'Tis the Season...

It's been a while since our last post, one month to be exact, and it's been a busy month for us. I try to post every couple of weeks but we've been so busy I just haven't gotten to it. But don't worry ( I know you were ;-) )I haven't stopped taking pictures, I'm actually taking more because I got a new flash for my camera I've been figuring out, which means there's a lot to catch up on. Since the last post we've taken some Christmas card photos, stopped by the Nubble Lighthouse to check it out lit up on the way to LL Bean, gone to the mountains to cut down a wild, free range Christmas tree, set up and decorated two other Christmas trees, made cookies, gone shopping, had Travis's birthday party, had Danny come home for the holidays, had Christmas and visited with Chris and his family as well as a few other things. There's less pictures of each thing than usual to try and keep you from falling asleep if you choose to look at all the pictures but there's still a lot, 182 I believe, so if you're interested in seeing some or all of them just click right here.

FYI for anyone who might be interested there's the annual New Years Eve get together and micro brew tasting at my parents house. If you want to come just bring some micro brews you haven't had before for the tasting and show up ready for good food, good beer and a good time. That's about it for now. We hope you had a s great a Christmas as we did and hope to see you all soon. But if not have a happy and safe New Years and we'll catch up with you next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past week was Thanksgiving. As there usually is we had a big crowd with lots of family to celebrate with and be thankful for. This year it was pretty amazing that for dinner all 29 people from the Kukesh side of our family were there, plus Russell to round out the number at 30. From San Francisco to Boston and everywhere in between everyone managed to make it for the holiday, which hasn't happened in quite a while. Later in the day the Fieldsend side of the family came to visit which made 18 out of 21 on that side of the family accounted for which wasn't too shabby either. After that we went to Jen's parents where a good chunk of her family showed up too, making for another 21 people to see. All in all I think we saw 54 people other than ourselves, unless I forgot someone, which made for a busy but fun day. I tried not to stick my camera in too many peoples faces but there are a few pictures from the day as well as a few other recent things here if you want to see them.

Other than that it's now the Christmas season. It will be Emily's first. Between that and the fact that Brooke really gets it now it should be lots of fun. I know it will fly by but hopefully we'll see most of you again before it's over. I'm sure I'll get plenty of pictures of everything and eventually I'll get them up so check back again in a little while.

Oh, almost forgot. Anyone who wants a print of the "Kukesh" family photo let me know. I thought it came out pretty good. I had a few to chose from but in this one nobody is blinking or blocked out and even the babies were looking at the camera. Just tell me the size and how many and I can either print them up and bring it to you, mail it to you or have it printed and ready for pick up at your closest Walmart, drug store etc. OK, that's it. Bye for now!

Climbing; Mountains & Stairs

This past weekend Ryan, Jon and I went on an overnight hike up Mount Lafayette. Hard to believe but it had been over a year since we last got out for a hike together. As sort of a training run for a winter Presidential traverse we decided on Mount Lafayette, after much discussion, up the Schoochumchuck Trail since we had never been up that one. We hiked about an hour the first night with headlamps and set up a nice little camp site, made dinner and went to bed. We got an early start the next day and summited in some strong cold winds late in the mostly overcast morning, but all in all it wasn't too bad for mid November. It was Jon's first 4000 footer, my 125th if I counted right and somewhere in between that for Ryan. The trip down was uneventful and it was in the 50's down low so for once we made it back to the car at a decent hour. There's pictures from the trip here if you are interested. There's also a video of the view from the summit of North Lafayette below if you're interested.

There are a couple short new videos below of the girls too but that's about it. There hasn't been much going on lately so no other pictures this time.Thanksgiving is next week however and there is supposed to be quite a crowd this year so there should be some from that. Hope to see all the family then. Bye for now!

