62. March 25th, 2011 Picture.

 I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly overwhelmed about getting these next few days up on the blog.  A big group of us headed up to New Hampshire, you might remember this detail from my post about learning how to fire a gun, and all stayed at my cousin's Billy's in-law's house.  Lots happened, hilarity ensued and I will never be able to capture absolutely everything that happened that weekend, but I'll do my best!  Now the house is massive, up on a mountain in Sugar Hill and it's seriously amazing.  There were 15 adults and 9 children staying for the weekend, and as you can imagine, it was absolute, pure, insane chaos.  No seriously, Chaos, with a capital C.  Literally.  But still totally awesome.


I was driving up with my mom, Ratty and my cousin Sue, so we all got out of work early on Friday afternoon and packed up my mom's car before hitting the road.  There was so much stuff I thought we might have to leave some things behind, but we managed to smush it all in the trunk.  And on Ratty's lap.  And at my feet.

We got up to Franconia around 6pm, thankfully missing most of the Friday rush hour traffic, and got right down to exploring this awesome house.  Here's the view from one of the many picture window's in the living room:

And the huge stone fireplace, leather couches and vaulted ceilings in the main house's living room.  Oh yes, there were 2 houses connected by a breezeway and both had separate living rooms and kitchens.  As you can imagine, this is where most people congregated through the weekend, until I locked myself in the other house to get away from all the children.  I gave myself a 2 minute time out and it was awesome.  You'll see why. Like I've said before, I LOVE kids, but en masse they are super intense.  SUPER.

We weren't the first ones to arrive and definitely weren't the last.  Not even 30 minutes after we arrived, my cousin Timmy and his wife Becky got there.  Let's get this party started!

Tim had aggressive plans for the weekend.  Almost all of them included scotch.  No one complained.  In fact, Ratty might have shed a small tear out of sheer excitement.  Honestly, 3 days with some of my cousins, Aunts and Uncles in a house in New Hampshire is pretty much the best thing ever.  

I do want to make a note here that although I was pretty excited and couldn't wait to spend time with everyone, I was panicked with anxiety.  There were so many kids, running, jumping, screaming, running outside, running INSIDE, going to one of the bedrooms downstairs, dubbed 'The Silly Room' and just going batshit crazy jumping from one mattress to another and back again.  I get it, the kids were excited too.  When you get lots of kids together there is bound to be some insanity.  All the parents tuned it out and were able to relax, knowing that the kids were safe, blowing off steam in the playroom, while I was totally on edge.  I guess when you aren't around a lot of kids, mostly boys, you cannot handle going from 0-1,000 so quickly.  Also, Ratty and I were sleeping in the open loft, right above the kitchen, so I was also on edge about being woken up at 5am every morning.  The first night we borrowed ear plugs and I slept with a pillow and a sweatshirt over my head, and the second night I dragged my mattress downstairs and slept on the floor of my mothers room.  No seriously.  I take my sleep very, very, seriously.

Right, back to the weekend!  No more talk of my rational/irrational anxiety.  Promise.

So yea, scotch.  Though I didn't partake, it's amazing how quickly this stuff disappeared.  Just like the good ol' Irish family we are. 

Ain't no time like the present, am I right?!

Using the first photo of this blog as a benchmark, comparing the amount of stuff 4 people packed for 3 lousy days, really only 1 full day when you break it down, you can only imagine how much stuff/beers/food everyone showed up with!  Thank goodness there was still a ton of snow on the ground and the temperatures were pretty much freezing, the porch acted as our beer fridge.  It was awesome.

Eddie and Christine have a house about 20 minutes away from Sugar Hill, in Bath, New Hampshire, so they were also up for the weekend.  They came by later in the night but headed back to their house once the wheels started to come off.  They were back bright and early the next morning though to hang out with all of us.  Isn't Abby such a teeny cutie pie?!

Can I wrap up that circular picture window and take it AND the view home with me?!  Ugh, so awesome.  I want this house!

Cassie looked seriously concerned that her ice cream cone was smaller than Jackson's.

All the kids sitting around the dining room table.  The next morning when we are retelling stories of the night before and I say that there were only 8 kids there, no one believed it.  My mom went as far as to count all the kids on her fingers FIVE times before finally believing that only 8 kids, 6 really once Cassie and Abs left, were staying in the house.  It seemed totally wrong because we felt absolutely outnumbered.

Eddie, Lucy, Phil, Uncle Phil, Sue and Maria with Henry.  What a good lookin' family!

And ending the night with some cheers and some scotch.  Gotta rest up because we had a big day planned for tomorrow.  Ratty and I headed to bed around 2am, wrapped in blankets and hoodies, with ear plugs and pillows over our faces - this was surprisingly comfortable, for me at least.  This may be surprising to some, but my mom stayed up WAY passed 2am, like hours past.  So THIS is where I get it from!  Once everyone get's gabbing it hard to pull yourself away.  My mom's a party animal!