Weekend in New Hampshire

We had a wonderful time in New Hampshire celebrating the wedding of my cousin Chris. The wedding was a lot of fun and the setting for both the ceremony and the reception were wonderful.

One of the best ways to know that you are a parent is when you are at a great wedding and one of the things that really makes you excited is that they serve chicken strips for the kids at the dinner after the ceremony. (Thanks Chris and Elle!)

One of the other highlights was our kids getting to spend time with their just turned one-year-old third cousin Carl. He's a great little guy and our kids loved playing with him. We can't wait to see him again at Christmas!

The Sunday after the wedding we decided to catch a New Hampshire county fair. We ended up heading up to Belknap county for what we were told is the smallest county fair in New Hampshire. That ended up being fun. I found out that the John Deere tractors I learned to drive on as a kid are now considered antiques. We got to talk with a couple that had a booth dedicated to maple syrup and the various things you can make with it. They sold me a bottle of their spicy maple marinade sauce. I'm going to try it on pork chops tomorrow.

Most importantly, the kids got to look at and pet a bunch of farm animals. They thought that was great fun. Although Laurel didn't like the hogs. She said they were stinky.

They did, however like this little calf they got to stand next to and pet. That was a real treat.

After leaving the fair we drove south to a Shaker village that had a vegitable stand. We were looking for some fresh peas. Ramsey spent his week in Minnesota raiding his grandfather's garden at every chance. Now he wanted to find some peas in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, we struck out on the peas. At that point Ramsey suggested we find a park to play in that had a garden with peas growing in it. After going back and forth for a while about the possibilities of finding such a park, I asked him, "how many parks have you been in that had peas growing in a garden?"

His response was perfect. "Well, zero but zero is close to one so it could happen!"

I can't believe he is only four. What an optimist.