Memorial Day Weekend - Camping in New Hampshire

We had the best weekend camping at one of the Jellystone properties in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire over Memorial Day weekend!

We left as SOON as the kids got home from school on Friday so that we could immediately set the tent and camp up as soon as we arrived - thankfully the sun stays up later this time of year.

This particular Jellystone property has everything you need.  As you can see from the picture above this one, we actually rented a lot in the camper section (rather than in the tent section.) The lots are bigger, and you aren't right up against your neighbor.  Each of these lots has power, a picnic table, and a fire pit. The property has a little general store that sells firewood (you can't bring your own anyway!) and the lot is big enough so you can park your car there.

We got the firepit going until long after we spotted the moon.

I don't know what these two clowns were doing - I think they went out to explore the campgrounds and they came back like this.

I'm not playing around when I camp. I want it to feel as homey as possible!

Meanwhile, my poor kids ha ha. (They were fine- in fact, they were MUCH warmer than we were that first night - it was FREEZING.)

The sunset was so lovely on our first night in New Hampshire!

I love a good sunset over a lake! Well, I call it a lake but it's really the Saco River, and that's Maine across the water.

We also REALLY enjoyed our hot tub!  What? A hot tub? What kind of campground is this?  When Todd was booking the weekend, they offered him a hot tub (with like, one night free or something) so he booked it!  This was fun for the whole family!

After a VERY cold first night, we went out for a really big brunch at the Farmer's Kitchen.

I got a breakfast sandwich and promptly forgot to take a picture of it. It was GOOD.

I snapped a pic of the entrance sign on our way back to the campground!

Before we took this little vacation, I had to look up the campground, knowing that on a Google map it was right next to the Saco River. Our little site sat very close to the confluence of the Saco with this little tributary.

Well, there's no floodway here, but we are probably in the Special Flood Hazard Area! I'm such a nerd.

It got a bit warmer each day over the weekend so on Saturday, we enjoyed some time at the "lake."  (Like I said, this is actually the Saco River, although I think they call this area Northeast Pond.)  Hello, Maine!

We sauntered down to the Camp Store where they have an arcade and sell ice cream, along with grocery store items.

Kids can even do a bit of gem mining, if they want! (Mine did not want to, ha ha).

But Grant really wanted to play some giant chess, so he and Todd played for a bit.

The boys played giant chess while Nat and I took a few tries at some bocce ball.  They had all kinds of games, arts and crafts, tennis and basketball courts, and so many other things here - most of which my kids were too old for.

But you're never too old for a swimming pool!  It was too cold for Mama, but the kids thought it was nice (once they got used to it).

Todd and Nat played basketball in the pool for a good while.

This little boy jumped into their game and played with them for a bit. It was so cute.

After some pool time, we went back to the campsite to enjoy the hot tub for a bit.

And we cooked some burgers on our "grill" - you may recall we used that little thing when we camped in Germany and Slovenia!

We had a delicious feast!

Followed by S'mores of course.

And we couldn't miss the Celtics playoff game against the Heat!

It was an incredible game 6 with Derrick White making this crazy shot with like, less than one second left in the game to help the Celtics win 104-103 and to force a game 7. You could hear other people screaming and yelling across the campground! Spoiler alert... the Celtics did NOT win game 7.

Sunday was ANOTHER beautiful day, so we decided to hit up the "beach" along the river after we went down to Little (Lil?) Miss Sophie's in Rochester.  Best breakfast sandwich I think I've ever had - and Natalie got some cinnamon roll pancakes that were to die for.  AND Todd ordered biscuits and sausage gravy and it was actually GOOD. I have never had a good biscuits and sausage gravy up here in New England!  Naturally, I didn't snap a single picture, so you'll have to take my word for it!

Natalie decided that water was entirely too cold, even for her, so she took a nap in the shade.

While Nat snoozed, Boo Boo Bear came around on a wagon being towed by a tractor!

I would share one of Yogi but he wouldn't turn around (he had his back to us) so here's another cute pic of Boo Boo Bear.

We decided to head back to the pool for a bit, but Nat felt like she was getting red so she hid underneath a towel for a while.  Poor kiddo with her Irish skin.

And everyone was hot, so we went over to get some ice cream! YUM!

