Spring Has Sprung!

Well spring has finally arrived in full force here. It was 9o degrees Monday and Brooke spent the day playing in her pool. She really seemed to like it. She could splash around without making a big mess like in the tub. Jen and Danny spent the day out there with her, they worked on their tans, Brooke stayed in the shade and cool water.

There's also a bunch of flowers popping up around the yard and that means a bunch of bees too. The bumble bees I have been told don't sting, although I've never tested that theory I did chase them around for an hour or so trying to take some pictures of them and didn't get stung. They didn't even seem to notice I was there. There's also a lot of black flies out here so our hiking may be cut back for a few weeks but if you want to go with us as always let me know. I think our next one will either be the Moats or Welch and Dickey since they are snow free already. Anyhow there's pictures from the stuff above here if you like. There's also a video linked below of Brooke dancing to Elmo's World. It is however sideways because that's the way Jen took it. Just click here and it will take you to YouTube since it was too big to put up here.

That's about it around here but we hope to see everyone at Brooke's first birthday party next Friday. You should all have gotten an e-vite but if not consider this your invitation. I know we were given a few wrong e-mails but have tried to correct that but it is 6 PM on the 8th for pizza and cake at our place. Hope to see you then.

Mount Ellen Attempt

This Sunday Ryan and I made an attempt at climbing another of the New England 4000 footers. Mount Ellen is the thirs highest peak in Vermont and since the forcast was for 70's and sun we decided to give it a shot. Our plan was to take the Long Trail over Mt. Abraham which we had just climbed a few weeks ago and continue on the ridge over to Ellen and back. Sounds pretty simple and to get up Abraham was very easy. Unfortunately after that the trail was unbroken and still had 4 or more feet of snow on it that was so soft we sank up to our waist every few steps. We didn't bring our snowshoes or it would have been fine. Instead we got soaked and it slowed us down to about a mile an hour. After just a mile of that we decided that we had two choices. One was continue on and go down a different trail and end up 10 miles from our car, call Chris and hope he could pick us up and bring us to our back to our car at 8 at night or so or plan two was to turn around half way across the ridge and get back to our own car and home at a decent hour without inconveiniencing anyone else. Had the sun been out and the temperature been a little higher we would have gone with plan one. Since the forcast was all wrong and it was cold and cloudy all day we decided to save it for a better day and headed back to the car. Of course the sun came when we were almost finished to add insult to injury which livened our spirits a little bit. The Long Trail really is a beautiful well maintained trail and it was nice to do anothersection of it. If you'd like to see some pictures from this mess there's a few right here.

Mount Monadnock

Sunday we went over to climb Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey. They say it is the second most climbed mountain in the world, behind Mt. Fuji, and it was definitely crowded even on an early spring day. It's almost 3200 feet high but I figured it would be a good hike on such a nice day since it was far enough south to be a bit warmer and already free of snow so with no takers on our offer to join us off we went. The trail was about 4.5 miles round trip with 1900 feet of moderate climbing. Very similar to but just a bit shorter than Mt. Chocorua if you've ever done that. It was another perfect afternoon for a hike and it was a bit more of a climb than Pawtuckaway so it got us a little more into shape and got Brooke used to the backpack on a little longer hike, about 4 hours of hiking and an hour or so of breaks and summit time. There was nothing but 60 degree temps, sunshine and a few high clouds. From the top we could see the surrounding area all the way to the White and Green Mountains and the skyline of Boston. We had a wonderful day and if you'd like to see more you can click right here.

Easter and Mt. Pawtuckaway

Well we hope you all had a good Easter. Jen worked in the morning so Brooke and I went over to my Parents for an early dinner, waited for Jen to get out of work, watched the Masters and had dessert. Oddly enough there were just about as many for the five of us as there usually were for 25 of us. After that we went over to Jen's parents for more food and some poker. I came real close to winning the 120 dollar prize but Jen's Dad pulled four king's out of a hat to beat my Full house and that was pretty much that. Anyways there's a bunch of pictures here, mostly of the Easter egg decorating and Easter day plus a few others if you'd like.

Today we also went an climbed Mt. Pawtuckaway. If the park is open you can pretty much drive to within a half mile of the top and do a quick hike up a the last few hundred feet. The park however wasn't open yet so we ended up doing about a 4 hour 7 mile hike in from the gate. The Mountain Trail leaves from near that entrance to the park and winds around up to the top. It wasn't the quite the White Mountains but it was a decent spring warm up with enough climbing to tire you out and a rough enough trail to test out the new kid carrying backpack. The views from the fire tower on a perfect 60 degree day without clouds stretched from Mt. Monadnock to the Hancock Tower in Boston and east to the Atlantic Ocean and everything in between. It was a pretty neat hike and a great day out. Since we both had a camera there's lot's of pictures to see from the trip here. That's all for now, check back soon.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

Well it's almost Easter. Things are going to be much different this year so if we don't see you we hope you all have a great day. We were out grocery shopping today and the Easter Bunny showed up at Stop & Shop. We weren't sure how she'd react but she loved him, she went right to it and wouldn't let go of the bunny's mitten/paw. We didn't have our camera with us but for a two dollar donation to the Jimmy Fund they took this Polaroid for us. With a little photo shopping it came out pretty good. There will probably be more pictures from tomorrow so check back soon. That's all for now. Happy Easter!

Look Who's Crawling

Just a quick update here but after Brooke took her bath tonight she decided it was time to get up and go. It started with just three "crawls" I guess you'd call it but within a few minutes she was going across the whole living room. Our job just got a heck of a lot harder but it's pretty fun to see her do new things like this every day. Anyways here's a few short videos of her first few crawls if you want to see it.

Surprise!

Saturday was Paul's surprise 50th party. Somehow everyone managed to keep it a secret, of course since his actual birthday is next weekend it was a little easier but it got done all the same. Hopefully everyone had a good time, I know we all did and thank you to everyone who helped out from the food, to music to stalling him all day so he wouldn't stop by early. In case you were wondering it was a 60's/70's theme party so that's why we're all dressed funny. There's a bunch of pictures here from the party (I didn't take them for once) and if you missed or want to see the photo's from the slide show again they are all posted also. No music and no order to them but they're all located right here.

Walking...and maybe hiking too

Well it looks like Brooke is getting the hang of this walking thing a little more each day. She can cruise, well for her anyway, unassisted with the walker and can walk with the aide of a hula hoop too which really helps her wobble and catch her balance. I don't think it'll be long before she's off on her own but what do I know. There's a few videos below for you to check out if you'd like.

Also if it's as nice out as they say it will be Sunday we're thinking of going over to Raymond and hiking around Pawtuckaway State Park in the afternoon to test out the new backpack on actual trails and see how she likes it. There's some easy hiking trails up to the top of the peaks and around the area so if you'd like to join us let me know and we'll arrange something. That's about it for now, but check back in a few days and there might be some pictures of the hike if we go.