Finally pictures of my NH trip.
As usual it's best to go through the weekend in pictures, here goes.
First of all I travelled to NH to my oldest
niece's wedding. My mother and her mother went along with me, or better yet, I went along with them. The morning began by with what I thought was a 4:30am pick-up- they showed up at 4:00am!
We drove to the airport, breezed through security and sat
in the terminal- alone for what seemed like forever! We laughed our butts off at ourselves for various reasons as all people do at such an early hour.
Here's the proof: just us
in the airport, something like 2 hours early, for a before dawn flight! Love my family.
After getting our rental car we drove to the L.L. Bean outlet store and did a little tax free shopping, before getting lunch at
Panera. Here's my Nana and I waiting for my mom to get all her phone calls and
texting done, it was like being with a teenager, my mom that is. I even took her phone away so she could safely drive.
On our way "home" I snapped a picture of this rock painting. It's been there for as long as I can remember and I heard a rumor that it had been removed or talk of it being removed had created quite an uprising.
Funny what we want our kids to see about where we grew up.
We arrived in town and went to my brother's house. It is his oldest that got married. She wasn't there but we found out my nephew, her younger brother, was in the wedding and hadn't even gone over to get fitted for his tux! And I wonder where I get my last-minuteness!
I was surprised at how calm everyone was.
So my mom and I grabbed him and headed out to get him dressed for the big day! Here he is, my nephew:
After picking him up we actually headed to my mom's bed and breakfast and got her and Nana checked in. The view of Mt
Sunapee was beautiful, here's a picture of my mom and Eric. Thisis the mountain we looked out from our old house and the moutian Steve skiied the most.
We stopped
by the church and met the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Here's my mom with my niece, the bride to be. Again everyone very calm and relaxed and a great bunch of kids.
After the tux fitting I found a ride to Steve's cousin Jeremy's birthday party. What a nice treat to have that whole side of the family together while I was there. The most exciting part was meeting my youngest nephew. Here I am with him and my sister-in-law.
The next morning meant wedding day! It was my duty to get the bride to the church, get her started
on her hair and finish up a few reception details; after that I went back to the house took my nephew to the church and then went back again to get myself ready.
You can imagine I was rushed when I looked at the clock and realized it was 15 minutes til the wedding and I still had wet hair! I also realized I had forgotten my
blush and lipstick at home in Florida- yuck! Some days it pays to be a make-up wearer, I'm sure if I was one I would not have left home without those two items.
When I got up that morning I found this
on the car window... frost!
My bro
ther and his oldest.
I cried more than any wedding, something about knowing a person from birth and seeing
them get married.
Before the wedding party was announced my mom and I got his shot. I'm so excited to have more family!
In true New
Hampshire fashion a pig roast was planned for after the reception. My nephew and I made an appearance but really wanted to get some village pizza and visit some more of my family. The two of us "ride hopped" and eventually made it to my other brother's farm where I got to see my chicken and pick up a car to use.
See we have matching hair/feathers.
If you're from my hometown you know how good Village pizza is, if you're not- I'm sorry. Here's a shot of Eric in the pizza joint, owned by Greeks who went onand on to me about how terrible it was I didn't bring my boys to see them. I think they have some young Greek girls they want to marry off-- hehe -- my big fat Greek family!
Next we went to Steve's sister's house. My
niece and nephew.
My little Lou,
lou jump roping!
Mary, Steve's sis and Jim, a classmate of mine.
Sunday morning I woke and drove to my brother's house for breakfast. On the backside of the mountain we use to live on I saw these turkeys. I call them our old turkeys because we would often have a
bunch of them in our fields and I'm sure these would have been them.
On my way I also saw this:
"First to produce Green Energy in New Hampshire"
A friend of my dad's is leasing a large part of his mountain to a solar power company to produce power. Here's a close up of the already assembled windmills.
The distance shot of the mountains the windmills sit on. By the way, that's the back of my friends parents house, small town living at it's best.
At my brother's house, AKA the farm.
Putting a chastity belt on the ram. Interesting process sheep mating is, and big money!
Below is my nephew who is 6 months older than Vaughan. One th
ing I noticed the second I got off the plane was Boston gear. Celtics, Bo
Sox, Pats. Yankees, the people fromt eh feographic place, are nuts about their teams- it's what drives our friend Justin nuts (he's a Colorado fan).
My best friend since 7
th grade met me for breakfast and we headed out on our annual drive around. Whether it's here in FL or there in NH we always take time to drive around just the two of us and visit.
She took me to Village again where I bought a large pizza to take home to my clan.
Back to my brother's for a last goodbye. Here's my Nana with her great-grandchildren, the brother and sister of the bride. They've gotten so big, now age 17 and 18, with big sister age 20!
My
niece wanted in
on the drive around so Jen and I lugged her along.
With her we always seem to get some good photo shots. here we were at the covered bridge.
Before leaving we went throughthe bridge and burned out on it, I have video. My niece asked if this is what you do for fun when you get old.
Yes it is!
Back to the farm, my
bro's new chicken coop.
and
the geese...
So that's about it. After saying goodbye to the farm we made our way to the airport and I finally arrived home at 12:30am. Justin was up to greet me and he was the first to eat his Village pizza.
This trip was the hardest I had leaving. Seeing and being with my family is always a treasure. Seeing them grown up was hard, I had spent so much time with them when they were little and although we're still very close it's hard being so far away.
I'm glad to be home but part of me will always be in New England. It's part of being a Yankee; we can live anywhere and love it, but there is a pride that goes with being from New England, I can't explain it, you just have to be from THERE to get it.
So now this northern girl is home in the south, drinking tea,
cookin' up grits and framing my colored leaves from New Hampshire.
and one more thing, I didn't wear my
seatbelt much...
Live Free or Die!
Michelle
My grandparents live on Schroon Lake and as a teenager I spent my summers at camp on an island on that same lake. While my dad was getting some gas in the truck I dashed across to the public beach and a perfect view of "The Island". You can see it on the left side of this picture. I am now dreaming of sending my boys there this summer.
And then, only in New England, only with a team called the Boston Red Sox can a Southern Girl, notice I now claim both my northern and southern hertitage equally, open a freezer in a small town in new Hampshire and find this:
Yes, you saw it here: Red Sox Ice Cream! And it may be the best ice cream I have ever had!
