most, and Dad did all he could. The below cave he had to pass on!

The Squeezer Gauge

Dylan and Cade had a great time crawling in and out of all the caves!

We stopped afterwards in North Woodstock for some dinner. It's a good thing this place had lots of knick knacks to look at. They were pretty much the only thing that kept my boys entertained for the ridiculously long wait for food. 

The next day we decided to go on a hike. I tried to pick a nice easy one for our group. We started out on the trail that warned of closings. Upon closer inspection of the notice of the closings, it was past where we had planned to go. However, we hit a road block (quite literally) and were forced to head back to the car and figure out a plan B. There was another entrance to the trail the construction workers had told us about so we went to find it. Unfortunately, that entrance added too much length to the trail and it would have been too long for our group that day. So we did another one with a trailhead right where we were which ended up being pretty difficult for our level of hikers in the group. Pipaw and Mimaw (especially Mimaw) and the boys (little ones) were troopers and didn't complain (much).

Cade played the herder of the group and made sure the back of the group was ok, helped folks over water crossings, and was always very diligent that he kept track of Pipaw. He very regularly turned around, signaled with his hand and said "come on Paw." It was very sweet and cute.

Pipaw and Cade

We didn't make it to the final destination. We got to a bridge, stopped to take a rest and made the wise decision to head back. Everyone was pretty tired at this point.

Butterflies on the Bridge

Had to tell the boys over and over to be careful and not whack the butterflies with their poles.

This is how Dylan felt about doing more hiking. He was tired.

So his sweet brother tried to comfort him.

And we got him to smile!

Mike was pretty tired and grumpy at this point. I made him pretend to be happy for a picture with me.

Troopers

Tried to get Cade to smile for a selfie with me but he was just interested in his snack.

We took a different route back that was actually a mountain bike trail. It was longer in length then heading back the way we had come, but a wider trail with less rocks and tree routes. It was definitely better for my Mom. Mike and Dylan went ahead while Cade and I stayed with my parents to make sure they were doing ok. Cade stayed very entertained playing "on your mark, get set, go!" He and I would race for just a minute before we would stop, get back into starting racing position and go again.

Since the beginning of the trail ran alongside the road, I decided to plop Cade on my back and run back as quickly as possible to grab the car and pull it up as far as we could to pick up my parents. Dylan and Mike took the original trail at that point and Cade and I took the curvy road. We got to the car at the same time, got everyone in and drove back up a little while to pick up my resting parents.

Back at the condo, we packed up to head back to Massachusetts. While we were getting the house closed up, the boys played outside. Dylan found a frog!

Ribbit!

A quick and tiring tour of NH but we had to get back. I had only arranged for 2 days off and my parents had to fly out on Wednesday. I'm glad they finally got to see\experience our new place! Next time we go up, I'll be sure to "schedule" more time for my Dad to relax on the deck.