Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas this year. Ours was busy and different but wonderful. The day really flies by when you have a baby we found out. By the time the presents, packing and dinners are done there unfortunately wasn't enough time left in the day to visit with everyone so if we missed you or just crossed paths briefly we're sorry but hope you all had a great day, we did and if you'd like to see any pictures of it you can click here.


Speaking of pictures this year I got an amazing present, a new digital SLR. I'm really excited about it because now I can use all the lenses, filters, flashes, tripods etc that I have collected over the years for my 35 mm cameras to take better more detailed and creative pictures again than I have been able to with my point and shoot even though it is a very good point and shoot there's lots of things I just couldn't do with it. That means better portraits of Brooke, better vacation and hiking pictures and just better pictures overall. The one below of Brooke with the bear is from the new camera, the rest are the last batch from the old one. Hope you enjoy them either way.

Where to start? There's been a lot going on around here lately since the last post. I guess we started a few weeks ago by getting our tree. Jen likes to get it the first Wednesday of December so on the third off we went to pick one out. Brooke seemed unconcerned with the tree in the house but she did seem to love the lights and ornaments. For pictures of this years tree click here.

Then this Thursday night and Friday we went through the worst ice storm in NH history. over 400,000 people lost power, most for days at a time. We stayed at home the first night but when it got cold went over to my parents house to help out there and stay warm with their fireplace and wood stove for a few days until power came back. They finally got it back Monday afternoon which sounds like a long time but some like Denny Baron still don't have it in Stratham and all of Kensington is still out and they were told it could be weeks before they get all the parts. The police said there is a permanent detail outside of Unitil there because angry people keep showing up looking for answers. The power companies went through a years worth of parts in a few days and now have to wait for more to arrive before they can help. It actually makes me appreciate paying a few dollars a day to power the lights, heat, stove TV etc. No more complaining about the electric bill for a while for me. Anyhow there's some pictures of that whole mess here.

Finally Travis turned the big 2-0 this weekend. We celebrated with pizza and a store bought tiramisu cake because Jen's parents didn't get power back until Tuesday afternoon. There's some pictures from that here also. There's also a few videos below, one of Brooke freaking out with her snow globe and one of her playing peek-a-boo. Well, that is probably it until after Christmas so we hope to see everyone soon. Until then Merry Christmas!

Peek-A-Boo

Enjoying her snow globe

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, especially those we missed this year. This is also my 100th post, not that that's a big deal, so on to bigger things. This was Brooke's first Thanksgiving and we all had a very good day. She got to visit with lots of people and at least see what a big Thanksgiving dinner looks like. She couldn't eat it this year, and since we found out she's allergic to milk and dairy products she might not be able to eat most of it until she hopefully grows out of that, but that might be years or even never. In the meantime if you are with her she absolutely cannot eat dairy products or products with them. Unfortunately for her this includes chocolate, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, milk, butter, cream cheese etc etc etc. The doc said most kids grow out of it in a few years so we hope she does too. If not we'll make the best of it. Anyways here are some pictures from the last week or so including the 26 person feast with the Kukesh side of the family and the evening at the Fords for Thanksgiving.

6 Months, Older pics and Mt. Hancock

Time continues to fly by. Our little girl is 6 months old now and growing up very fast. Her personality is starting to come through. She's curious, friendly, funny, stubborn and also seems very smart to us, but all parents probably think that last one. Anyhow, she's onto her solid foods now and not just milk so it's a whole new world for her to see what she likes and dislikes. One thing we know she doesn't like is formula, she just pushes the bottle away over and over until you give up. I also finally got Jen's camera and loaded up some of the slightly older pictures from the last month too, all of those and some newer ones can be found here.

Greg and I went out today and climbed the Hancocks, two of the last 17 4000 footers he needed to finish his list. The rain stopped the minute we got out of the car but the sun never came out. It was a nice hike through some beautiful woods but it must have rained up there hard all weekend because all the rivers and streams were swollen. Not dangerously swollen but about a foot deeper than usual, making for a tough day of trying to stay dry. It was the third time I have hiked these mountains and for the third time I saw nothing from the top unfortunately but it was good to get out for a day and there's some pictures here. Those of you who backed out (Ryan and Travis) missed a nice adventurous day of hiking. Maybe next time. Also if you were curious what this looks like in the dead of winter there's some pictures from an older trip here.

