We are home! Our family vacation to New Hamster ahem... New Hampshire was wonderful. We relaxed with Trina, Medhi, and Anissa for a whole week on Ladyslipper Drive. We hung out at the beach, talked about sharing, visited Portsmouth and the Children's museum, talked about being careful, played Guitar Hero (ok, that was just the adults), and tried to convince the under 5 crowd to go to bed before 10pm - with limited success! But honestly, it was all such fun.

First beach day

Searching for treasures

The drive to NH was surprisingly easy. Both Clara and Leo barely slept but maintained a positive outlook during the 6 hour adventure through the mountains of Vermont. Leo was generally placated by apples (he ate 2 1/2 during the drive), and Clara just enjoyed the opportunity to chat and play imaginative games with the toys we'd loaded in the back seat. Oh, and the MP3s of Robert Munsch reading his stories was also a big success.

Clara and Anissa played so well together all week despite being together for 6 days straight (that is one looong playdate). They chatted, screamed, ran, jumped, climbed and giggled... oh did they giggle. We heard so many priceless conversations over the week. I wish I could remember all the hilarious things they said... Anissa confided in me at one point that her Mama was not a very good driver but softened the statement by saying "I'm so proud of her." During a conversation about what she would be when she grew up Clara told Trina she would be a "Mommy that works - maybe I'll be a policeman, or a fire truck"

An evening walk

Jumping Beans

Leo was as charming as ever all week. He hauled Marc and I out of bed every morning begging for "bekfast" or "ceral" and then continued to eat through out the day. He pretty well trained all the adults at his disposal to feed him on demand. I caught several serious conversations between he and Medhi, Leo would be babbling and pointing at whatever foodstuff was interesting him at the moment and Medhi was repeating his request in a clearer form of English "you want more bagel, ok, let me get you one" Talk about having people wrapped around your little finger!

Children's Museum in Portsmouth

Leo accomplished something that I was not expecting on this vacation. On his second day at the beach he WALKED ON SAND!!! Yes, Leo finally let sand touch his toes without screaming "up, up, up" holding his arms in the air. I was pretty worried about how he'd manage on the beach before we headed to the "Seacoast" but I was relieved on the first beach day that he would walk on both wet and dry sand while wearing his sandals.. I was full out shocked that he allowed me to take off his sandals on the second day. The truth is, he was completely distracted by a bucket of hotwheels on the beach and decided he must walk towards them despite his naked feet!

Last group portrait!

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye. Anissa calmed herself by saying "see you soon in Montreal" and Clara invited her to come and play with our toys when she visited. There were lots of cute hugs and kisses and then it was off on what turned out to be a slightly less fun drive back home again. I forgot the apples!!! And of course, Leo had some moments in the car that just could not be smoothed over by grapes or fruit bars and we ended up making more stops along the way to cheer up the apple-less toddler. We did see a few rainbows when we hit Quebec which Clara loved and we made a final stop at Burger King in Saint-Luc which seemed to cheer both kiddos up and made the last half hour in the car enjoyable again!

Taken during the only 40 minute nap of the day

Ditto, except he slept for about an hour.