A Mid-Week Adventure...

Last week I picked Camden up at preschool, encouraged him and Micah to sleep in the car for a bit on the way home, swung into campus to pick up Scott and we took the kids on a little hiking adventure followed by a late lunch at Pizza Chef and ice cream at our favorite shop, Arctic Dreams.  Usually our weekdays are very routine - our morning activities (school 3x a week for Camden or just free play or local adventures on the other days) are always followed by lunch, naps, playing outside, dinner at the dining hall, bedtime routine.  Mixing it up with a surprise outing thrilled the kids and we were excited to spend some time as a family in the middle of this very busy life we lead.  It was a chilly, overcast day - as most of our days this spring have been - but it didn't dampen our spirits.  Here are some pictures from our hike...

 Look at these two cuties...

 I love my boys...

 Big girl didn't want to be carried!

 my heart...

 A favorite...

 He's getting SO big...

 I love how they're all holding on to Scott for support.  He's our rock (cheesy, yes....but so true)!

 Mikey got tired and wanted a ride!  This Ergo was the best purchase we ever made! 

 "Mama - take my picture by this tree!"

 Such a good daddy...

 Airplane boys!

I didn't take any pictures of the ice cream and pizza portion of our afternoon, but trust me...it was delicious!  :)

Squam Lake

We had a blast taking the kids to the Squam Lake Science Center last month!  Although it's a popular destination among families in our area, we had never been!  It was amazing!  The kids had a blast walking the trails and seeing so many New Hampshire animals up close and personal!  We'll definitely be making many more trips here in the future!

Excited boys!

Bobcat!

Mountain Lion!

Climbing the big web in the kids play area!

A wonderful day all around, which we, of course, capped off with a stop at a delicious ice cream stand on the way home! 

A Beautiful NH Day

Today was the perfect summer day.  It was sunny and in the mid-70's with a slight breeze.  Aghhh...it felt nice after the heat we've had to deal with this summer.  Although Camden had some weird, sudden sickness yesterday afternoon, he was feeling much better today and we decided to go on the adventure that we had been planning all week.  After an early morning nap, we drove around to the Warner-side of Kearsarge Mountain and hiked to the top.  The Wilmot side (the side of the mountain that we live on) is a much longer and more difficult hike than the Warner side, and we usually enjoy hiking this side, but being 32+ weeks pregnant and taking along an almost-two-year-old, we decided to drive around the mountain and take the easy way up.  Definitely glad we made that decision.  Camden wasn't completely himself this morning and wanted nothing to do with hiking, refused to let Scott carry him and screamed bloody murder if he wasn't in mommy's arms.  It was a sight to see.  Luckily we made it to the top, and he kind of snapped out of it and started to have some fun.  I carried him in the Ergo the whole way down the mountain and we figured between Camden and my pregnancy weight gain I was probably carrying around 60 more pounds than usual.  Let's just say I got my workout for the week!  After our hike we enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Foothill's of Warner and got ice cream at a cute little spot down the road.  We were ALL wiped out by then, so we headed home for our afternoon naps.

Our very tired, very sad little boy...

My TWO babies!

After a nice long two hour nap for Camden he was feeling much better and we decided to join the rest of the Benson clan at the Wilmot bandstand for a free concert!  It was very entertaining to watch Clara and Camden entertain the crowd with their dance moves and we had a blast!  Gotta love small town life - and we even got free popcorn!  What could be better than that?!?!

 Scott bought this "special" treat for him and Camden to share - a cupcake in an ice cream cone (?!?!?)!  I was personally disgusted, but Scott insisted that this is a normal treat!  I'm not so sure!

Dave and Clara having some snacks...

Kyle and Roddy are staying with my parents for a week before relocating to California!  Kyle became close to my family when she was a student at Colby-Sawyer and I've had fun hanging out with them this week when Scott has been so busy coaching camp!

Another wonderful summer day.  I love this teaching gig!  June, July and August make all those stressful months during the school year very worth it!