A big week for Brooke is in the books. She had her first Halloween and she got baptized. She didn't really like being dressed up for trick or treating probably because her Pumpkin suit was a bit short for her. She will be 6 months old on the 8th but she is tall for her age so lots of the 3-6 month clothes (like her pumpkin suit) don't fit very well. When we bought her gown for the baptism a few weeks ago it was a little big on her but she grew right into it and it fit perfectly for her big day. Everything else went well also so thank you to everyone who helped out with the food, came to the event and sent gifts and well wishes. We enjoyed it and hope everyone else did too. There's pictures here of everything this week but I didn't take many of the baptism ones so if you're unhappy with how you look in any of them blame Grampy Dew this time, not me.

Vacation at Loon Mountain

This past week has been a nice relaxing vacation for all of us up at Loon Mountain. We got to visit for a day with Chris, Katie, Tyler and Anna as well as spend a few days with my parents while up there. It was nice to all get together since we don't do that often and since the weather was pretty nice we all went for a ride up the Tramway at Cannon. After that the cousins all got to hang out for a while before Katie left with Anna to go to her parents house in Peacham Vermont for the night. We brought Chris and Tyler up that way the next day where we visited and had lunch with everyone there for a while and toured the Peacham area. My parents went home for a couple nights so we had a few days to ourselves also where we went on an easy hike and did a bit of shopping at the outlets in Conway. Tuesday my parents came back up for a few more days and we headed back Wednesday afternoon. It was a good trip, I enjoyed having time with my family and Brooke for 5 whole days. Seeing what she does with an entire day was nice since I usually only see bits and pieces of it and lately there's a lot going on with her. She's starting to stand and sit up as well as roll over and laugh a lot. She's changing really fast but it was great to see it all. Well that's enough of that, there's a lot of pictures so they're broken up and linked individually so if you want to see more just click away.

5 Months/2Years/Columbus Day Hike

We've had a busy week over here. Tuesday was our second wedding anniversary and we celebrated by going out to dinner and eating a two year old cake top, which was surprisingly still good. We left Brooke for the first time of any length a babysitter, actually two. My parents were nice enough to come over and watch her for the evening. We got our first night out without her and she got babysat for the first time. Everyone had a good time I think, I know we did and there's a few pictures of some of it here.

Then this weekend the weather was so nice I couldn't pass up a chance at another hiking trip. Travis joined me and we left Sunday morning, after dropping Brooke off with her other grandparents for the morning while Jen worked, and headed north to climb Mt's Lincoln and Lafayette on one of my favorite trails. We had a great day for a great hike but it was as crowded as I've ever seen it. It would have been a good day to do a more isolated mountain had I known it was Canadian Thanksgiving weekend as well as Columbus Day. I just found that out today but it explains why 90 percent of the hundreds of hikers were Canadian and spoke French. Here I thought they were just really big fans of Christopher Columbus. Anyhow we had a crowded but great hike and there's lots of pictures of that here. There's a quick video below of Cloudland Falls too if you like. Thanks for checking in.

5 Months & Mt. Osceola

I know it's been a little while since my last update. Just a little busy lately I guess but Brooke will be 5 months old this Wednesday. Time really flies by but we're having lots of fun. She's discovering lots of new things (like her feet), her teeth are coming in on the top and she's finally getting her hair back now. She was battling a cough/cold for about three weeks but seems to be getting over that finally also. She talks a lot more these days and is trying to roll over also but has only done that once in her crib while we weren't looking so there's no pictures of that yet. She has been out to dinner at Margaritas to celebrate Liz passing her NH bar exam (but the pictures are on Jens camera so they're not up yet) and we all went on another hike too. It might have been her last big hike of the season unless we get some warmer weather since it was only 40 degrees on top and just 50 down the bottom. I think that's her safe limit even with her wool sweater and fleece suit we bought her. There are plenty of pictures of all this here if you're interested, thanks for checking in and if you ever want to come visit we're home quite often and the gas wars of Newmarket continue so you can fill up cheap (2.93 - 2.99 today) while you're over this way.

Mount Katahdin

Well I finally made it. After years of trying and planning and getting rained out I finally got to the top of Maine. I was supposed to meet up with Ryan, Steven and Dan to hike this one together but due to a some poor communication, lack of phone reception and bad luck I wound up hiking it mostly solo.

I woke up late because my alarm/phone died in the cold night air and hurried there, assuming they had already started since I told them if I was late for some reason not to wait and I'd try to catch up if I could. They however were told by rangers that the trail I went to was full and they needed to go elsewhere. Mike dropped me off since he wasn't hiking because of a bad heel and I went on my way. They ended up climbing up from the camp ground we were all staying at that night. We even passed them on the way to the trail but neither of us knew what car the other had so we just drove by each other. I crossed paths with them in the middle of the Knife Edge going in opposite directions so we continued on our ways and met up at a pond to finish the hike back to Mike's car together. We all went back to our sites and the five of us had a great all you can eat Meat House dinner.

