An Autumn Filled Weekend

Friday - Saturday

In Loving Memory of Frank Conti

This weekend I ventured across the NH border with my co-worker/friend Sandy Conti to partake in an annual Columbus Day Extended Weekend Conti tradition. This is a tradition that Sandy and her husband had kept for the past 15 years, and as Sandy will be moving out of state early next year she wanted to get one last trip in. We left Massachusetts at about 9 in the morning and arrived at the first stop of our adventure, Canon Mountain, by noon. We took the tram from the base of the mountain up to the observation tower. According to the staff, we had lucked out with the weather. It had been cloudy with poor visibility all week and had opened up just in time for our arrival. It was still a little on the hazy side, so we couldn't see quite as much as we would have on a clear day, but I was still in awe at the site of the vast sea of red, orange, yellow, and green that seemed to go on for miles. We did a mini hike around the top of the mountain through a path of pine trees (which of course smelled like Christmas) so that we could catch glimpses of the view from all sides of the mountain. It was spectacular.

Our second stop of the day was at the Flume Gorge. This required a little bit of hiking in the unseasonably warm weather which reminded me just how out of shape I am, but at least the distraction of the colorful foliage kept me going.

We finished our Friday by checking into the Stony Brook motel, which is a quaint piece of property at the base of the mountain range; had a deliciously concocted pizza at The Dutch Treat; and played a quick tournament of rummy.

Saturday morning we treated ourselves to the motel's continental breakfast before heading off to our first excursion which was a hike up to see the Arethusa Falls. This was by far higher on the difficulty scale than the Flume Gorge as far as hikes go. I am glad I remembered to bring my hiking boots as I most certainly would have broken my ankles a couple dozen times if I had just worn my sneakers. We got to the falls in a little less than an hour. We were both a little sore and tired (again, we are not exactly experienced at hiking, or other activities that involve physical exersion of any kind), but the view of the falls was definitely worth the trip.

It started to rain not long after we finished our hike, so we were very lucky to have been able to get it in while the weather was still good.  Unfortunately the change in weather limited our options on what to do to fill up the afternoon. We ended up attending a local crafts festival and then going on what seemed like a scavenger hunt to find the perfect souvenier to bring home to Hunter. I finally settled on an mini semi-truck that accomplished the two qualifications for the gift I wanted...it had to say "New Hampshire" on it (which this did, along with a cartoon of a moose) and it had to be something that he would be at least a little interested in (this fits right in with his car phase).

That about sums up the trip. Although I missed all my boys profusely (including Alex, Hunter, Charlie, Noodle, and Zoodle), it was nice to have a girls weekend away. Sandy reminisced a lot about the memories she and Frank had shared throughout the years of making this trip and I felt the sense of loss that she was going to feel once the trip was over, knowing that she will probably not be making it again since she will be moving so far away. I told her that the tradition will live for at least one more year through my family as I intend to take my boys up that way next year so they can experience it too.

Sunday

Sandy and I left early Sunday morning and I was home by 11am. Unfortunately my Bubby-Bo-Bear was taking a nap when I arrived and I had to fight off my temptation to wake him up so I could give him the world's biggest hug. I used that time to unpack and settle back into reality (whether I am gone for a week or 2 days, it always takes me some time to get back to the routine). Once Hunter did finally wake up I spent the afternoon playing cars, playing catch, reading books, and pretty much anything else he wanted to do before we headed over to my cousins Justin and Rachel's house to watch the game.....which of course resulted in a 31 to 21 New England Patriots stomping over the Denver Broncos....yay team!!!!

Monday

Bubs and I had the whole day to ourselves as my company chooses to recognize the controversial Christopher Columbus (my unsugarcoated American history class had quite a few non-flattering stories to say about this guy) while Alex's company does not. We started the day by waking up at 7:30, eating breakfast, playing for a little bit, then took an 1 1/2 hour nap at 9:30.  Once we woke up we were finally ready to officially start the day.

After picking up a few items at the store we baked up some home-made pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies.  Hunter was very eager to help:

He may be a messy baker, but at least he helps clean up:

We snacked on apples and bananas:

We played in the fort:

We worked on some puzzles:

We also danced to some music (Huntski actually has a few moves of his own now...my goal of the week is to try to catch them on video so all of his fans can see), cleaned the house, folded laundry (Bubs feels I need practice at this which is why this task now takes double the time, as I fold the clothes he unfolds them as he tells me "practice makes perfect"), made dinner, read books, and learned a new word ("cow" is now on the list).  It was one of those days that I wish could last forever.