WE ARE FAMILY
It was cold -- really biter cold and raining...
What ON EARTH could get me to leave my comfy snuggly Kitty-fied home...well...
It is a rare day for me to be able to spend 3 full days with both my parents and my brother and his damily. These last few days I was indeed this lucky...AND even luckier as my dear friend Tara and her husband Brian were able to join us from San Diego. A first and hopefully not a last! We started our journey leaving my brother's house in Massachusetts and headed to the Optomotrists to meet my parents who were getting new glasses. Frankly, this task could have been quite a bore...
But just LOOK at this face!!
My dear sweet neice saw me trying on sunglasses and stood back to admire. She asked me so nicely if she could try on "THOSE!" The ones on the very tippety top...the biggest and most fun glasses in the joint. Meanwhile, Nana (my mom) was looking for a pair of glasses whose frames would suit her new skinny body...
She didn't chose these even though the covering sunglass clip is quite cheeky! From there we had a few errands,




















some lunch at at habachi -- wherein my 2.5 year old neice was TOTALLY freaked out when the Habachi Cheif made the onion volcana... her little lower lip started to waver and she looked at me shortly after my father took this photo, then turned to Mommy and let loose. She was so frightened of the fire that had shot out the top that she and mommy went for a walk until the cheif was finished with cooking our lunch. Post lunch there were some additional errands and the journey up into the mountains.
After arriving at the cabin where we met Jo and her son Tommy. They were kind enough to invite us all to stay at her families place up in the White Mountains for some hopefull leaf-peeping if the rain and fog would move on.
Dinner was made (we all brought homemade stuff!) and after those going to bed were in bed and my Mom and I had put our knitting needles down... we enjoyed playing Cranium. My first go at it. Fun!

The next morning we went to the famous Polly's Pancake Parlor. Lucky to catch it on its last weekend open. They serve you 3" wide pancakes from a mix-n-match menu --- you can make some GREAT combos. Another point of interest...after your waitress takes your order, she herself goes back to the viewable griddle area and cooks your pancakes. After brunch we journeyed out for a hike. There had been so much rain that our favorite trail (with multiple waterfalls along it)was amazing to see! The water was so fast and powerful! WOW!
Here is a photo of my bundled up parents in front of the biggest falls... can you tell just how chilly it is?
We weren't the only ones out in that weather though, but definately the only "locals"...everyone else we met along the way was "from away."

This was one of my favorite scenes...
Simply the wooded path with leaves that had fallen.
I love the contrast of the greens and earth tones.


On the way home, just as we left the White Mountains the clouds parted and we saw a rainbow.
I wonder if it was my niece's first?

Dinner was at Hart's Turkey Farm in Merideth, NH...

I stand firm on telling you what I told my folks before we entered...
My vote is still to pass on by.
That said we had a nice time and a great waiter with a kickin' New Hampshah' accent.

This is the entire gang...
Yes, I'm bundled up like Nanook... I was fighting that darn headcold all weekend!

After dinner we dropped my folks off at their car and sorted ourselves out into our cars... We'd rented a 12 passenger van that needed to be returned.
Girls in the mini-van, guys in the passenger van.
Zooooooom...
Who knew a big 12 passenger van could leave our mini-van in the dust so fast...
especially when it's a chilly dark night on the highways of the mostly empty New Hampshire state? Well...that tell tale sound assured us we had a flat. The next few hours included a call to AAA, me getting the spare out from under the car, a visit from a State Trooper looking for a report of cars flying down the highwa shooting bottle rockets out their windows (and people wonder why I moved away?), a fire truck looking for a brush fire, my neice being frightened of the flare the Trooper left (do you see a pattern here?), the AAA fellow coming to help get the darn lugs off...and my brother and Brian finally turning their cell phones on to get the messaes and come back just as the work was done.

Basically, all in the world was right.
That night I slept really well.
Here's to hoping I sleep as well tonight!