It was a beautiful day out to hike alone and take pictures. Alone isn't even really correct since this mountain that is heavily "restricted" to a limited number of climbers was probably the busiest I have ever been on. Mount Katahdin has at least seven peaks, the highest of which is Baxter Peak at 5267 feet. I also went over Pamola, Chimney and South peaks. Those four are the most spectacular so I had to get them in on this perfect day. Hamlin and Howe are kind of flat and dull so they will have to wait for another day. I met plenty of friendly hikers along the trails, most from Canada, who were chatty enough enough to keep me company from time to time. Everyone had great hikes one way or another. To see our different routes click the map below and to see my pictures click here. For a panoramic summit view click the video at the bottom.

Happy Birthday Charlene!

Brooke's been battling a little cough for the last week or so and we haven't been out much. She finally had her three month check-up Friday (at 4 months old) and she looked great. 14 pounds 1 ounce and 27 3/4 inches tall! That's in the 95th percentile for height, she must have got that from Jen. Her hair is coming back a little also but we're not sure if it's light brown or blond. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Wednesday was Charlene's birthday and we had the party at our place. Chinese food, cake, ice cream and poker. Sounds like a good night to me. Brooke enjoyed the balloons and cake a lot as you'll see if you click here.


Also either next Sunday and or the one after that we'll be going on some foliage hikes. Depending on who wants to go and how good the weather is we can do anything from flat scenic walks with ponds and waterfalls to 4000 footers. I've got lots of ideas (Mt. Potash, Mt. Osceola, the Franconia Ridge, Zealand Notch, Lonesome Lake and Franconia Falls are on the short list) so if you want to go see the foliage up north and join Brooke on a hike this is a good chance. If you're interested let me know and I'll fill you in on the details.

4 Months Old

What a crappy finish to a good weekend with Tom Brady probably gone for the year already. On the bright side that frees up more Sundays for me to go hiking so if anyone is interested give me a call. Brooke turns 4 month's old on Monday the 8th and she's growing up fast. Nana Noveska saw her this weekend for the first time since June. Stan and Sophia brought her over to visit while she was up for the weekend. Brooke is like a different person than she was then. She talks and smiles and laughs now. Growing up way to fast for me I can tell you that.

We also took Brooke up Staratham Hill today since the weather was nice. It's an easy .3 mile hike with about 150 feet of elevation gain to the 290 foot summit. From there it's up about another 50 feet of tower so you can see all around. The views were surprisingly good. You could see Portsmouth, the Isles of Shoals, some of Portsmouth Country Club even as far away as Mt. Washington 88 miles to the north, or so the thing said. It was very clear but without binoculars it was hard to tell exactly what bump on the horizon it might have been. I'll be heading back on another nice day with them to check it out more but to check out pictures from this weekend click here.

Labor Day weekend

We all hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend. It's been a busy end to summer for everyone over this way. Brooke has been going around visiting lots of people. We all went out for Danny's 22nd birthday to the Hibachi grill. She's also been visiting with Jen's friends and went up to Jen's parent's old campground to visit everyone up there. There's a bunch of pictures all together here from the last week or two if you'd like to see them. On Labor Day Brooke attempted her first 4000 footer. She's been working her way up to it and we got a day with perfect weather so we set out to try and climb one of the easier big mountains. Together with Travis, Mannie and Bapcia we went up to climb Mount Eisenhower. At 4760 feet it's number 11 on the list but a fairly easy climb. The temps were in the 70's to the upper 60's up higher with sunshine and visibility of 120 miles. The only problem was that above treeline the winds were blowing 33 mph and gusting to 45 according to the Mount Washington Observatory. We had plenty of clothes and windproof gear for her but Brooke didn't like the flapping of the clothes and Bapcia said her hands were cold so they waited for us at treeline out of the wind. I offered up my windbreaker to Charlene like a good son in law so she could go to the top, since I had climbed it twice before, but she wanted to stay with Brooke out of the wind. The rest of us fought the winds for ten more minutes up the last 1/3 mile to the top. We all had a great hike on a perfect day so check all that out here if you want.

Just a few quick videos too. One of the wind and 120 mile panoramic views from Mount Eisenhower and the other of Brooke chatting with Miss Thang. Enjoy!

Well today concluded a tough couple of days as we laid Grammy Betty to rest. She had a beautiful service on a perfect day and I know somewhere she's smiling down watching over all of us now just like she did when she was here. The Academy honored her by lowering it's flag to half staff. That seemed pretty special and I took some photo's of it by special request, you can see them here. If anyone else would like some (or any other pictures they ever see here) just let me kow what number(s) and how big, I can print them up to 8 x 10 and also 3 x 5, 4 x 6, and 5 x 7 if you have a frame you'd like to put them in. I'll get them to you asap.

