4th of July weekend in New Hampshire!

Kicking off the Monday after a fabulous long weekend is always so tough, especially when your last few days have consisted of sipping cocktails and relaxing in the sunny weather!

We drove up to New Hampshire early Friday morning and were lucky enough to not hit any traffic along the way!  Armed with my Kindle and the new Jennifer Weiner book (honestly, I kind of loved it and blew through it in a day and a half!), I was the ideal co-pilot/navigator.


With Arthur blowing into town, we were a little worried that we'd either get hit with really bad weather, or get stuck with everyone else heading out of Boston, but things were smooth sailing and after a quick stop at the liquor barn, we made it to Tilton in record time.  After a quick stop to check-in at our bed and breakfast, we headed over to Brian's family's condo for some fun... right about the time that the skies opened up.

There were twelve people in that condo, including us, so we had to keep busy or we'd all have gone nuts!  So we alternated between games on the beach when the rain slowed down and it was just lightly sprinkling, working on a puzzle on the porch... and drinking.  When it's raining and there's nothing else to do, how else do you occupy your time?!  One of the cousins had purchased 120 sparklers for the weekend, so we spent a good amount of time outside playing with those and trying to slow-spell words (big fat fail, thanks to no better cameras present than our iPhones).

Please note all of the patriotic gear.  Every single person came decked out in red, white and blue, completely unplanned-- loved it!


We stayed pretty late, hoping to wait out the rain since we had a decent walk back to our car from the condo.  People around the lake were trying to rally and set off a few fireworks here and there in the rain, so we turned off all of the lights and were sitting around on the porch to see that.  The whole fun of the lake on the Fourth is to take the boat out and see all of the fireworks going off all above you and around the lake.  We did it last year and it was the perfect end to the day!  Oh well-- can't help Mother Nature!

At one point, someone proposed the idea of telling ghost stories since we were all sitting in the dark anyways.  I hate being scared.  Legitimately just... hate the feeling.  And honestly, thinking about ghosts scares me WAY more than thinking of someone coming after me in the woods or something, a la Halloween/Friday the 13th.  No, Paranormal Activity will about do me in and knock any possibility of sleep out my realm for a good few nights.  So add ghost stories to the fact that we were staying in a spooky B&B and I was fit to be tied sitting there listening to all of that mess.  We finally left around 11pm and you can bet that I slept with the TV on in our room all night long.

Saturday we woke up the most absolutely GORGEOUS day.  After a quick breakfast, we headed back over to the condo to find EVERYONE sitting around on the boat or floating off of the dock.  It was the perfect way to start the day and just RELAX.



Unfortunately, "relax" isn't a word that resonates well with some of the family members, so sunning on the boat quickly turned into a field/beach day, involving several other families in the little condo community.  There were tournaments galore-- volleyball, corn hole, KanJam, washers.  

The volleyball crew, minus me and the girls.

 I can play corn hole all day long, but an athlete I am not, so volleyball just isn't my thing-- I actually kind of hate it.  So imagine my relief when the neighbors came up and wanted to play, too.  I quickly retreated to my chair with my Vino2Go and was ALL SET.



After lunch and a stop for drink refills, we headed out for a boat trip around the lake with some of my favorites!  Again, non-athlete writing here, so I enjoy the breeze and sip a beverage while cheering on and taking pictures of whomever may be wakeboarding at the time.

Fantastic friend, bridesmaid, and Brian's cousin's wife, Candice!

Brian all ready for wakeboarding

He's braver than me!

We had the big OAR/Phillip Phillips concert to get ready for that night, so we decided to head back to our B&B to shower and get ready (and to take a breather and relax for a hot second, justbeinghonest).  After a bath, coconut lotion, and a good sock bun, I was like a new woman!  I can't lie, after being going non-stop all day, I wasn't sure I'd be able to rally for the night (old person, party of 1), but once we'd made our way back to the condo, everyone's excitement for the night ahead was contagious and my yawns turned into smiles.  We had a quick dinner of burgers and salad, stopped for a few pictures, and then were on our way!



We went to see Journey (minus Steve Perry, so faux-Journey) last summer, and the venue was absolutely mobbed.  Apparently OAR doesn't draw quite as big of a crowd because the place was about half full.  I can't complain-- the sun stayed out all day, and once it went down, everything cooled off just perfectly, so on top of not being packed into our seats, and it made the evening that much more enjoyable!  We stopped for drinks then made our way to our seats for the show-- such a fun night!



#palepeopleprobs aka, our children have no chance of being tan


the scene of summer.


I was a little more excited about OAR than Mr. Phillips, so no pictures of them but they were pretty fantastic!  All in all it was such a fun night, and I think everyone agrees that a concert trip will become a summer tradition for everyone-- love that! 

Yesterday morning we were up and at breakfast pretty early (Hawaiian Eggs Benedict, oh yes ma'am!), made a quick stop at the outlets, then were back on the road by 10:30am to head home.  I'd heard horror stories about traffic coming back into Boston after a holiday weekend, so we both wanted to make sure we were well ahead of the rush.  Brian's cousins actually got stuck in the thick of it right around 2pm, so we were lucky!  We were back at the apartment by 12:30, and after a stop at the grocery store and easy dinner, I got to relax on the couch and finish my book while Brian cooked-- basically my perfect night.

And now we're back to Monday!  Thankfully the day is going by relatively quickly, but the work week after a holiday weekend always seems so terribly LONG!  Hope y'all had a fabulous Fourth of July weekend!!


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