Visit to New Hampshire

It was great to see the Dodges in their natural habitat. They live in a typical New England house, two stories with shutters. It's at the end of the cul-de-sac and you go down a long driveway which is downhill. They are surrounded by trees, actual forest on two sides.

Jonathan in his forest

 The house is cozier than the one in Bend, but the yard is much larger. They have seven beautiful chickens which are quite tame. They get lots of brown eggs which are laid in a convenient pile.

Jonathan has been spending weeks of his spare time rebuilding a large deck. Eldon helped to finish the slats.

The deck seen through the orchard

Jonathan also installed a cool french door which has the blinds in between the panes of glass. That's the cleverest thing since sliced bread.

Jason

Our first day Sheryl took us down to the Boston Temple. We were impressed with its beauty. A temple worker from Sheryl's ward showed us around after the session. It has fanciful chairs.

After lunch in the cafeteria we went sightseeing in Lexington and Concord. There was a visitors center with a cool interactive movie about the start of the revolutionary war. We drove over to the north bridge where there's a statue of the minuteman--the farmer who left his plow to go fight the war.

The Minuteman

The second day we worked--Dad on the deck and he and Trevor put on the mirror to the dresser. That bedroom set was bought 60 years ago by my parents and it must have been good quality to be still used by a great-grandson! Sheryl and I went to the fabric store and made valances--4 blue and 6 maroon. Sheryl cut and I sewed and they turned out cute. Serendipitously some of the walls are painted Sheryl's favorite color--maroon. The shutters are maroon and their 2 new cars are maroon!

Sheryl's new car. It has 4-wheel drive, heated seats, and gets good mileage.

It's a busy family. Trevor went to driver training class and Jason went to Institute class. Trevor played duets with his Mom. Grandpa enjoyed the hot tub.

On Saturday the whole family went to the coast. You don't think of New Hampshire as being on the coast but there are 13 miles of it. We went to a cool science center there. The lobsters were fascinating.

This morning (Sunday) we went for a walk on a nice trail in the woods. Curtis is getting tall and has large feet! Sheryl is looking good, has lost 10 lbs. and is letting her grey hair grow out. Some stranger told her she looked like her Dad.

I think the move has been good for them even though it's hard to think of them on the opposite coast from us. Sheryl said that when Jonathan had his interview to come here, she didn't want to go, but she prayed and got the impression not to fight it, that it would be good for the family. That has proved true for the boys who are doing better in school. Trevor is in a very small high school close to their home (425 students). Sheryl was also blessed to find a good job with flexible hours. They live way out in the country in a small town called Litchfield. There is no downtown to Litchfield. They live in a nice neighborhood, but they have to drive a ways to work, Sheryl north to Bedford and Jonathan south to Hudson. We're going to church in Nashua, about 20 minutes away. I feel much better about it now after seeing how well things have worked out for them.