It's NH Time, Part 3

On Saturday, we had a different day.  We had a low key start just around the house, but after laying Penn down for his nap, we slipped out for an adventure with Koen and Tavin.  We have friends that are missionaries to India that currently live in Gloucester, MA.  Doug and I wanted to get down and visit with them since we were in relatively close proximity.  It was a great excuse to explore a new area a little bit with the boys.  We were unsure of how Penn Rye (stranger danger extraordinaire) would do at home alone with Gramma and Grampa, but we were willing to give it a try.  Thankfully he did great.  I only received positive, glowing reports of Penn's attitude while we were gone and pictures to match.

Apparently, the big issue with Penn not liking anyone but me or Doug is ME!  If I'm out of the picture, he seemed just fine with his Gramma and Grampa and they were so thankful for the special one on one time with this little sweetie.  Thanks for watching your youngest grandson today, Mom and Dad.  Special moments for sure!

Ok, so back to our Gloucester outing.  We made great time getting there and soon had met up with our friends at their lovely home not far from the coast.  We headed into town for lunch at The Gloucester House.  It was quite the experience.  First I hung out outside a bit with the boys to watch what was going on in the harbor.  Quintessential fishing village shot.

And my little fishermen waiting oh so patiently for their late lunch.

While we were waiting and being the loud, energetic group we are when we have our boys in tow, someone who works (who knows, could've been the owner) at The Gloucester House invited all of us back to see the lobsters while they cleaned a table off for us.  This guy was a classic, gruff, but nice New Englander.  He had a little tough love for the boys in trying to get them to make friends with the lobster, but neither Tavin or Koen were interested in touching or even getting too close to the creepy, crawler lobsters. I showed the boys it was safe, but they still weren't convinced. 

They were pretty worried when the man put this guy on the floor to wiggle around.

Tav was literally hanging on for dear life!

Doug was a good dad and was brave on behalf of his boys and held the lobster so they could see it was OK (they still didn't touch it of course).

We killed some more time with a couple of photos at the table when waiting for our yummy food to come.  It was good to capture this special time with just our big boys.  With Penn being such a momma's boy, we haven't escaped with the older two alone like this much at all.

After our delicious seafood lunch we headed over to a beautiful beach our friends knew about.  It was perfect!!  It was low tide and there was plenty of room to run around and there was a great run off from the marsh land above the beach providing a warm river for the boys to plan in as well.  They loved every minute of the seashore fun.  When we first arrived the boys kicked the soccer ball around for awhile.

I had to take a few pictures of the lovely view from the beach.  See here the gorgeous homes on the coast and the twin lighthouses in the distance (apparently the only twin lighthouses left standing in North America as reported by my Google-ing husband).

More lovely homes on the rocky New England coast.  Love it!

The boys spent a lot of time (and burnt a lot of energy off) running back and forth up and down the run-off river splashing with their feet.  Tavin was getting quite clumsy with naptime approaching and kept falling into the water.  He thought it was fun.

After playing in the "river" we headed down to the gentle, breaking waves.  Perfect for little boys to run through and jump over.  Look at my little men (yes, one of them still in a ridiculous sun hat at age 3).

Here's my boys and I.  Can you tell I'm a happy girl when I'm at the beach?

Family minus 1 photos...

It was a great visit in Gloucester.  We had to pry ourselves away from our friends and the glorious backdrop in order to drive home in time for Penn's dinnertime (turns out we probably could've stayed out until the boys' bedtimes though as Penn just loved his grandparent time!).  Thanks to Emmanuel and Allison for a great visit and thanks to Mom and Dad for babysitting Penn Rye!

So, on to today, Sunday, which I do not have any pictures for!  We had a nice morning at my parents' church and Doug preached there which was very special for me to see again (so special to see this gifted man I get to spend my life with in my home church sharing the Word!).  The rest of the day was pretty low key. I just keep trying to get the boys and I outdoors as much as possible as the weather here continues to be so beautiful every day.  High 70's, breezy and sunny.  Perfect!!