memorial day weekend

we had a great memorial day weekend filled with outdoor walks, exploration, quiet time, puzzles, mud, canoeing, s'mores & visits with family & friends. could you ask for anything more?

we took the scenic route on the drive up where we crossed three covered bridges, lily "saw china" and i saw a sign with the words: "3 kids for sale" on it (drove by too fast to actually read the descriptions of the kids). a third generation "harry belafonte fan" was solidified as that was all gracie listened to on the drive up and back; (i believe harry belafonte was pretty much required listening when pat was growing up.)

we spent the weekend at my good friend from high school (darlene)'s house near montpelier, vermont. darlene and her husband were gone the first couple of days, but caught up with us on monday. sunday was spent visiting with our niece, chelsea, and her husband. chelsea just graduated from vermont law school. saturday was spent on the stowe recreational path (after both pat and i took turns having late morning naps). the pictures pretty much tell the rest -

who knew a little foot bridge could be so much fun? i think we spent a good 20 minutes here while we walking the recreational path in stowe.

jake with a swollen bug bite at the top of his nose. we weren't in vermont for more than a few hours before he had a bite. the bugs have always loved him, poor guy. (when mosquitoes get in our car, i go after them with a passion that verges on maniacal because i worry they will just bite jake).

we also found a museum (??fine art store) off the path. it had a sculpture garden and fun stuff inside like this couch made of nickles.

one of dar's cats, harry, totally clinged to us when she was gone. we were fully prepared to be completely ignored when dar returned on monday.


chelsea and jake came over to eat dinner and roast marshmallows on sunday. they are cute couple and we've enjoyed getting to jake better through these visits. he's a good guy which chelsea more than deserves.




we were able to complete 3 of the 4 american girl mystery puzzles. i was a little disappointed that the clues to solve the mystery were just written on the puzzle in glow-in-the-dark paint. i would have preferred a more challenging and subtle approach, but the puzzles were enjoyable to do nonetheless. during the first puzzle, grace did abandon me for other things (in fairness to her it was after a good amount of helping). it just reminded me of all the times, i had abandoned my dad on puzzles while growing up and came back after he had made progress to help finish things off. sorry, dad! but no worries, i'm getting my just desserts now.


on monday, we went to the beachfront near dar and gerry's house. they have a canoe and we had fun going out on it. lily was scared to be on the canoe at first, but soon changed her mind and enjoyed it.



the men with the kiddos.


fact of life #241: kids always gravitate to mud, n'est pa?

dar and i holding our own in the canoe. we had done canoe trips together when we were teenagers (CUE "Memories" music - not "Memory from "Cats" - but the other one - doesn't barbara streisand sing it?).

jake fell asleep on the blanket and got a sunburn on the part of his arm that we left exposed.

grace and i went out together after this pic was taken. we did well until some high winds kicked in and struggled getting back to shore. but we made it once the wind died down - only to find out that dar was the only one who had faith in us returning. THANKS for the vote of confidence, DAR!!!!