Flume Fun

Should I just start out every post with "still playing catch up" because that's what I feel like I say a lot. Despite my best efforts, I can just never keep current with documenting our family activities. I suppose if we did less stuff, I would have more time to post but then I wouldn't have anything to post about either. That's kind of a catch 22, wouldn't you say? In any case, several weeks back, we went to NH for a 2nd time in recent history. Actually, it was the official close of summer weekend - Labor Day.

After a successful family portrait session (pics to come) Saturday morning, we packed up the gang and drove up. Since I have a hard time remembering yesterday, the details of when and what happened on which days are a little fuzzy. I remember it was supposed to rain so we went to the outlet malls about half an hour from our place there. It didn't rain. But, we did have some excitement when Dylan threw up in the middle of the Carter's store. Nice. Good thing we had immediate access to (new) clean clothes for both Dylan and Mike who were soiled in the incident.

We also went to the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch and on a hike. As usual, I have lots of pictures so have dedicated 2 posts for these so you don't get NH and kid beauty\cuteness overload at one sitting.

At the beginning of the Flume is a visitors center with cool stuff (pictured at the end of this post) that Dylan wouldn't let go of until we were all the way at the end of the Flume. That means he wasn't really into it and, therefore, opted to let me do the heavy lifting of carrying him all the way up. When we had one section of descent on a gravely path, Dylan cautioned me to "be careful, Mommy!" Tell ya what, kiddo, you want more control of your own fate, don't make other people carry you. Don't worry, I only said that in my head. What I told Dylan was "yes, honey, I will!"

Dylan did pop out of the pack to explore the cave in the
huge glacial erratic - or boulder in lay man's terms.

Under the Tree

The Bottom of the Flume

My Cute Load

The wood stairway is on the left which helps give you the scale.

Down Deep

I know it sounds crazy, but I really don't mind carrying the kiddos. It gives me some good snuggle time and I get some extra exercise which I need right now. I'm working my booty off but there are never enough hours in the day so I'll take the extra calorie burn where I can get it.

Now, where Dylan really got excited was after we had passed the spectacular tall granite walls and left the beautiful waterfalls. It was at the peak where the "bear cave" is. I had a hard time getting him to leave it.

Rarrr!

Bear Attack!

Way Up In The Cave

When we started the path back down, we saw a chipmunk that was obviously used to tourists since he had no fear in running very close to us. Dylan dubbed him "Alvin." Coincidentally, we saw "Theodore" later down the path. Unfortunately, there were no chipmunks with glasses in this particular forest, so a bird we encountered got to be named "Simon."

Alvin

See how close he got to us!

Oh yeah, Mike and Cade were there too.

Cade can't read which is why he's ignoring the "Keep Off the Rocks" sign.
I don't think Mike has an excuse. What a renegade!

Speaking of rocks, Dylan had a great time throwing them.

It brought him much joy which gives me much joy.

My Boys!

Dylan also had a great time jumping off rocks.

Dylan walked all the way back to the visitor's center so, in the end, he got a good little hike as well. Back where the interesting stuff was, he asked me to take a few pictures for him. Here's the stuff he found super cool.

Stuffed Animal Moose

Stuffed Real Bear

Covered Bridge Model with Stagecoach Inside

Cade enjoyed the ride on Mike and I enjoyed the beautiful Flume, being out on a lovely day and, most of all, quality memory making time with my family.