the granite state.

first of all, i find it very intriguing to know that at this particular rest stop in new hampshire, you can buy booze {tax free!} & lotto tickets...after you pee, of course.

{taken through the van's window as we drove down the highway}

after three days in boston, we drove to new hampshire.  

my brother-in-law lives & works in andover {while my sissy finishes her fellowship in boston}.  my b.i.l. works for the prep school that he attended, proctor academy.  he's also a dorm parent so he lives in the bottom half of the boys dorm...so cool.*  

anything & everything our family does revolves around food.  food & shopping.  we met at famous dave's in manchester.  after some bbq, we went shopping.  first at the l.l. bean outlet, then to eastern mountain sports & finally to the tanger outlets in tilton.  the lady in the coach store tried to entice me with an extra 20% off clearance prices, but i resisted.  i do love my banana republic jeans, though {$30 for $90 jeans?? yes, please!}.

if there is anything to be said about life in rural new hampshire, it's that you have to drive {and i mean d-r-i-v-e} to civilization.  we learned that the hard way one night around 9pm when we needed children's tylenol for malia.  note to self:  next time, bring some...huge mommy fail on my part.

other than eating & shopping, the kids got to play in the snow and spend time with the dogs.  moxie, the bernese mountain dog, and bruin, the newfoundland, are two of the sweetest dogs on the planet.  they also both believe they are lap dogs.  bruin & aidan became fast friends.

we watched "how to train your dragon" & aidan and uncle james played a little lego harry potter on the wii.  we also did our christmas with monica & james.  it's so hard living so far away from family {they used to live in virginia}, but it was lovely being able to share a portion of the holidays with them.

on our last night in new hampshire, monica & james took us to dinner at lui lui.  oh. my. word.  the food was ridiculously delicious and the portions were ridiculously huge!  after dinner, we drove to see christmas lights at a shaker village {the name escapes me & i didn't have my camera on me}.  that very same night i also managed to pass up on a pair of uggs that were 20% off and tax-free.  i'm both proud & ashamed of myself!

we left new hampshire the morning of new year's eve.  after six full days together i think all of us were ready to get home & sleep in our own beds.  we walked through my front door at 11:15pm...just in time for me to get settled and see NKOTB rock out with BSB {priorities, priorities!}.

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*my b.i.l., james, is a phenomenal lacrosse coach.  phenomenal.
don't believe me?  then read this.