Summer Vacation 2012 - NH, Part VI

Monday
Our anniversary date continued into Monday (one of the reasons I accomplished some blog posts).  Waking up to the view of the ocean and the marina was fantastic.  Penn did well in the night and we were pretty refreshed.  We stayed around the gorgeous Wentworth enjoying some exercise, pool time and taking in the ocean air until about 11:30am.  Then we headed back to Portsmouth for some lunch.  Penn did amazingly well at the restaurant again and he let us enjoy another meal date.  Such a good little bug!  Here's the view from our outdoor seats (the big boys would've loved watching the boats go by and the view of the tugboats!).

And here's the view I had while I ate my meal.  He conked out just in time for us to have hands free to scarf down our delicious seafood dishes.  Thanks, Penn!

Next we headed down route 1A along the seacoast to Rye, NH.  That's right, as in Penn Rye Melder.  We were married in Rye at St. Andrew's by the Sea and since we haven't been in NH for an anniversary before we stopped in for a few photos at the lovely seacoast chapel.

Pretty crazy to visit your wedding location and think back on all the Lord's done in these 11 years.  We've learned so much about each other, we've both grown so much as individuals and as a couple.  We've traveled, worked hard, had 3 kids and are just so blessed by it all.  I'm overwhelmed at His goodness to us.  It's great to have these moments that just make you review all that He's done through the fun, easy times and the tough, disciplined times too.  Looking forward to the years ahead and what He may have in store for us! 

Next we walked down the Little Boar's Head Scenic Walkway along Route 1A for awhile.  Doug and Penn ended up turning back and I got to walk aways longer and then met up with them at our favorite beachside ice cream stand, the Beach Plum.  After I got my feet wet in the Atlantic.  After our chilly, chocolatey snack we drove home to get back to family vacation ending our nice time away with just each other (and our sidekick, Penn).  A huge thank you to Mom and Dad for watching Koen and Tavin while we were away.  Things went quite smoothly at home thankfully and when we arrived Koen was out grocery shopping with Gramma and Tavin was still asleep in his room for naptime.  We were happy to reunite around 5pm and then Grampa had the great idea to get the Corvette out for some rides before dinner.  Seriously, never a dull moment around here!  Koen got the first ride and again, it was his first time riding alone (on his booster seat of course).  He was proud!

Then it was Tavin's turn.  This would be his first ride in the Corvette and he was really excited.  He had been asking about the "Cor-ret" for days.  He loved the ride and is still talking about it a day later.

Another wonderful day here in NH with our sweet family of 5 and my parents!

Tuesday
Today is technically Doug and Koen's last day in NH on vacation.  Tomorrow they will head out around 8am to drive back to Nana & PopPop's.  A nice reunion of Koen's cousins and aunts and uncles will await them there though, so it's nice they both have something so great to look forward to as they bid goodbye to this special time in NH.  So for the last morning here, Doug woke up quite motivated and got the boys and Grampa out the door around 9am for another bike ride in Manchester.  My one request was for Doug to get a picture of Grampa with the big boys.  I'd say he did a lovely job...

While they were gone Gramma and I kept busy during Penn's morning nap (like mother like daughter, we love some downtime to multi-task!).  After I fed Penn we gave him a bath.  He loves baths and he is so photogenic at bathtime.  I had to stop myself from taking any more pictures.

Is he not the most adorable bathing beauty you've ever seen?  Well, ok, so maybe a lot of babies are cute in the bath, but I'm definitely a big fan of this one!  Soon after bathtime the big boys got home.  They spent the rest of their time before their naps outside at the pool playing and eating lunch (and Koen got into some trouble, but forgive and forget, right?).  Now the boys are napping, I'm caught up on the blog and so I'm off to other things.  Check back in a day or so for more updates from NH.  Tavin and I will be here until Friday.