08/02/22 SWIMMING
I tell ya what, New Hampshire has been awesome. We swim nearly every day. It’s been really cool to see the progress that each of the kids is making.
08.03.22- POLLY’S PANCAKE PARLOR
At church on Sunday, Jonathan got chatting with some people in the nursery and asked them for some recommendations.
Polly’s Pancake Parlor was one of the suggestions that came up. It is a family owned business that has been around for 75 years! And as you might expect, they serve pancakes (among other things). We were warned not to go on a weekend or else we’d have a 2-hour wait. Cause it’s just that popular.
So, we got up nice and early one morning and drove the 25 minutes to Polly’s. We were seated right away. (By the time we left, it was a 45-60 minute wait! On a Wednesday morning! Crazy.)
It has a fun vibe. All of the antiques on the wall were actually used by the family on their farm. One of the things that makes Polly’s unique is that they have lots of different kinds of pancake batter: cornmeal, buckwheat, oatmeal, gingerbread, etc. And then you can toppings in: coconut, fruit, chocolate chips, granola, etc. And there is real Maple syrup and something called Maple butter which is basically frosting.
It was delicious. We left with very full and happy tummies.
And then the twins fell into pancake comas almost as soon as we buckled them in their seats. 😂😂
08/04/22
A Run
Jonas and Clara went on a run with dad this morning. Logan didn’t go because, it was his night for a Mom’s Night Off (MNO) hike
Frog Catching
Yesterday, Jonathan and I went on a walk, and we saw TONS of frogs. I made a mental note to bring Logan to show him.
The opportunity to do so came very quickly. I don’t know what it was, but everyone was super cranky this morning. And there was just a lot of little fights happening. So I had everyone put on their shoes, and we walked down to the pond to check out the frogs that live there.
We saw many frogs. And the three older kids became possessed by the idea of catching frogs. So, after the twins went down for their naps, Clara, Jonas, and Logan all went back down to the pond to catch frogs.
And they were quite successful. (I went out for a bit as well, and I caught 2 frogs, thank you very much, though they both hopped out of my hands and got away after I caught them.)
After the twins woke up, they came out and enjoyed the frog catching as well. Mostly they just scared the frogs away and stared at the frogs in the bucket.
Mom’s Night Off Hike With Logan – Serendipity Loop Trail
Logan has been looking forward and talking about HIS turn for a Mom’s Night Off hike ever since I took Clara. Today was the day and he probably mentioned it 10 times throughout the day: “Mom. Don’t forget about our hike” “We’re still getting pizza after our hike right?” etc.
I love that he was so excited about it. 🥰🥰
After doing some research, I settled on the Serendipity Loop trail. So, off we went. The trail started off as a little jaunt in the woods.
Logan chattered the ENTIRE way. I responded when a question was asked and occasionally made a comment. But mostly, it was him jabbering. It was basically a glimpse into his stream of consciousness. I started taking notes because it was cracking me up.
*I wonder what it would be like to be a tree
*Are all these trees brothers and sisters? That’s a really big family if they are.
*How do trees eat? How do the trees get watered?
*Maybe night hikers come and water the trees…
*We’re a lot like trees. Except we eat food…
*It’s a good thing we put on bug spray. This is a good place for mosquitos.
*I liked the ride by Hagrid’s hut at Universal studios. I mostly like fast rides. But not REALLY fast rides. Slow rides I don’t like as much. But I like that you can take pictures on slow rides and they won’t be blurry.
*At Polly’s Pancake Parlor they had candy rocks. But they weren’t really rocks. They had chocolate in them.
*I know how to “un-krink” my neck [he rolls his neck]. I saw you do it during yoga. And I wanted to know what it felt like. So I tried it.
*I’m glad we put on bug spray
*What if someone’s favorite animal was a mosquito?
*Did you know that there are frogs that have tails even when they’re grown up?
*My favorite frog is an Amazon milk frog. And a strawberry Poison dart frog
*It’s nice that there isn’t anyone else on the trail so we don’t have to walk single file.
*I have a not-real joke. What does a frog wear under its pants? [I tell him that I don’t know] Frogwear. #littleguyhumor
*We’ve been talking most of the hike. Yep. It’s cause we’re friends
*There are a lot of books about frogs
*The sample of the frog book I checked out ends on the purple frog. But there wasn’t a picture. So we looked it up on Wikipedia
*I like the green fruit smiles [fruit snacks] way better than the orange ones. All the flavors are good.
*I’m expecting that we’ll get dinner soon.
*We just walked on a tree bridge
*If I got stabbed by a sword, I would leave the sword in so that I wouldn’t die right away.
*Karen is our running pal [the voice on the running app that Jonathan uses]. She tells us when to walk and when to run
*Oh!! A baby pine cone!
*Can I see how big I am on you? [We establish that he is above my belly button]
*Sometimes when you grow, your bones hurt.
*The whole hike so far, we’ve been holding hands, looking around, and talking
*Mom! There are baby waterfalls!
*Do you want to collect this “daddy” pine cone?
*Maybe we should give some of the pine cones to Grammy as a ‘love present’
*To me, bread with ketchup is pretty good
*Do you like to hold hands?
*How good was I at the botanical garden?
*etc.etc.etc.etc.etc.etc.
Eventually, the trail starts heading back to where it started, and it is at this point that it meets up with the Pemigewasset river. There is a nice little spot with a picnic table there. So, we stopped for a minute, drank some water and Logan had a little snack.
As we walked back toward the car, we stopped at times to go down to the river. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: New Hampshire is so beautiful!!
Logan did so well. He got tired toward the end, but he kept going! Way to go little fella. After we finished our hike, we went into town and stopped to get pizza. The pizza place we chose had really good pizza (and amazing garlic knots), but no dining room. So we ate our pizza in the car.
This was an awesome Mom’s night off. Logan is a good guy to spend an evening with.
08.05.22- A CHILL FRI-YAY AT HOME
The next day was pretty low key.
At one point, the kids went out and caught frogs for a bit. But while they were out there, a torrential downpour started. So, they were rather wet by the time they grabbed all their stuff and got back to the house.
We went swimming after dinner, once the rain had ceased. And we watched Incredibles 2 for our movie night.
It was another awesome week. I cannot believe that we only have 1 week left in New Hampshire. 😥😥
