New Hampshire Maple Sugar Weekend!

This weekend was the time when over 50 sugar shacks across the state of New Hampshire opened their doors to the public. The shacks had free samples of maple syrup, candy, sugar, and other products. You name it, they put maple syrup on it: ice cream, Ritz crackers, hot dogs, cotton candy....you can imagine that the kids were in heaven!

You also get to tour the facilities to see how maple syrup is really made. We learned that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make only 1 gallon of syrup. It was incredible to see that they really do tap the trees and hang buckets to catch the sap, but most of the big farms have a system of tubes running all through the trees that are connected like the picture below.
We stopped at three different maple farms Maple Hill, Rossview, and Windswept maples. Most of the events and goodies were free, which is great for our law school budget!

Here are the kids enjoying their maple sugar cotton candy.

This is inside the sugar shack where they boil down the sap to make the syrup.

New Hampshire keeps surprising me with the most incredible things to do, I absolutely love it here.

Dear 70 degree weather,

Please come back! I really enjoyed you.

Dear Hubby,
Thanks for the nice note thanking me for "running the world" while you're gone. We can do this for 6 more weeks!

Dear Olive,
Please keep flashing that gummy, slobbery, adorable grin. It makes any mess in the house seem tiny and any stress melt away. I can't kiss you, cuddle you, hold you, love you, or squish your precious cheeks enough!

Dear Caroline,
Please keep calling your little sister "Olive munchie" in your sweet, high pitched voice. It's makes us all smile. Also, please keep your clothes on during your nap instead of taking them off and yelling "I'm a nudie bear!!" when mom walks in the room.
Dear Utah grass and sidewalks,

I can't wait to sit on you and walk on you. It's just not the same here with asphalt sidewalks and weed grass.

Dear mullet nasty hair,

Please go away soon. Please let Monica help you be cute again.

Dear humble home,

Are you ever going to clean all at the same time again? I would really like that.

Dear mailbox,

I love when you have mail in it, absolutely love it! Thanks for having lots of fun mail over these past many months. Our family and friends are the greatest and they have spoiled us, don't ya think?

P.S. sweet little baby Olive, please please stop growing so fast.

I want to remember yesterday forever. Nothing particularly special happened, but it was just a day where you can't stop smiling because it's been fulfilling and fun. It was just like every other Wednesday in that we woke up and got ready to go to music time...except it was gorgeous outside! Not a cloud in the sky and no jackets were needed. We go to St. Paul's Church where Mr. Music, as we call him, puts on an amazing and free singing time for kids. He is incredible and has bells, scarves, hula hoops, you name it for the kids to use.
After music time we walked over to the library and made it to the bathroom in time for Caroline who said she needed to go. Now that put a big smile on my face. Way to go Caroline! Olive stayed happy and cozy in the stroller and Caroline held my hand as she walked on the small granite wall when we left. We stopped by the park on our way home and Caroline served me some bark that was delicious chicken soup, chocolate milk, and strawberry ice cream from her ice cream stand.

The day before I had wanted to make some of Kara's famous and perfect chocolate chip cookies, but sadly I let the thought of hand washing more dishes stop me. That says a lot because I REALLY wanted those cookies. Yesterday though, with the bright sun and my spirits very high, I decided to try to make a taste of Salt Lake's Dodo Restaurant and attempt Toll House Cookie Pie. Doing dishes didn't stop me then. Caroline was eager to help and she carried her little stool across the kitchen from the counter to the mixer assisting me.

The pie was done just after dinner and it was hot and gooey and I got to enjoy it with my babe dad love and with vanilla ice cream.

I concluded that good weather does so much for me. There will be many more days like these!

Olive 3 months

After posting the last video of Olive, my sweet little nephew asked his mom daily if he could watch "Olive dot com". I thought I would give them some more footage to smile at. Enjoy Olive.com Liam! I can't wait for many family members to meet Olive in person in May. We know they will just adore her huge wide smile, soft hands, constantly moving tongue, tiny fists that grab on to your clothes and won't let go, eating her "hand dessert", and her darling face of contentment as much as we do!

Things I've learned this week

Once a child is ready to potty train, it is actually kind of fun. It's so easy when they are ready. We have even gone out and done things with no accidents so far!

Ponies like to play air hockey (note the heart beads that are the pucks) and that Caroline even knows what that is. I walked into her room after her nap? and saw this and asked:

Me: Caroline, what are the ponies doing?

Caroline: Playing air hockey!

Spring Break in law school is A LOT different than Spring Break in undergrad. It basically means more free time for Adam to study, but we are grateful that he had that time. The time that we did have with Adam at home was so wonderful though and the girls just can't get enough of him!

Every time Caroline puts on these goggles, I get a good ab workout from laughing so hard.

That when I get 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night, I function so much better...Thank you Olive!

Caroline's Cinderella dress may not last until our trip to Disneyland in August. She wakes up and now it's the first thing she asks to put on. She also insists on napping in it. I know I could tell her she can't sleep in it, but really how do you tell a little one in a crown, a princess dress, fairy wings, and glass slippers No? I just can't, but I do have her take the crown and fairy wings off.

Congratulations to Clark and Kate!

Olive wanted to say Congratulations to her uncle Clark and his darling new fiance! We are thrilled for these two incredible people to be married in May. They got engaged last Saturday and tons of excitement has been in the air ever since. We can't wait to see you two lovebirds in a couple of months! We love you!

still more charm

Waterloo Bridge

Keniston Bridge

Cilleyville Bridge

Bement Bridge

We spent Saturday with Babe/Study Dad because he was on Spring Break! We went to Salem, Mass. and had such a nice day. As we drove through Salem, Caroline started singing a little song she knows..."I'm a witch (ck ck) I'm a witch (ck ck) with a big black hat on my head...she had us laughing so hard. Although it is a strange part of history, it was very interesting and actually a really great place to visit.

The picture says it all, we had an eventful week that was so enjoyable and exhausting!