After ice cream, the kids and Todd got back in the pool for a little more basketball.

And Natalie dragged her brother around the pool for a bit.

Todd said, "That's enough... let's go back to the hot tub so I can read my book and relax!"

Hot dogs and S'mores were on the Sunday night menu!

I snapped this picture of our "road" that led down to the lake. It was really nice in the evening hours.

Todd signed the kids up to play laser (laZer?) tag (they were not happy about this), but they reluctantly went.  Thankfully most of the kids were around their age or maybe just a bit younger.  

They were very concerned they were going to be barreling over little kindergarteners or something.  Good thing this is lazer tag and not paintball!

My kids do not seem very concerned about that other kid. I hope he's on their team!  The site was pretty cool - they had all kinds of things set up so you could hide behind them.  The kids made no strategy though, and some people were lazering people from their own team!

Finally, it was time for one more family evening by the campfire. I mean really. What would we even do without technology these days!

On our way out of town Monday morning, Todd and Nat snapped a cute pic of themselves with Yogi.

Until next time, Jellystone!

Spring 2023 in the Bailey House

 I actually get annoyed at myself because I never want to write these posts, but they always wind up being my favorites!

Well, we all remember when THIS happened around Valentine's Day - Todd decided to tackle the ceiling himself (much to my dismay!)

Ok, I admit, it was coming along better than I expected. He decided to also add an access panel so that if it leaks AGAIN, we can at least get up in there without having to tear out the entire ceiling again.

Dang, that looks pretty good Todd!  Job well done!

We went out to see the new Dungeons and Dragons movie after church and dinner one night, but we had some time to waste, so we went to the Park That We Know in Natick (this is what Natalie called it when she was a tiny toddler.)

The clubhouse at the Park That We Know hasn't changed, but these kids sure got bigger!

The kids were laughing because they thought the entire park seemed so small. In their minds, it was much bigger. Grant still had fun on the tire swing!

This part of the park was a little too tough for their little legs years ago, so they actually enjoyed this.

Natalie used to LOVE this when she was little. She loved driving the steering wheels and going down the slide (and could do it by herself because it's clearly for toddlers.) Now she's a giant!

We also stopped by Face Children's Center where both kids went to preschool for several years.

The new D&D movie was EXCELLENT, and you can still enjoy it even if you're like me and don't know a darn thing about D&D. These three sometimes play the game on the weekends and Todd plays once a week with his friends online. So they were VERY excited about this movie. I enjoyed it too!

 We also celebrated Todd's 51st birthday!  He might not be a lotto winner, but he's certainly a winner in our books! (Ok, that is officially the CHEESIEST thing I have ever written!)

I got to show off  my mad cake decorating skillz for another year.  I didn't have a five, so I put five candles, and then a 1 ha ha.

Grant decided to try track this spring, and actually really liked it. He liked it a LOT more than cross country. He even made some new friends this year!  His focus was the long jump and the 100 meter dash.

Unfortunately, Grant got sick about a week and a half before we left for Germany and was still a bit sick for Easter, although he was on the mend. You know all about that trip from all of the other posts I did!

We did an Easter egg hunt in the backyard - and you would think my kids were too old for this, but I always put more chocolate in their eggs - and this year, I also put some Euros in their eggs.

My brother and my niece Greta brought the thunder to the Lightning-Maple Leafs game in round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Unfortunately, they lost!

BUT... they did take a picture of my favorite player, Victor Hedman! And the Big Cat, Vasy!

Grant's hair here at this particular track meet was just so wild.

I missed solo night because I had German class (no worries, I got to hear Natalie's solo later at another performance), but here she is with Cora, Hunter and Dee, some of her favorite chorus classmates.

I took Natalie to her first college fair this spring, too!  Auburn wasn't in attendance, but we took this picture at the University of Alabama booth so we could send it to my dear friend Sally (who went to Bama, but we won't fault her for that!)  Probably her two favorite schools though were the University of Tennessee and the University of Oregon!  Weird!

The college fair was held at the Convention Center in the Seaport District and it was MASSIVE.

There was also Cinco de Mayo, and I think Todd got the biggest margarita I've ever seen!

