Deerfield, Mass and New Hampshire

Oh HELL-p! I can't seem to figure out how to post a blog. There are weird spaces all through this blog and a photo that I can't get turned the right direction. Nicki, take a crack at it - you know my password. 

We left Nicki and Mckay's Tuesday morning and headed up to New Hampshire. It was a beautiful drive with lots to look at. We found the Yankee Candle store, which boasts over 10,000 candles. We didn't smell them all, but we did spend quite a bit of time here. Kent was a pretty good sport about it.

We also spent a few minutes driving around Deerfield, Mass, which is a pretty cool little community. The whole time we were there we kept saying to each other, "We could live here". We really loved New England, we love the architecture, the beautiful leaves, etc. I don't know that it is so much the whole New England thing, or if it's just that it is something different to look at than what we see here in the west. But regardless, it was fun to look and imagine what it would be like. 

We crossed a few beautiful bridges, but since I was busy gocking at them, I usually missed a great picture until it was too late. Obviously, I'm not the best photographer (or maybe I just need a new camera),  but we saw some amazingly beautiful bridges and scenery.

I'm not sure what's up with this picture. I did not have my camera turned, nor was it in this position when I uploaded it from my file, but for some reason, every time I try to post it, it turns. So, look at it sideways! We found a great cemetery in New Hampshire. I'm not sure if all cemeteries out here look like this one or not, but we spent a lot of time here walking around and looking at headstones, really old headstones. This picture, like most of my pictures, don't do justice to what we were really seeing. What can I say,- weird fascination. 

We only saw one covered bridge and it was way up in Northern New Hampshire. It as fun walking around this little New England town, but I have to say I was a bit nervous. There was a kid playing with a switchblade that kept following us. Kent kept telling me he was just some kid killing time, but it felt much more sinister to me that just some innocent kid  hanging around. I was kind of nervous and was especially happy to get off this bridge.
The bridge crossed this little river.
We were in Littleton, NH on a kind of chilly day. The town here has a pumpkin festival where people carve their pumpkins, then put them out on little islands or rocks in the middle of the river. Unfortunately, we were here several days before Halloween and there was only one pumpkin out in the middle of the river and you can't even see it in this picture. I thought that sounded like a fun, but cold, pumpkin parade.

We were just a tad late for the beautiful fall colors, especially the further north we drove. But I did get this great shot with the sun just right. What we did see was so beautiful and breath taking. God put some amazing colors together for us. It was beautiful.

New England - Finally!

It took me a while to get all my blogs caught up, but finally I'm ready to post our trip to see Nicki and Mckay. We flew in to JFK late on Thursday night and through phone tag, Nicki found us. We made it safely to their home in Connecticut and crashed. On Friday morning Mckay had to work and Nicki had a couple of classes at school, so Kent and I slept in and just relaxed.

After Nicki got home from school, she thought she would give Kent a good scare and told him she had learned how to take blood that day and she needed to practice on him. She came at him with the needle and we (she and I) had a good laugh while Kent was jumping around on the sofa trying to get away from her. We miss out on Nicki's antics at home!!!

The whole thing was more than Kent could handle. We couldn't talk him into going shopping with us to Stew Leonard's. Did you see that STEW LEONARD'S. I'd seen this place a couple of years ago on the Food Network and when I found out Nicki lives close enough to shop there, I made her promise she would take me. See, there I am in front of Stew Leonard's.

It wasn't quite the rush I thought it would be, but still we had fun. And, it was kind of fun going to a place I've had on my list for awhile!

Friday night (I think, maybe it was Saturday) we went to Nicki and Mckay's favorite Greek restaurant. I've been there before with N&M, and the food didn't disappoint. I love their food.

On sunday we ditched church. Nicki and I wanted to go to church, but the boys begged us to skip it. I felt kind of bad about that, especially since we had just been on the phone with Regan, Kenna and Trevor and told them they should go. Oops! We went apple picking instead!