The last picture is just one I took a few weeks ago. It reminded me of heaven when I took it so I gave one to Grammy with a note on the back as one last present. It is from the Kancamaugus Highway, one of our most frequented stops on our many trips. It will laways remind me of her and all the good times we had as well as where she is now. If anyone ever deserved to be in heaven it's her.

For those who haven't heard our Grammy Betty passed away today. She would have been 80 in October. In those 80 years she managed to raise a great family and be a great Grandmother to me. I shared a lot of special times with her out sight seeing, pick nicking and "Moosing" until all hours of the morning and have loads of great memories from those trips. That was something really special to me and something I'm really going to miss. It took me years to talk her into going up Mt. Washington on the auto road but last fall she even did that. She was so proud of herself and I was proud of her for having that adventurous side to her right to the end. Even though she's gone too soon I feel very lucky that I got to have her around for 31 years and do all the things we did together. If you read this please say a prayer for her. She was a one of a kind Grammy and we're really going to miss her. Information on her and the services if you're interested can be found here.

New faces and places

Brooke is 14 weeks old now and getting big fast. She had a busy week since getting back from camp. Uncle Scott, Aunt Therese and Jennifer were in town for a few days so there were a few new face for Brooke to meet. Saturday afternoon Jen and I went to Jennie's wedding and we left her for the first time with a babysitter. My parents got the job and everything seemed to go really well. Also since Brooke can hold her head up well enough to ride facing forwards in the Baby Bjorn now so we decided to take her on a more adventurous hike than her last one and we decided to see how things would go if we went up Mount Chocorua on Sunday since the weather was so nice. Jen's Mom, Bapcia, decided to join us for her first hike too. Everything went pretty well we thought so now we can take her more often. Pictures from all of this can be found here, there's a lot so sit back and enjoy the show.

Sunday afternoon we met some of Jen's special friends down in Middleton for lunch. Warren and Priscilla had been visiting Jen at Abercrombies every Sunday for years until she left. They call her their adopted granddaughter. Jen has gotten to be friends with Warren's granddaughter and her husband too. They recently had a baby also so when Rebecca, their daughter, was finally old enough we all got together at a great restaurant called Angelica's. We had a great time with everyone letting our girls meet. It's amazing how quickly babies change when you see yours next to one just 7 weeks younger than her. She's growing up really quick so here's a few pictures of us at lunch before Brooke can feed herself.

In case you haven't heard yet...

check out Brett's blog

3 Month's Old/Camp '08

Well, another week at camp has come and gone. It was our first family vacation with Brooke. We spent a week on the lake in either Seattle or Laconia, I'm not sure which. One of the storms even washed out and closed the road to Weir's Beach. It rained every single day, except the Saturday we were leaving of course, but we still had a good time with everyone up there. Lot's of people came and went during the week but overall it was a smaller crowd this year. There were enough breaks of sun that I could get my yearly day of tanning/burning in and plenty of drinks to pass the rainy days and nights away. Brooke turned three month's old the Friday we were up there. We think she was going through a growth spurt while we were there too because she slept/ate/fussed more than usual, but she was still pretty good we thought. She slept through the night's, that was our biggest concern, so we were happy with that. Anyhow, there's a lot of pictures here if you want to see them. Thanks again to everyone for everything up at the lake this week. We enjoyed it.

12 Weeks

It's been a little while since my last post so there's a mix of pictures from the last week or so here. For the first time since she was a week old Brooke was left with me while Jen worked for a night. We did just fine with the bottles so it probably won't be long before it happens again. Tonight we took Brooke on her first trip into Maine. We met the Baron's, John Troy and my parents at Chauncy Creek for lobster. We had a good time and it was great to see everyone there even if it was just a brief visit this time. This comming week we'll be up at Lake Winnipesaukee so there should be plenty of pictures when we get back. Thanks for checking in.

Brooke's new buddy

Tonight the Haas's came over with their daughter Anna, who is about a month older than Brooke. Brooke got to meet a new friend and the rest of us had pizza and beer. The girls seemed to get along pretty well. Anna can stand on her own if helped up and is much more vocal than Brooke. There's some pictures here if you would like to see them and a video below of Anna standing up. That was amazing to me. Maybe all babies can do it by 3 1/2 months but it seemed pretty early to me. It's hard to imagine that in a month Brooke might be doing the same thing. They're growing up too fast already.