Live Free or Die!

"Live free or die" is the state motto for New Hampshire. Best state motto EVER!

We took a trip to New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago with my parents, lil bro, and his bff. We left on a Friday night around 6, and arrived in NH at around 7 the next morning. The kids did really well - they both slept through the night, and Isaac only woke up once to eat.

It was really a wonderful visit. It is where my mom is from, and where most of my aunts and uncles still live. My mom grew up in a place called The Hollow, which is a mile long circle road where my Grandma, an aunt, an uncle, two ex-uncles, and a couple of cousins still live. It is pretty far away from any stores (closest stores are just local country stores 20 minutes away). It was nice to just spend lots of time talking with family and taking time to enjoy nature, which I don't do often enough.

Here are some things we did while we were there:

In the middle of The Hollow is a small play ground where Ella enjoyed playing a couple of times. Here is a picture that I thought was really cute at first, until I noticed Cordells' friend looking super creepy behind Ella.

See for yourself...

Creepy, huh? haha


This is my grandmother, Cora Davenport. It was so nice to see her again since it had been over 8 years since I had seen her last. She has gone through so many trials in her life... for the majority of her life, but she still always has this pretty smile on her face.

Ella really loved Gram and would run up and hug her and sit on her lap whenever we were with her. It made Gram so happy.

As we were preparing for our NH visit, Craig and I would tell Ella over and over again that she would get to see some horses. Unfortunately my uncle no longer had any... but fortunately a neighbor in The Hollow did (although it was pretty gross and his eyes were infested with flies), and Ella loved it.

This part of The Hollow. Beautiful huh?

We had a little family reunion while we were out there... and I got to eat some of the best food I have had in a very long time, including a hot sausage burger homemade by my aunt from her very own cow. She did all of the work. Pretty cool.

Me and my I-Guy

He took a nap pretty much the whole time during the reunion on the ground

Another thing we did was visit my Uncle Danny and Aunt Rae at their cabin in the mountain.
Here is Uncle Danny

... and this is his cabin that he built with the trees from his own property. It is powered by a windmill and solar panels. Surrounding his house are blackberry, choke cherry, and blueberry bushes. It is not uncommon to see moose and bears by his house.

We went up to Dannys cabin one night to watch a meteor shower.

While in NH we slept at my cousin Mark and his wife, Rachels' house. Surrounding his house are blueberry bushes... there is nothing better than eating blueberries right off the bush. Ella and I definitely spent a bit of time picking and eating those blueberries.

Here is my moms sister, Brenda, picking berries.

Yum!

Here is my cousin Mark with Ella. They live in a log cabin style house that is pretty dang cool. They have a cow, a bunch of chickens, roosters, two pigs, and a dog. Ella really loves animals and took a major liking to Val, the cow, and Buster (said "Busta" with the accent), the dog.

The first night we were there we were able to participate in the butchering of some chickens at Mark and Rachels house. I didn't get any pictures of it, because I am not into taking pictures of things like that... but I think it was a good thing to experience. They obviously do it in the quickest and most humane way possible.

While there we also helped Mark and Rachel build their log cabin style barn. This was also a pretty neat experience, since they are building it on their own with the trees from their own land also. Here is a picture of Cordell and Carrington stripping the bark off. This is a strangely fulfilling thing to do - kind of like peeling an orange in one peel, or peeling off a large piece of dead skin from sunburn (you can't tell me you don't love doing that).

My sweet girl with flowers in her hand standing next to a chainsaw

Craig and Ella dancing with "Busta"

Me and Ella at the Falls. Beautiful but ICY COLD place to swim

We took a trip into town to a huge candy store called Chutters. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest candy counter in the world

Pretty long

Look at my sweet boy! I love how he is just chillin with his arm resting on the side. I think I forgot to mention that my boy is a big 18 lbs!!! Crazy huh?

This is my grandmothers house... on the same property that my mom was born and raised on. My mom had a pretty rough life growing up. They struggled a lot and were very poor. There were 8 children in her family and they lived in a small house with just a few rooms and cardboard walls seperating them. She shared a bed with two of her sisters, and would often sleep with their winter coats on and pots and pans on their beds so they wouldn't get wet from the rain and snow coming through the holes in the roof. My mom told me that she remembers being so hungry that she and her siblings would look at pictures of food in magazines, lick the pictures and just imagine what it would taste like. My grandma did what she could for her family, but time were hard.

I feel so blessed to have such a strong mother who was able to rise above her trials and come out a better person for herself and for her family.

Since we were all together, I could not resist taking a 4 generation picture.

mom, gram, me, Ella

Our trip to New Hampshire was so much fun! I love being up there so close to nature and far away from all of the distractions that I so easily get caught up in. It makes me feel so much closer to God and all of the beautiful things He has put on this earth for us.

Hope we get a chance to go up again soon!