1997 - Jan and Marshall buy a lake house on Kingswood Lake in Brookfield, New Hampshire. Gordon and I, newly dating, go to visit and Marshall professes his love for Gordon after he fixes things around the house.
June 27, 1998 - Gordon and I get married on a beautiful, sunny evening on the dock after an very rainy NH 'mud season'.
Seventeen summers later, all year long, we look forward to and talk about the two to three weeks we spend in NH every summer. Jan and Marshall host a continually changing set of house guests, our
parents, Suzie, Sam, Nick, Steven, Sandy, Aaron, Sarah, Rick, Lorene
(Gordon's mom).
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| the Ledbetter family 2010 |
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| Aaron, Steve, Marshall, Sam |
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| Steve, Sandy, Aaron |
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| Suzie, Nick, Sam |
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| Audra, Sam, Nick, Nancy, Sofia, Gordon, Gabby |
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| Nick, Audra and Gabby - 2004 |
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| Sofia - 2010 |
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| Audra - 2010 |
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| Portland Seadogs with Unc and Aunt Jan |
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| Sofia spent a summer peeping through keyholes |
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| painting the old chicken coop - and eventually themselves |
We've had a lot of perfect summer days for boating, kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming, swim and sailing lessons, biking, spotting loons, deer and even a bear. Painting the old chicken coop for a clubhouse, 4th of July parade, tether ball, baseball, kubb, putt putt, Cate Park Wednesday night volunteer band, golf, yoga on the beach, full moon paddle boarding, Portland Seadogs ball game, road trip to Boston and more.
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| Gabby and Sofia SUP 2014 |
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| Gabby and Audra 2014 |
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| Sofia 2014 |
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| roasting s'mores 2014 |
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| Putter's Village 2014 |
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| as a two year old, Audra crawled through this covered bridge |
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| wonderful bike, walking path along an old train track |
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| 2014 - the summer Sofia refuses to touch the water because of bugs and snakes |
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| it was fun this summer to have a little bit of time with just the three 'original' sisters and the three younger sisters |
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| the original sisters |
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| Albee Beach - public swimming, beach yoga and sailing lessons |
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| beach yoga |
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| Albee Beach is always good for spotting a group of ducklings who sometimes wander through the yoga group |
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| Uncle Marshall's dream come true... the girls golfing |
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| the girls' bunk room |
We've had a lot of rainy summer days for exploring The Libby Natural History Museum, the NH Boat Museum, a NH glass blower, games-rummikub and Phase 10, reading, puzzles, art projects, lego sets, and more.
We've had really hot summer days forcing us to move into the basement for coolness. Depending on the dates we attended the annual boat auction, craft fair, or Huggins Hospital fair. Each summer we usually spend one day at Sherman Farms picking produce for the Sanbornville Food Pantry.
We've had septic issues, an invasion of black ants, a broken refrigerator and a few trips to Huggins Hospital for poison ivy and one broken arm.
Daily trips into Wolfeboro for newspapers and fun things at Black's, Downtown Grille, Stella Luna cinnamon buns, Bailey's Bubble, Yum Yum Shop gingerbread men, Thursday afternoon farmer's market, yoga at Moondala studio, and The Country Bookseller.
Wolfeboro, on the edge of Lake Winnipsesaukee, claims it is "the Oldest Summer Resort in America". Former Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has a home in Wolfeboro, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy vacationed here in 2007. Drew Barrymore has spent time here. Jimmy Fallon, is the latest famous guess, whose in-laws have a place in town.... he named his daughter Winnie after the lake.
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| the most popular spot in town, always busy, open late, the workers never write a thing down, no matter how long your order is |
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| 2014 |
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| Wolfeboro Back Bay |
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| the Yum Yum Shop - celebrating 65 years! |
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| Yum Yum Shop gingerbread cookies |
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| Wolfeborough Diner - known in our family as 'Echo' - when Sofia was about 3 years old she went into the tiny bathroom with Aunt Jan and yelled 'echo' over and over because the acoustics were great! The entire restaurant could hear... Gabby, Audra and I paid the check and waited outside. |
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| if only they had this t-shirt in Gabby's size |
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| the squirrel butt we found in an antique store in Cornish, Maine |
Gabby's favorite restaurant is C&G pizza in Sanbornville, replacing the previous favorite, Poor People's Pub. Garwood's and the Wolf Trap in Wolfeboro are reserved for date nights. Grams has also taught Gabby how to make her favorite cherry pie. Mostly though, we cook and BBQ at the house... this is my favorite, a time-lapse video Gabby took of 14 of us preparing a big
lobster dinner for 4th of July in 2013.
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| first stop, pick up dinner at C&G pizza - 2014 |
Audra celebrates her birthday in New Hampshire every summer... she's has butterfly, puppy dog, baseball, and art parties. We celebrated mom and dad's 50th anniversary and memorialized the passing of Jan and Marshall's sweet dog, Mookie by planting a dogwood tree in the yard.
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| Audra's dog birthday party... Aunt Suzie made dog ears for everyone to wear |
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| Rick and Sarah at Audra's puppy dog party |
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| 50th wedding anniversary - 2001 |
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| Gabby 2001 |
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| Jan and Mookie - things do not feel the same in the house without Mookie, our shoes stay where we put them. We always used to have to hunt for missing shoes because Mookie liked to carry shoes around and would leave them everywhere. |
Several years ago Jan started the tradition where we all sign the
underside of the long, wooden farm table where we note the highlights
and year of our visit. It's funny now to look back and see the old
messages and signatures.
The only thing wrong with New Hampshire is leaving. Every time we drive away the girls are in tears and I have a knot in my stomach. We are already looking forward to and planning what we'll do next summer!
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