RUN!  Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… our kids found us!

We have moved three times in the last few years, but they keep tracking us down!  Next step… Witness Protection.

We had Child Unit 1, Child Unit 2, and their significant others here at the cottage in NH for a week.  Woop woop!!  The kids loved the cottage, although quite frankly there isn’t much not to love.

They liked our bird feeder, which attracts a variety of birds, including Goldfinch, Bluebirds, Bluejays, Chickadees, Woodpeckers and more.  Oh, and of course Morning Doves, which are like squirrels with wings.  Insert cute bird pictures here (use your imagination).

Never ones to shy away from camping, we stayed in the trailer at Camp Slowsky while the kids occupied the cottage.  I believe that was a win-win situation.  This gave the kids the chance to live and work with some space, and for us to chill in our own little cocoon.

Sadly for the kids, they needed to work while here (the curse of the working), but we still managed a fun-filled week; running, walking, hanging, ice cream, biking through Lexington and Concord, a visit to the Patriots Training Camp, cooking, swimming, kayaking, eating… more eating, and an awful lot of laughing.

Oh, and a Red Sox game at Fenway!  The kids spent the first weekend in town (Boston), where we joined up and went to a Red Sox game – against the Yankees no less.  Sadly, the Red Sox lost the game, but won three out of the four game series.  I can live with that.

Going to any Red Sox game is the best.  Karen and I took Amtrak from New Hampshire into Boston (easy breezy), took the Green Line (train) to the Pru, had a bite to eat with Drew and Rachel at Eataly, hired a rickshaw (Pedicab) to Fenway, and met up with Michela and Jane at the park.  Fabulous!!

Staying with the sports theme for a moment, later in the week Drew and I headed down to Foxboro for Patriots Training Camp!  I felt like I was pretty limber and could show those boys a few things.  But my presence would have been unfair to the other teams in the league, so I refrained.  What a great time.

We live in the land of lobster, so it was kind of a rite of passage to cook up some redmen and steamers while the kids were here.  Let me offer a solemn tribute to Louie, Lenny, Jeremy, Doug and Ralph, five 3-pound lobsters that gave their lives so we could survive another day.  RIP fellas – you were SO good!  We didn’t name the steamers – thought that might be a bit over the top.

One of us got a year older while here… can you guess who?  Happy birthday Rachel!

Drew took Rachel out to dinner for her birthday, and then a sunset sail on the Piscataqua River and Portsmouth Harbor on the Gundalow boat – an old cargo barge used years ago to transport cargo on the Maine and New Hampshire coast.  Portsmouth is a really picturesque (and fun) town, and the kids tell us they had a great time on the sail.

As it seems is our family trajectory, we twisted yet another institution: the time-honored card game Old Maid, and distorted it into Prom Queen.  Is nothing sacred?  And of course, we played Monopoly Deal, another card game (a fabulous game if you are not familiar).  If memory serves me, I believe Rachel won every game we played.  She certainly won’t be invited back.  Doesn’t she know the rules of decency?  Shameful.

Like all good things, there must be an end.  Ours involved farewell pizzas at none other than Santarpio’s in East Boston, where they serve epic pizzas and Shish Kabab.

Well, the kids now know where we live… time to move again.  Seriously, we ADORED having everyone here, and already miss them!!  Shh, don’t tell them that.

Be safe, and we’ll see you down the road!  But don’t be a friend to Covid – get vaccinated if you haven’t already!