August 13, 2012
Freedom!
We hadn't updated in a few days, but it was a fun weekend. Here's a little background…
Around the middle of last week, Michelle was making plans to take the kids to hang out with our friends, the Kucmas'. You may recall that Wednesday night when I came home from work, there was no one home. Michelle and the kids were at the Kucmas' in New Boston. They made plans to visit the Kucmas' new summer home near Lake Ossipee in Freedom, New Hampshire. In fact Abby didn't come home that night and went with their family on Thursday up to the lake house.
On Thursday Michelle made plans to head up there on Friday. Given that Claire had to work at Subway Friday evening, I would stay back and work from home on Friday. Friday morning we woke up to find it was going to rain… a lot. So Michelle stayed at home and I head into work. I didn't write much about Friday because it was an uneventful day. The only notable things I remember is that I worked late and the rain was heavy on my long commute home, only making it feel longer.
So instead I drove Michelle and the boys late Saturday morning. We stopped in Concord for lunch to break up the trip, which takes about 2½ hours in total. It's further than Lake Winnipesaukee, but not as far as visiting North Conway like we did late last summer. And I love many of the street names in that town: Liberty Lane, Independence Drive, Fife and Drum Way,
When we got there we got to see their new place for the first time. It was very nice. Because two of the bedrooms had bunks, it could hold a lot of visitors when needed. And because Mr. Kucmas is also an engineer, it was also well appointed tech-wise. ;-)
Shortly after we go there we head over to the beach. The house is not on the lake, but it is a short drive for the access for the residents. We spent the afternoon there. The three boys loved jumping from the floating swim raft. I stayed out there with them to keep an eye on their safety as there were several other kids playing on the platform too. Abby and Michelle enjoyed paddling around with their little inflatable boat. When we got back we enjoyed chicken and steak on the grill. That night we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on the hi-def TV in the main family room.
Sunday did not go as well as we'd all hoped. We kept waiting for the sun to come out and for it to warm up. The weather didn't cooperate and around noon we decided to head back home. Of course within an hour or two things turned around. Still we made plans to stop at the Rt. 104 diner on the drive back. Some in my extended family have been there before when it was called Bobby's Girl Diner before it was closed and purchased by The Common Man restaurant chain in NH.
Once we got home and unpacked, I took a nap because I had trouble sleeping Saturday. The bed was fine, but it was that "I'm sleeping somewhere unfamiliar" syndrome. While I was out Michelle took Claire out for stick shift driving practice. She thought Claire might benefit from a woman's perspective on stick shift driving. With her new confidence I had her drive when she and I went to pick up dinner from Milanos.
After dinner was a typical Sunday wrap-up. We watched a couple of Disney sitcoms. Tim and I did a little work on our laptops. I tucked the boys in with their prayers. And now I have to brace myself for another work week of testing and debugging.