the clark's: New England Vacation

It's been two long years since we last saw the Etheze clan. When we decided to make New England our vacation destination, Cathy was on the horn planning another family reunion at Lake Winnipesaukee in the great state of New Hampshire. We started the trip off with a week-long stay in a cabin on the lake. The family members rolled in a few at a time over 4 days from Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Maine until Wednesday night when we slept 16 in that cabin. We hit Weirs Beach, Gunstock ski resort, did a rope/zip line course, and conquered the infamous Attitash alpine slide. During down times at the cabin we had a few intense cribbage matches, swam at the nearby beach, kayaked, sat around the fire pit, and ate Nana's great home-cooked meals. The kids all hit it off from the start, it's like they see each other every day. They played their little hearts out and it was fun to see how excited they were to be around each other. After a fun-filled first week at the lake, we headed up to Nana's house in Vermont. We paid a visit to Jim and Cathy at the Char-Bo. In a few short hours we were fortunate enough to get a visit from Santa & Mrs. Claus AND Ryan & Matt! It was quite the productive visit. Thank you Aunt Cathy for helping Santa figure out that the Clark kids were around so he could prepare gifts for them! After that, Kev came through with another Bear Grylls caliber hike up one of the presidentials - Mt. Jefferson. We convinced Adrienne that it would be an unforgettable experience.... and it was... because it was most likely the last hike of her life. The next morning Kev was off to tour the bustling city of Putney with his dad, and Cathy treated the rest of us to a fun-filled day at Santa's Village for some more summer Christmas fun. Max tapped into his adventurous side by riding the roller coaster and log ride multiple times. Kendall opted out of the log ride after the first run, she said it was fun but when asked if she wanted to go again, her answer was a prompt and firm "No." We had been promising the little kids that we would check out some waterfalls on our trip, so our next stop was the Flume gorge. We saw waterfalls, rivers, huge rocks, covered bridges, and hiked through the "jungle". On our last day we were able to grab lunch and spend a little more time playing with our Manchester cousins. We all had a GREAT time and are so grateful for another opportunity to see and spend time with everyone.

(this is the picture we purchased after riding the log ride at Santa's Village, I think it's a keeper)