Hooray for the Granite State!

Josiah, William, and I flew up to New Hampshire yesterday afternoon. The boys were thrilled beyond imagining with the plane ride (their first in 2 years, and the first William can remember). Jesse has been left behind at home, though, so here we are to keep him up to speed with our holiday activities.

If today is anything to go by, we're in for a wonderful vacation.

The day started off normally enough — lots of playing in the loft, Josiah doing Legos with Nannan, and William enjoying PlayDoh. William loved using Nannan's rolling pin and cookie cutters to make an ocean scene with me.

William never passes up a chance to ham it up...

After lunch, William enjoyed a special outing with me and Nannan to play miniature golf. He took instruction on how to point his toes and line up his shots very seriously...not that it significantly reduced his stroke count, of course. He loved every second of the game.





Will then stayed home with Nannan while Josiah got to enjoy his own very, very awesome adventure: going to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway with Papa (and I got to tag along too, at the last minute!). Since Dad is chaplain there, with access to much of the track, and since he was giving the invocation before today's race, we got a fantastic insider's tour. He took us all around in a golf cart...through the campgrounds...we got to go up to see the broadcasting and control rooms...peeked in a skybox...and ended up on the inside of the track, mixing with the drivers as they were getting ready to be announced. Super fun! Then, while Papa did some of his work, Josiah and I sat in the stands and watched the heats and racing for the Global Rallycross event. It was a smallish crowd, nowhere near the 100,000+ likely in attendance for Sunday's major NASCAR Sprint Cup race, but we sure had fun. This race involved jumps, hairpin turns, and a track that was 40% covered in dirt. Crazy stuff. :)

Think Josiah looks happy?  :)

  

Inside the track. Waiting with the Color Guard before the race began. 

Travis Pastrana, one of the more famous drivers apparently, agreed to a quick pic while he was waiting to be announced before the race! 

Dad praying for the invocation. Josiah and I just sort of loitered 20 or so feet back!

Can't really capture the noise and speed and dirt and craziness in photos. (Josiah and I had been leaning on those white barriers while Dad was praying just before the race began.)

Josiah was as thrilled with getting to ride on a golf cart as anything else. Dad had just parked this one with all the others at the ministry area as we were getting ready to head home. 

My handsome 6-year-old. What a lucky boy.

PlayDoh, mini-golf, race cars...not a bad day for me...er...I mean for the boys!