We are home for our trip to stay at my MIL’s vacation house in New Hampshire on Newfound Lake.  We had a nice time, but it always a difficult place to be and I have finally figured out why it is difficult.  A little bit of background on this place.  It is just one hour north of Boston where my BIL and his family live.   My MIL bought the house as a place for the family to gather and for her sons to use–mostly my BIL because Hubby lived in California at the time that she bought it and that is where she calls home.  My BIL and his wife have been the ones to take care of the house and for the first may years my MIL rented it out in the summer to help pay for the house–as houses in that area bring in a good deal of money from rental in the summer.  It really is a beautiful place and very nice.  Because of this role of caretaker and the fact that my MIL only comes out an uses the house herself twice a year, my SIL views the house as her own and this is where the issues seem to arise.  I do want to say that I like my SIL.  We talk and are friendly.  We certainly would not be “friends” if we weren’t family, but we are family and we get along just fine.  But she is difficult to live with. There is a power struggle in the house when both my MIL and SIL are there.  It is my MIL’s house but my SIL feels entitled to the house because they do live there all summer and use it nearly every weekend as well.  They have been doing it for nearly 12 years now and it is easy to begin to feel as though it is yours.  It is hard when you are on vacation and others are going about their regular life.  A regular life that is highly regimented and not very relaxing at all.  It does put a bit of a damper on one’s own vaction. I could go on and on, but I won’t.  I am just happy to be at home where I am not under any scruitiny for letting my kids play or for eating my lunch before I wipe up the crumbs from the table, etc.

The kids had a pretty good time.  Noah didn’t quite understand why his cousins–who are 14 and 10–didn’t want to play with him and that caused a few issues for Noah–but he’s a trooper and got over it.  Both kids had a good time and Noah loved spending time with his Grannie Sue.  All in all it was a great trip–I didn’t exercise at all–don’t want to even get on the scale.  I ate pretty good, but I didn’t exercise.

Here are a few pics of the good time that the kiddos had.