(Slowly) Getting Back into the New Year’s Groove

After our fireworks extravaganza, we caught a few Zzz’s before going to church and visiting one more time with friends in Bridgewater. We had hoped to make it to the Kentville Ward, but we weren’t able to this trip. Next time, then.

With misty eyes, we hit the road again on Monday to return home. It was as if the weather itself reflected our mood as we drove through driving rain through the morning. We reached St. John, New Brunswick, by the afternoon. After a dip in the pool with the kids and some dinner, Mike ventured out to Freak Lunchbox. We ran out of time to go inside the one in Halifax when we went to the Discovery Centre with Janelle, so Mike was happy to get the chance to see what the buzz was all about. This candy store has a wide variety of common and uncommon loose and pre-packaged candies and other treats. Lots of fun! Mike bought a few treats for the family to try on the road.

We woke up Tuesday to a cold blast and a return to real winter. Our journey brought us down from St. John through to the LL Bean flagship store (among others) in Freeport, Maine, and on to Rochester, New Hampshire.

Yes, those are real fish (trout) swimming in a special tank that makes them feel like they are swimming in a river. 

This clock chimes a tune every hour that you can see play in this large clockwork display. 

The cold continued Wednesday as we drove from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York before ending our time on the road in Warners, New York.

We ended up passing up several interesting sites, including Palmyra and Niagara Falls, as we jetted through New York and Ontario on our way home on Thursday. We were definitely ready to be done with traveling by the time we got home in the afternoon. Hallie pinched a nerve in her back or something and was in a bit of pain, and the kids (troopers through it all) had finally gotten road weary (we’ve put 7,500 miles on the van since October—the van might be a bit weary too). Diamond and Miles helped ensure that everything was clean and in good working order when we got there (thanks so much!). Mike unpacked the car, and we crashed for the night in our own beds for the first time in three weeks.

Mike has been working while we have been traveling, doing some writing and getting classes ready for next semester. Friday he was able to get some work done in earnest in addition to getting things unpacked and put away. The kids played with their new presents. Hallie ran a bunch of errands and visited with friends in the evening.

Landon drew this picture of the four of us.

You can see full faces, and everyone has their arms and legs. Quite the artiste!

Eliza got a big kick out of her new Superstar Stage.

Dancing to the music

Then again, climbing seems fun too!

Diamond headed off to college at BYU-Idaho while we were away (Yay, Diamond! You rock!). As a result, Eliza now has a room of her own again. On Saturday, we spent some more time settling back in and moving Eliza back into her nursery/Mike’s office/Diamond’s old room. Mike and Landon also put together a new dresser for the boy that we had purchased before the trip. His old one, which has seen its share of wear (including being dropped from a moving pickup truck), finally appears to have given up the ghost. Mike’s convinced that the old dresser still has some life to it, but he could just be feeling sentimental because he put the old one together and painted it, so maybe he’ll repurpose it in the basement for a bit.

Hallie’s back pain has continued to persist through today, and after church she holed herself up in the bedroom with some pain killers and muscle relaxers in the hope that something would help. Poor Hallie!