Day 4 of Vacation - Church & Smores

We were happy to go to church on our fourth day of vacation to make sure we did our duty to God. As we pulled up to the little branch building about 30 minutes away from where we were staying, Lorne looks over at another family getting out of a sweet convertible and said, "Oh my - that's Mitt Romney!" Indeed it was and we soon found ourselves saying hello to him and Lorne even got a picture with him. When we went inside, we also found Bill Marriott and his family. Looks like we found where the prominent Mormons go to play in the summer.That afternoon after church, we went to a little country store that has every knick knack you can think of stuffed on its shelves. It is always fun looking around that store.We cooked out that night and had some delicious burgers and then decided making smores would be fun. We had found these massive marshmallows at the grocery store and wanted to make good use of them. Jan had never had smores and we felt it was a good American experience to have so we made them.They were delicious and as you can see, we all enjoyed them. It was a great evening and so relaxing.

Day 3 of Vacation - New Hampshire Life

The Richters have a most beautiful home in New Hampshire and we felt so blessed to be able to use it for a few days. They have a little dock that is on Lake Kanasatka in the Lakes region of New Hampshire. It is a small lake that is calm and beautiful.
We were lucky enough that the water was fantastic for swimming in. It was bathtub temperature and Jasmine was excited to swim and so was Ava - who am I kidding? We were all excited to swim and relax.Jan took Jasmine out on a canoe ride and she enjoyed it a lot. We really didn't do much but swim and relax and eat - all good vacation things to do and it was a most perfect day.

Day 2 of Vacation - Lorne turns 38 and we tour Boston!

We drove up to Boston after picking Lorne up from his business meeting (after we went to the Crayola Factory) so that we could spend the night at the Richter home and spend a day touring around Boston. It also happened to be Lorne's birthday so we wanted to celebrate that too!We went to the heart of downtown Boston and had lunch at Cheers - where everybody knows your name! It was really good. We ordered him a massive Boston Cream Pie for dessert - when in Boston...and it was delicious and festive.We then took a bus tour of Boston - we felt it would be the best and fastest way to see as much of Boston as possible in one day. We had been there before but we wanted Jan to see the city. We got off at one stop and walked for a bit.One of my favorite gardens is in Boston - Public Garden. It has the statues of the ducks and also it is featured in a beautiful scene in the original Parent Trap and I have always wanted to have a picnic there on a spring day - one day this may happen but today it was rainy and we didn't have time to linger too long.Our bus drove us past the State house at the end of the tour and that is where our Tia Laura works. I showed Jasmine and she seemed impressed.We had dinner at a very delicious and nice Chinese restaurant and then we drove a couple of hours up to New Hampshire and settled everyone in for the night.

Getting out of Town

After all the stress of getting cupcake day done, I decided it was time for the family to hit the road and have a little vacation. We are so blessed to have Laura as our friend and she and her parents graciously offered their house in New Hampshire for us to use for a week. We were so excited.
Lorne had to be in Philadelphia for an all day meeting the day after Occasionally Cake Cupcake Day so we decided to go up with him. While he was in training, we found something fun to do.
I have always wanted to take Jasmine to the Crayola Factory and it was only an hour from where Lorne had his meeting so we dropped him off and then we went to the Factory.It was super fun and they had all things artsy there. We got to play with all kinds of crayon stuff and we got a few freebies too.They did a cool little demo on how they make the crayons and I thought it was super interesting. Jasmine and Ava had a blast. Ava got into the sidewalk chalk and the modeling clay. She even did a little coloring.Jasmine did it all and then some! She was so so happy to try everything and she got to bring home some fun art projects.I think even Jan enjoyed it. For me, the best part was seeing my kids happy and spending time with them - there is nothing else better in the whole entire world.