Apple Pickin'

Today, Matt and I picked apples at a local orchard in Concord.  The weather was perfect for being outdoors!  

This board was an Eagle Scout project.

 A "Charlie Brown" apple tree.

 Matt...just being himself. 

Lovers

 A red tailed hawk. 

We picked Cortland and Gala apples.  And two donuts.

New Recipes!

Being part of a food blog is so much fun!  I have millions of recipes bookmarked online or in my cookbooks.  Now I have a reason to try one out every week. 

For dinner tonight I cooked pork and potatoes.  The pork was super flavorful!  It was a little sweet for Matt's liking (which doesn't make sense to me because he LOVES Cafe Rio pork and that is as sweet as his bottom!).  The potatoes were to die for!  Caramelized on the outside and soft on the inside.  Mmmmmm. :)

The Hopkinton State Fair

After our morning with the Romney's on Monday, we headed on over to Contoocook for the state fair! The weather was overcast and perfect for walking outside. Along with your regular games and rides, there were many little shops and exhibits. There were also several large barns with different animals in them. It was so much fun to walk through and see all of the prize winning animals for that year. What made it even more enjoyable, for me, was hearing all the children's reactions to the animals. Little kid voices are so cute!

This carriage is an original from 1890.  There was a barn filled (floor to ceiling) with carriages/sleighs/primitive transportation from the last century. 

 This guy was near one of the rides...he wasn't feeling too well.

 There was a woman next to us who said, "That's alot of pumpkin pie!"

Chubbie Bunnies

This pig's name is "Oreo".  I love oreo's.

 Cow Lovers

Pancake Breakfast with Romneys

Here you can see the Country Club banquet room where the pancake breakfast was held. I estimate there were about 250 people there.

Political Rally on Labor Day Weekend

Mica and I had a great opportunity to observe some political activism this past weekend.

Sunday evening we attended a Tea Party rally in Rollins Park here in Concord, NH. Since the New Hampshire primary election is one of the first in the nation there are a lot of candidates who come through here vying for votes.

We heard some pretty good patriotic/country music as well as some good political stumping. The headliner speaker was Mitt Romney who had a lot of supporters there.

We sat next to a local guy who retired from UPS and now enjoys watching sports and politics. He didn't seem to enthusiastic about Mitt but he was very friendly to us.

The next morning we got up early to drive to Manchester (20 minutes away) for a pancake breakfast with Mitt and Ann Romney. They were serving food to each of the supporters there. We both got to shake his hand and talk with them for a little bit. They were both very warm and appreciative. Mitt looked me right in the eye and thanked me for coming.

Afterwards, they both spoke for about twenty minutes. Mitt shared some nice family stories as well as his vision for fixing the economy. He then fielded three questions from the audience. We both agreed that he seems very confident and comfortable speaking and talking with people.

There was nothing we heard that we didn't like. However, I think that we're both interested in hearing more of the other candidates when they come through here over the next five months or so.

(BTW, start at the bottom for the correct sequential order of pics).