Mother Nature played a mean trick on us this year for trick or treat. A couple days before the big day we got an overnight dusting of snow. Then the next day a big Nor'easter came through dumping anywhere from a couple inches to 32 inches of snow across the region. Because the trees still have leaves they collected a lot of snow and fell on the wires which knocked out power across New England for days, even over a week to many, which delayed trick or treat for most people, including us. Brooke took it in stride, knowing the big day would come, and when it finally did she was very excited. She was really into it this year and ran from house to house filling a bag with candy, most of which she couldn't eat. She had lots of fun all the same and it was really fun to see her that excited about it.

There's a bunch of pictures here of the pumpkin carving, snow and trick or treat as well as a few from a ride we took down the beach today to feed the seagulls for lack of much else to do with two kids that suddenly came down with pretty bad colds. If you're interested in that you can find the pictures here. Other than that not too much exciting has gone on around here so that's all for now.

After hearing about our weekend up in Maine Brooke wanted us to take her to see some lighthouses too. Jen and I have also decided it would be a fun project to try and eventually see all the lighthouses on the Maine Coast. We figure it can be a longer term project and will give us another option for something fun and different to do on our days or afternoons off with the girls. Most of the lighthouses have either nice little parks, beaches, old forts and/or walking trails also so it should be a good thing for family trips. So with that in mind last Sunday we took the girls for a ride to Portland and saw 5 more lighthouses along the way, three of which we explored on the shore and two were visible on islands offshore. That gives us 9 in the last few weeks and gets us off to a good start towards our project of seeing the 60+ lights in the state. If you want to join us on any of the trips let us know. If it sounds like fun to anyone other than us there's a few good sites for information on them here. Lighthousefriends.com/me , mainelighthousetrail.com and visitmaine.com/attractions/sightseeing_tours/lighthouse/ .

Also, with some help from Brooke, we also had an anniversary dinner for my parents at home last weekend where we cooked a five course meal and served it to them. I paired the different courses each with a different wine and we joined them after the cooking for dinner and dessert. Brooke took their orders "diner" style, as in "What you like?! OK, What else?" and wrote out the menus. She also helped Jen serve some of it. We had a lot of fun doing it and I think they enjoyed it a lot also.

We also went apple and pumpkin picking, which is all new to Emily, and Jen took Brooke along with Chelsea and Evy to all get their nails done for Evy's birthday. I can't tell you how much fun Brooke had doing it and how excited she is to show everyone her nails whenever she sees them. Today we helped decorate the yard for Halloween. There's a few pictures of everything here if you're interested in seeing them. Trick or Treat is coming up and Brooke insists we all dress up. Hopefully if we get a nice afternoon or day off sometime we'll squeeze in another hike with the girls before it gets too cold for Em or maybe go visit another lighthouse or two. Whatever happens there will be another update and pictures coming in a little while so check back with us soon. That's all for now! 

Five Year Anniversary

Usually this blog is all about our girls, our family and what we've all been up to. This one is just about Jen and I. Friday the 7th was our 5th anniversary. Our families both have lots of strong marriages, from our parents, to our grandparents, to aunts, uncles and more. There are dozens that have lasted years, decades and even lifetimes, so our little 5 year mark kind of pales in comparison to many of those and might not be a real big deal to many people, but to us it was. Raising 2 wonderful daughters, 5 great years of marriage, working hard towards getting our very own house, 10 years of memories together and a lifetime more to come. We love what we've got and to me that's something to celebrate! 

We decided to do just that by going away for a night, just the two of us. Something we haven't done in a long time. We occasionally go out to dinner or off for a day trip by ourselves or even get to have a great weekend like we did for Jason's wedding without the girls but it's never just us. There's always kids, family, friends etc around, which is the way we like it, but we decided we should have a night every 5 years for just us so I surprised Jen with a night away at the Samoset Resort up in Rockland, Maine. The unseasonable record warmth almost made it feel like a summer weekend, even on the ocean. We had a nice ride up with the windows and sunroof open on a beautiful day, a great stay with amazing scenery and food at the hotel and then took our time returning home and looking for lighthouses along the way, even though after about 24 hours away we were really missing the girls and just wanted to get home. It really was a perfect weekend for us.

