Joe, the kids and I headed out on Thursday to take our summer family photo for this year.  For the first time, we took a hike as a family!  We hiked to the bottom of Granite Gorge (in Chesterfield, I think) and took our photos there!  I absolutely LOVE the way they came out!!

 

Every year in July, we attend the Hillsborough Balloon Fest here in town.  It’s close and the kids love it.  This was the second year in a row that we went with the Robillard Family and we had a blast.  Of course, we’d be watching the weather the entire week and we were a little bummed that it was forecasted to rain but we were determined to go, rain or shine.  And rain it did!  We got there right at opening (noon) and it started drizzling on the walk over…and proceeded to rain the entire time we were over there.  We brought several umbrellas so Jenn and I stayed dry under those while the guys and kids just toughed it out.  Kids didn’t even seem to notice that it was raining!    After the kids finished on the rides, we ate some yummy fair food and the kids had ice cream!  Then we headed back to Jenn & Brian’s to hang out until the fireworks that night.  Kayleigh let the girls borrow some clothes since they were all wet!  And everyone had a blast hanging out and chatting and then watching the fireworks!!

 

Kayleigh, Lexi, Natey, Maddie

For quite a while after I moved to the northeast, I didn’t have any close friends.  I had people to hang out with and do stuff together occasionally but no one to do day-to-day things with.  Then during Nate’s first full year of preschool (can you believe that’s been uh *using my fingers to calculate cuz that’s how I roll*…4 years), I met Jenn.  She was the para in Nate’s preschool class and at the end of that first year, she said she’d found another job and was leaving.  I was so bummed since Nate just loved her!  In talking to her, I found out she was going to be working at a daycare here in town and I’d asked about it since at the time, I was looking for someplace for the girls to get some interaction with other kids.  When I explained that to Jenn, she suggested that we get together sometime since she had a daughter about the girls age.  We got together that summer and just hit it off!  And over the last several months, we’ve been pretty much inseparable!  During the school year when she’s working, she comes over 4 days a week after work and we work out for at least an hour.  And our families have been hanging out on the weekends.  Now that it’s summer and she’s done with work, she’s been coming over sometimes twice a day to work out and then hang out.  I love it!!  She’s so much fun and we get along so well, as do our families.  So the weather has been scorching hot here in NH this past week.  Mid to upper 90s for like 5 or 6 days in a row…a couple of days over 100.  So we’ve been to a couple of different beaches and they came over one day so the kids could play on the slip n slide. 

I’ve tried to take pics every time we get together at the beach because I want the kids to look back and remember these fun summer days with great friends!!  So here’s several pics taken over the last week with our trips to the beach and the slip n slide fun!!  Tomorrow we’re all headed to the local fair where I’ll be sure to take tons of photos!!