King Charles III was coronated at Westminster Abbey, and since Sara and I have a thing (!!) for Mike Tindall (no... no we don't) who is the current King's nephew-in-law, she came over to my house at 6 am to watch the coronation with me.  We DID get to see our boy Mike, and Sara even got to hold the bourbon orb!

Natalie also got confirmed!  Grammi and Bean, KK, Madison, and Seth all came up from Plymouth/the Cape and even Natalie's Godfather, Uncle Steve came all the way up from Maryland!

You can only have one sponsor though, so KK walked up with Natalie when she got confirmed by the bishop.

Natalie took the name, "Faith" as her confirmation name.

Bishops get to wear cool hats and stuff.

These kids spent the last two years together doing Sunday evening religious education classes and now they're finally confirmed into the Catholic church!

After the confirmation, we all went out to 110 Grille for a very lovely dinner - and some dessert beverages! I didn't notice KK in this picture until after I got home and she totally made me laugh!

After dinner, we took a few family photos outside - here is Natalie with her Grammi and Bean.

And here are Natalie and Grant with Grammi, Bean, Uncle Steve and KK.

Natalie is here with her Godparents and her grandparents!

And here is Natalie with Uncle Steve and Auntie KK.  She is so lucky to have such amazing Godparents!

I snapped this picture of the three siblings laughing (Helen, we missed you!) and it was super cute!

Steve, KK and Todd, in the birth order!

And of course, a picture of the confirmation girl with her parents. 

Let's not forget super cool cousin Madison!

Grant wanted a picture with his Grammi - look, he's taller than her now!

After the confirmation, the four of us went back home and cooked some s'mores out on the back deck because the weather was so nice. Notice Todd is trying to get that weird hand thing going because I put this on the 0.5 iPhone setting!

I didn't get to ASFPM's annual conference in May of this year, which was REALLY disappointing because it was in Raleigh, home to two of my favorite people on the planet, Randy and Steve! I legit cannot tell you how disappointed I was when Steve sent me this pic of the two of them! I should be right there too!  We all used to work (and travel) a lot together in the early days of the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program. Randy has since retired, but Steve is now the NC State NFIP Coordinator!

Also in the spring, I saw this guy a few times running around our yard. I appreciate my own photography skills here when I captured him levitating in our backyard.  I keep thinking he is a muskrat but I really think he might be a woodchuck.

Natalie also had her spring choral concert - and I feel like she had a more active role this year. 

She even got to sing her solo - "Home" from Beauty and the Best on Broadway. She legitimately CRUSHED it!

It was sad when they all had to sing "Like an Eagle," which is the song they sing at graduation.  It makes me tear up every time!

Welp. It was bound to happen. We got our first piece of college mail.

We went to see Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (definitely worth seeing - it was great) but Natalie was super excited to see Khal Drogo (aka: Jason Momoa) in an ad on the wall of the theater. She's been obsessed with Game of Thrones and has declared it's her favorite show ever (hmmm, where have I heard that before? It's my favorite show ever too!)

14 years ago, I got a pedicure and hoped one day, Natalie would finally be old enough to go with me for Mother's Day.

AND LOOK! HERE SHE IS! GETTING A PEDICURE WITH ME ON MOTHER'S DAY! DREAMS REALLY CAN COME TRUE!

I mean, if this doesn't tug at your heartstrings, I don't know what does!

I had to travel to DC for work in May, but the day I got back, my friend Jen picked me up and we headed down to the Xfinity Center to see Ludacris and Janet Jackson. We tailgated and caught up for a few hours before the show.  We got their so early because we were trying to beat Taylor Swift traffic, who was playing nearby at Gillette Stadium.

Janet was AMAZING! She's definitely still got it!

The crowd was super into it too, which always makes for a good show.  

We had a surprise visit from our friends Kern and Dorothy all the way in from California, so we had an impromptu dinner at our house (literally put together a couple of hours before).  Cooch and Karen joined us too, and Karen cut up some apparently VERY juicy tomatoes! ("Karen! You're lactating!")

Cooch also arrived well prepared - with oysters that he grilled up on our grill. I'm pretty sure my kids ate at least half of them.

I did not think that Grant would like these, but he did and he had several! I knew Natalie would like them. She has that kind of taste.  Sadly, these were LITERALLY the only three pictures I took when everyone was here! And that is SO unlike me.

And we're on to Summer!