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First family hike success!

This weekend Michele was finally not in Florida.  She headed up to the Lodge with the boys on Thursday.  Andrea, Nathan, and Hazel were up Friday night until Saturday morning.  Dave came up Friday night.

On Saturday morning we did Polly’s w/ the Watson’s.  After that we did the Basin.  After the Basin the Watson’s headed home and we went back to the Lodge for Tommy’s nap time.  After nap we just hung out at the Lodge the rest of the night.  The kids have been building a hiking trail in our backyard, which has been keeping them occupied and enjoying outdoors.

So far hiking as a family has been a challenge.  There is usually lots of whining, fighting, both parents and kids getting frustrated.

On Sunday we decided to try again and do the Lonesome Lake trail.  This trail is 1.2 miles from the Lafayette campground to Lonesome Lake, then another 0.4 to the hut.  The trail is easy to moderate grade the entire way.

Early on in the hike we decided to split up, Dave took Eli and Aaron, and Michele took Tommy.   This turned out to be the ‘hack’ that solved our family hiking dilemma.  Dave could hike at a faster pace with the older kids, and Michele could take her time w/ Tommy.  Also, when the kids are split up they don’t fight and whine as much.

It turned out to be a great hike.  We had excellent views of the Franconia ridge and everyone had a good time.

At least for now, it turns out the best way to have a family hike is to not hike together as a family!  We’re hoping this turns around soon!

 

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Eli’s Birthday, and another fun weekend at the Lodge!

This week was Eli’s birthday.  At his request, we celebrated at his favorite mexican restaurant, Casa Blanca in Billerica.

For his birthday Eli got a 3D printer, which he was very excited about.  Unfortunately we didn’t really get to play with it, because it was a Lodge weekend!

We kicked the weekend off by heading back to Uhaul to pick up another truck.  We had a garage full of furniture to ship up to the Lodge, our final big load!

We picked the truck up, loaded it, and headed up North on Friday night.

On Saturday, Michele and I spent the morning unloading the furniture.  It turned out one of the sofas we purchased was broken.  What a pain in the butt!  We’re going to try to get them to swap it out, or repair it ourselves.  Also, 2 other couches we purchased were the wrong color.  Lesson learned, never receive furniture wrapped up in the packing material.  We thought it would make the move easier, but we didn’t get to inspect everything and are now stuck with it!

After unloading, we returned the truck and then nap time.  After nap we made an attempt at the Lisbon pool, but it was closed again.  We really need to figure out the hours at this place.

We then drove around exploring the Gale River in Franconia, looking for a good place to get wet, but failed.  We ended up at the playground in Franconia to let the kids release some energy.

I’ve been chainsawing every chance I get to increase the view, progress is coming, though slowly.  Here’s a view from one of the bedrooms:

On Sunday we made an attempt at hiking to the Lonesome Lake Hut.  This was Tommy’s biggest hike so far.  The last hike failed, mainly due to him wearing old sneakers and there being wet rocks.  This time he had new boots, so we were hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, the Lonesome Lake trail was closed part way up, and had a detour that was pretty steep.  This turned out to be too much for Tommy to handle, so we headed back around 3/4 of the way up.

At the base we had a snack and the kids climbed trees.

After nap, we packed up and had dinner at our favorite pizza place in Lincoln, followed by ice cream of course!