NH Trip 2014, Part 1

This is becoming quite the family tradition...packing up every August for a visit to New Hampshire to see my parents (better known on the blog as Gramma and Grampa). 

Monday
This was our first year attempting to take all the kids via minivan (in the past I've gotten out of the long drive and flown with the younger ones).  After our successful drives with our Hilton Head trip with all 3 though, we weren't too worried about the long trek to NH, especially since we split it up into a 2 day journey.  We left Pittsburgh around 9:30am (technically left our house at 8:40am, but had some car issues, plus stopped at bank, gas and Starbucks, talk about a slow start!).  Our goal was to get just about to Philly for our stop at a friend's house.  This "friend" is "Megan Magee" as the boys always refer to her.  A favorite babysitter who moved from Pittsburgh back home to Philly this past winter.  The boys have been so excited to visit with her on this trek and it was no disappointment.  Megan and her dad took the day off from work just to be around and hang out with us.  Their house was so comfortable, inviting and offered plenty of space for all of us.  We arrived around 2pm and Penn soon went right down for a nap.  The rest of hit the pool and stayed there for the whole afternoon!  It was quite a treat after a long morning in the van, especially for the boys.  As you can see, Koen felt right at home.

After Penn's nap, I got him right out into the pool.  He absolutely loved it and was quite the entertainer.

At first he tried out sitting on all the different pool flotation devices they had around, like this giraffe (note K & T warming up in the background having a nice chat).

Then Penn went crazy and started pulling all sorts of stunts.  He would flip over on the giraffe going head first in the water and totally knowing to hold his breath and wait to come up for air.  He did flips under water and on this floating mat, he tried to surf and then happily fell every which way overboard.  Quite the little crazy fish!!

When Penn started turning blue and chattering, it was time to head in for clean clothes and get ready for dinner.  Our hosts were so generous and gracious.  They prepared quite the American cookout feast for us and also had over Megan's brother, Doug, his wife and his two sons, Dougie and Colden.  It was actually Dougie's birthday, so we also had a celebration for him.  He and Penn are only about a month apart.  Here they are.  They were too concentrated on dinner and all the hub-bub, so they look quite serious here.

Megan's dad is also named, Doug, (and he is the sweetest man and such a natural Grandpa, he was so patient and helpful with our boys as well as his own grandsons all afternoon and evening), we figured before we all disbanded for bedtimes that evening we had to get a picture of all the Dougs.  Megan and Doug hit it off right away years ago when she first started attending our church and she used to always tell us how Doug reminded her of her brother, now I can see why!

Penn went down at 7:30pm, but Koen and Tavin got to stay up for S'mores with Mr. Magee and didn't go down until 8pm (and then it took them a bit to settle and fall asleep as you'd imagine after such a fun day and night).  The adults did some clean up and then relaxed for a bit before turning in as well.  It was a lovely day.  Thank you so much to the Magees for hosting us, letting us crash in on your family evening and extending us such hospitality and generosity.  We were blessed by the relaxing afternoon and evening and it refreshed us for our journey on Tuesday.

Tuesday
Drive, drive, drive....we had about 6 hours on the GPS to cover from Philly home.  It went really well thankfully, but it was a long day.  We went the interesting route right through NYC and near the coast of Connecticut, so it was an interesting drive much of the way and made the time pass for us up front.  The boys kept busy with DVD's, snacking and some catnaps.  We were amazed, but Koen felt asleep at the same time as Penn for nearly an hour!!  He NEVER naps in the car (not even as an infant).  It was quite a development!

That's my only picture from Tuesday.  We got to my parents' house around 3pm and the boys jumped right into all their favorite activities ASAP.  Penn was just happy to be out of his carseat and I was immediately chatting it up with my mom.  Yay!!  We are finally here!!

Wednesday
Ah, our first full day of vacation in NH.  Doug was raring to go on a day trip somewhere, but I wasn't after packing and coordinating our two day drive and the weather looked iffy for the afternoon, so we settled on Doug taking a study day and me staying close to home with the boys and the grandparents.  It turned out to be the perfect situation.  Koen and Tavin were just so enthusiastic about being near Gramma and Grampa, doing all the little, fun things around the house they had been dreaming about for weeks that they remembered from last year.  Koen, especially, just wanted to be at Grampa's side every moment.  I was a little afraid he would wear out his welcome as I know my first-born child can be a little intense at times (understatement), but Grampa welcomed him into his projects, made time for special radio project and was just so full of patience.  Koen had such a great day at his side that in the evening he said, "tomorrow I just want to stay at the house and be with Grampa all day again."  Here Koen is hard at work playing radio and working on Morse code with Grampa transmitting to him from the next room.

While Koen and Grampa did some projects, Gramma and I took the little guys to the library and the playground.  It was a perfect example of how simply these two co-exist.  There's no fighting, there's no craziness.  It's so refreshing.  At the library they loved all the huge stuffed animals they had to play with and I searched for some new books for the boys during our stay.  Then we headed to a playground on the way home.  Again, the boys just do so well together.  Tavin is especially sweet.  Every time he discovered something he knew Penn would enjoy he invited him to join him ("ride in the helicopter, Penn Rye...look, Penn, there's one more seat in the race car just for you!").  The both loved the huge sandbox and digging toys, so that took up most their time.

They enjoyed the bouncy see-saw together too.

After our visit to the playground it was time to head home for lunch and quickly thereafter, naptime.  We had a nice low key afternoon with Penn napping and Tav resting (well, Grampa still had Koen hanging on his every move and word, but they were a cute little team and Dad did so well to let him be a part of everything!).  In the evening the kids all played in the yard before dinner and then after dinner had their first Jeep rides of the visit.  They were so thrilled!

Penn was excited to see the Jeep start up and roll on, but was very, very sad when it left without him, so Doug turned that frown to a smile with a quick, little bike ride up and down the road while we waited for the Jeep's return.  Doug gets Penn to put his arms out like the wings of an airplane.  Too cute!

Here they come!

Still super happy.  These boys have just loved finally being here today!

Now for Penn's turn.  He's pretty excited too.  He did great on his little ride, chattering and babbling the whole way.  Koen was sweet trying to be encouraging and informational about the experience the whole time.  He can really shift into awesome big brother gear!

Well, that's the start of our trip.  You know there will be plenty more blog posts about this visit with Gramma and Grampa!