NH Trip 2014, Part 3

Saturday

Sailing day!!  The boys and I have been looking forward to our chance to get back up to the sailboat with Grampa since last year's lovely sailing day.  Saturday we headed up to Wolfeboro on Lake Winnepesaukee to finally have another sail.  Before we left, Grampa was playing the piano and Penn Rye just moseyed in and climbed up on the bench right next to him.  Too cute!!

Anyways, we left shortly thereafter and arrived a little before noon at the lake and oddly it rained for about 15 minutes, but thankfully that one sad rain cloud moved away quickly and then it was gorgeously sunny and warm.  We headed out to the sailboat, got situated and motored out into the lake.  

Then we turned off the motor and put the sails up and we were off.  Well, slowly.  The wind, although seemingly breezy, was light and inconsistent.  It was a slow sail, but the boys didn't mind at all (very steady when there's not a lot of wind!).  

We got out aways and were getting quite hot in the sun, so we went swimming in the middle of the lake!  I haven't done this in years.  It felt so good to just dive off the back of the boat into the clean, refreshing lake water.  Koen joined me and we just swam around at the stern of the boat.  Dad didn't even have to drop the sails.  We just had a line out in case the wind picked up and we had to hold on and be pulled to keep up!  That wasn't necessary though and eventually Dad did drop the sails so that he and Tav could cool off in the water as well.  Tav was a little overwhelmed by the big drop from the boat ladder into the water as well as just the never-ending dark water surrounding him, but at least he tried it and got to cool off.  The boys enjoyed resting and warming up in the sun when we all climbed back on board.

Tav was still a bit off because of his cold and he really looked like he would fall asleep in Grampa's arms.  How sweet!!

Me and my little swimmer buddy.  Koen loved the experience and couldn't wait to get back to the mooring to have another dip.  

Here are a few pictures I took of the beautiful surroundings on this lake.  I just love sailing.  It is so peaceful and on a gorgeous day like this, the landscape is just striking to me.

This is Wolfeboro bay from a distance.  Such a cute little town nestled under those hills and right up against the water.  Could it be more picturesque?

Since there was so little wind, we motored back to the mooring so that it wouldn't take forever.  While Dad got the boat back in order Koen took another dip.  

Koen loved the whole experience, talking every minute, constantly thinking about the next thing we'd do.  Intense.  Tav more just hung out and took it in quietly enjoying it in his own way.  I love seeing the boys have adventures like this that I so enjoyed as a child and that I'm so thankful I've been able to experience.  Thanks so much for taking me and my boisterous big boys to the boat again this year, Dad.  We loved it!  When we got home, Doug was there with Penn and the boys (including Grampa) all played some baseball in the backyard until dinnertime.  

These are certainly full days!!  After that it was straight through baths and to bed for these tired boys!  Not long after I hit the hay too.  Phew!

Sunday
On Sunday we all went to my parents' church and Doug preached.  I love having him share at my childhood church home.  That community was like extended family growing up and it is just so special to get to come back and visit and encourage them in that way.  Also, it's really nice to get to see Doug preach live and in a more intimate setting than at our home church.  He did a great job and I was praising the Lord for the blessing of his gifts and being able to share them with my parents and their church family.  After we got home we had lunch, then got the boys situated for rest time/nap time and then Doug and I headed out for our annual getaway date afternoon/evening.  Yay!!  This year we decided to first head to Kittery, ME to the outlets for a little shopping.  I don't know how long it's been since Doug and I have been leisurely shopping just the two of us, but it was a blast (not to mention we got crazy good deals!).  We limited ourselves to just the one necessary stop there though and then headed on down the scenic route from Kittery to Portsmouth.  We passed Kittery Point, which was a quintessential seacoast town and had to get out to enjoy the ocean air and view and get some pics.  A few landscape shots...

And Doug & Amy's too of course. =)  Watch out, there will be more of these.

We jumped back into the car and finished our quick, but picturesque journey to Portsmouth (oh the cute little seacoast homes!!).  We walked around in the town of Portsmouth which has come to be a favorite New England date spot for us.  We visited the bookstore Doug enjoyed so much last year and he picked up a few more good deal desk references (the guy at the checkout totally remembered him from last year...they must not sell a lot of Christian desk references in between Doug's visits!).  We got dinner at the River House right along the water.  We enjoyed some fresh seafood and just loved our view and the relaxation of some just us time!

After dinner we walked back through the quaint streets of Portsmouth to our car and headed down what is probably our favorite road in the US, Rt. 1A through Rye and into Hampton to take a walk and get amazing ice cream at The Beach Plum before heading home.  On our walk we discovered hundreds of people out on the coast with tripods and cameras.  Something had to be happening...Doug put it all together and remembered it was supposed to be the rise of the super moon and we were there to witness it!  We walked until the sun went down and the moon was ready to come up and we took some more Doug & Amy's of course...

We walked all the way to the bench in memory of my grandparents and took this pic for my mom.  

The moon was apparently supposed to rise at 7:35pm, but there was some cloud cover right at the horizon, so it didn't actually come through those until around 8pm.  It was gorgeous!  I'm not sure I've ever just sat and watched the moon rise...so beautiful!  Here it is when we first got to see it pop through the clouds.

Here it is about 30 minutes later, still working its way through thin layers of clouds, but now you can see the amazing reflection on the ocean. 

Such a lovely date with an amazing, unexpected ending.  Thanks so much to Gramma and Grampa who did a great job with the boys at home.  They raved about how well the boys all did with their rest time routine, play time thankfully went quite well and they were ravenous and inhaled their dinners and did great through baths and bedtime too.  When we got home we also got to find out that Grampa and Tavin had some special time together and Grampa taught him how to ride a bike without training wheels!  We came home to this picture in our email inboxes...

Dad said he was a natural, was so brave and did a great job mastering the art of turning and getting off that first evening (getting on without help is still something we are working on).  Great job, Tavin!  Tavin is now the second Melder boy to learn how to go from training wheels to a two-wheeler in NH under Grampa's tutelage.  Don't make any plans for Summer 2016, Grampa, it'll be Penn's turn. =)