The apples were so crisp and good fresh from the tree, I think I ate at least three because we had to try each kind of apple we picked. It was kind of a nippy day and even though I had stuffed my tummy with apples, I was still ready for fresh apple cider doughnuts! Best ever and I don't even really like doughnuts! That's all for now. More to come later.

Backing Up Again!

This is why it is important to keep updated on your posts. I have to back track a bit and add a couple of events that we thought were important.

The end of May Nicki was able to come and visit us while McKay dedicated his life to studying for his exam the first week in June. We spent time making pillow covers and curtains for Nicki &

Mckay's apartment.

We also had another "girl party" for those who could come. We had a great time. You will all be spared our "Blue Steel" poses!

In the spring of this year we noticed a bird was building a nest on this thing that is on our front porch. This hangs just outside our laundry room window. A little robin would sit on her nest all the time, and if I went in the laundry room too early or late and turned on the light she would fly away. Also, if we were too loud in the laundry room, like slamming the door that goes out to the garage, she would fly away. So Kenna, especially, made it a point to remind us, daily, not to be too loud or not to turn on the light when it was dark unless we really needed to. Usually when I go into the laundry room in the dark, I do need light, so there were lots of time the mommy bird would fly away. Kenna also got really upset if the dogs happened to go out the front door because they would also scare the bird away. After a lot of weeks of tip-toeing around momma bird, the eggs finally hatched. This is what we got!

Anytime the momma bird would fly away, we'd go over and peek at the baby birds. We were surprised at how quickly they tried to fly out of the nest, like within a couple of weeks. They grew fast and I suppose the nest was crowded as there were three baby birds in there. They would fly to the garden, which is just in front of the porch, but couldn't get all the way back up into the nest, so would perch on the railing. We tried all the time to get close enough to pet the bird and get them to not fear us. I got close enough to touch one of the birds once, but as soon as I put my hand on it, it flew away and that was the last time any of us got close.We thought they were cute, but when Nicki saw these pictures, she thought they were disgusting. We loved our baby birds.

Trevor and Kenna at Youth Conference

This post and the next one are out of order, "oops". Around the end of June, Kenna and Trevor had a chance to go to Youth Conference down in St. George, Ut. It is so beautiful, and hot, down there. The kids were able to go to the St. George Temple and do baptisms the first day there were there -- while they were still clean.

After that, it was camping in the dirt, hiking in 105 degree heat and finding pools to swim in.

Kenna and her friend, Kenzie Gomm - really hot and sweaty!

They saw beautiful scenery, of course.
A little bonding time for the sibs.
They also had and "opportunity" to work in the cannery down there. None of the kids were looking forward to it, yet, as often turns out, they had a great time working and doing some service for others.

Trevor and his friend, Jackson, at the cannery.
Kenna and some of the other girls - loving the hair nets!

Catching Up . . . Again!

So, I am going to update my blog, starting with where I left off - mid summer. The weekend of July 24th we had our McAffee Family Reunion. It was at the same campground where I went to girl's camp when I was in Mutual - Camp Loristica. Kind of fun to go back there and show my family where all the "excitement" of girl's camp happened for me.

Trevor and Hunter canoeing on the lake/pond. They spent a lot of time in that canoe and loved every minute of it.

On a dare (which is seldom a good idea) Trevor stripped down to his swimsuit and went into the freezing cold pond late on Thursday night. I think a bet from his older cousin, Tucker, was involved. I don't think Tucker came clean on his bet, even though Trevor spent the required one minute in the water. He did not, however, go in naked, as was originally planned!

The older guys spent a lot of time launching water balloons at any one in the canoe. Thankfully, they were terrible shots. But it was still lots of fun tryin'.My dad.
Me & Trevor and Shirlene & Layton. Remember, these are camping pics!
When the kids weren't in the canoe, they were in Carl and Lanell's camper playing cards with their cousins. I think they learned a few things from the cousins (hopefully good things).