I had sooooo much fun!!!!! It was nice and cool up there, and thankfully we got back down here as it the cooling trend is starting. But the grandbabies... ah the grandbabies... They were a riot up there. They pretty much devoured my aunt's garden and it's not a small garden either. Every single day they wanted to go out and pick things from the garden and only a bit of what they picked made it into the basket for dinner. They were even munching on raw zucchini. I mean I love zucchini, I really really do, but even I can't handle it completely raw. The GB's though had no problem.

My grandson put on over 8lbs in the 2 weeks we were up there and actually grew an inch taller . Which is really sad since it shows how malnourished he was . That a simple daily multi-vitamin and 6 small meals a day led to such growth. And while some might say "well it was just a growth spurt" but his little arms filled out, his knees have flesh on them once more so they don't look so knobby, his chest filled out and I even had to let his pants out. Don't get me wrong either, he still looks about half starved, but compared to 3 weeks ago when he first came down to GA, he looks a million times better. He actually has to take a deep breath in for you to see his ribs now, where before you could simply count them just lifting up his shirt.

But beyond all that, it was just amazing to watch the kids go crazy in the countryside. Just what they desperately needed I think, a chance to just go wild. My granddaughter even got her very first pony ride at the country fair we went to for her birthday, and while she liked the pony, she really wanted to ride the huge draft horses that were showing for pulling. Not one ounce of fear over the animals dwarfing her completely, she just wanted to ride them and settled for getting to pet them, unlike her brother who was a little bit nervous about them.

We all also got to enjoy swimming in the brook behind my aunt's house, even though the water was FREEZING, it was too much fun and honestly felt great after sweltering in GA for so long. We also hiked a mountain... well okay we went up Mt. Keresage that lets you drive pretty close to the summit, and from there walked half a mile up to the summit. But for an MS patient, a 3 year old and a 4 year old, that was quite an accomplishment.

We made it to the fabric store I was dying to go to, and spent far more than we should have but got far more than we ever would have anywhere else. The kids will have clothes aplenty this winter for preschool... And we made it to a few book stores so the kids got plenty of reading materials, along with a stop off at the famous Granite State Candy Shoppe. Talk about some well behaved children, they completely belied being like a kid in a candy shop, as I think they were just too bewildered by aaaalllll the candy!!!! They were even quiet on the way back to the car as if neither of them believe where they had just been, they didn't even ask for any of their candy and had to be reminded when we got home that they had candy. And the look on both of their faces.... It was priceless, it was one of those.. "My god it wasn't a dream!" type of looks.

It was just such a great trip, and my aunt was AMAZING with the kids, she is a kindergarten teacher of course, but she was very helpful in keeping the grandson under control when he hadn't had many rules. She did really good in helping him adjust to a world with rules and just made the whole transition so much easier. I mean the kids were still kids and got into things they weren't supposed to, fought like siblings do, had their overwrought meltdowns, but all together I can't wait to bring them to NH again next year and do it all over again. Because the really sad thing, is all the kids had for toys up there was 2 beach balls, and a teddy bear each, and they didn't care in the slightest! Because they had a field of flowe

4s and tall grasses to make their own toys with, a huge lawn to just run around and do sommersaults on, a badly out of tune piano to make their own music with and nothing else to get in the way of their imaginations.

It's just too bad that GA is too hot and I have to watch out carefully for venomous snakes and spiders in my yard, to let the kids run free down here. Which isn't to say there aren't venomous snakes in NH, but even in the country they're extremely rare to see, you have to go like deep backwoods hiking to even hope to get a glimpse of a timber rattler which has one of the least potent venoms of the rattlesnake family. And you might... just might during a really really hot summer and further south in NH than my aunt lives, you could come across a water moccasin... it's highly unlikely, but it is possible. All the other snakes are black racers which are territorial and do bite with a vengeance just not venom and a variety of completely harmless garden snakes. No black widows, no banana spiders, no recluses... really nothing at all aside from ticks carrying lyme disease to be worried about. That's the biggest danger playing outsider there.