A little bit on each lighthouse we visited can be found by clicking the name here. The Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse was the one right outside the hotel. The Owls Head Lighthouse is apparently the most haunted lighthouse either in Maine or the US, not sure which. We didn't know that at the time and everything went just fine. Marshall Point Lighthouse was the third stop and you might recognize it if you've ever seen Forrest Gump. I guess it's the one he ends his cross country run at, although I don't remember it. Now I'll have to watch the movie again. Our final stop was Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, which is the one depicted on the Maine state quarter and is one of the most famous/visited lighthouses in New England. 

That said, if you want to see some pictures from this little trip you can click right here. If you don't, check back soon. There will be updated pictures of Emily's TWO teeth and her new and improved crawling video. Brooke is loving her dance classes and Jen likes her job, although there won't be many pictures of that. We need to go pumpkin and apple picking, the weather is great for hiking and Halloween is just around the corner so there are plenty of photo ops coming up. But for today it's just Jen and I, so check it out or check back soon. Bye for now!

So Long Summer

Summer is now unofficially and officially over. It's been a while since our last post because we haven't been up to a whole lot lately. Now that Jen's back to work we don't have many days off together anymore so we're not on the go as much but there are some pictures from the past three weeks to put up.

Charlene/Buppy's last birthday in her 40's was last week, we took the girls hiking in the Big Pines Natural Area last Sunday and we also went to LL Bean the other day, which to Brooke is like an amusement park for some reason. She loves it. Whenever we ask her what she wants to do it's usually "Go to Elobeans" and since Jen needed to do some shopping for Jason and Daniela's upcoming wedding it was a good reason to go to Freeport. That and Famous Dave's is up there so any reason to go that way is a good one for me. Also whenever Jen works I try to take the girls out for some fresh air and exercise on some trips to the beach or small local hikes/walks. I'm not very good at staying in and being crafty for the day plus sunshine, fresh air and exercise are good for you right?

Anyhow the pictures are here if you want to check them out. This weekend we'll be down in the big city for the wedding and then it's mine and Jen's 5th anniversary. With the foliage changing I'm hoping to make a few trips up north to see it and maybe one around Casco Bay on the boat cruise to check it out there too. If anyone wants to join us let us know, we're always happy to have company.

There's also a video below of Brooke doing her a capella version of Taylor Swift's "Mean" which we thought was pretty cute and a newly updated video of Emily starting to crawl! Feel free to check those out as well. That's all for now.

Labor Day Weekend

Lets see, where should I begin? Summer is unofficially over now and we had a great one. If it's possible we're vacationed out. Lot's of camping, hiking, visiting and relaxing in Acadia, Vermont, the White Mountains, Chebeague, and Winnipesaukee has just about worn us out. Not so much the vacationing and relaxing as the packing and unpacking for us and two young girls.

To finish off our summer we decided to try and beat the heat and humidity this past Saturday with a cruise around Casco Bay out to Cliff Island where we had lunch and walked around for a few hours. Greg and Anne decided to accompany us on that little journey and we had a lot of fun. A Lobster BLT, a lobster pizza and even Lobster Tracks ice cream were some of the treats we got on the island. It was hot and humid on the shore but 6 miles out at sea it was sunny and 75 and a perfect place to spend the day. We walked about three miles around the island and visited the Bluffs that look out into the Atlantic as well as Griffins Cove and Stinky Beach. It was very similar to Chebeague only smaller and more rustic. None of the big new homes and everyone rides around in golf carts. We finished that day off with a stop at " 'Mous Daves " as Brooke likes to call it for some end of summer BBQ. It was a great way to finish up summer.

For the next couple of days we decided to get our moneys worth out of our State Parks license plate. Sunday we took a trip to the mountains for a hike and a swim but the hike was cancelled because some lazy state worker must have left early for the weekend and didn't bother taking down the sign that said the area we wanted to hike in was closed and the car would be towed. I had a feeling that was what happened, and when I checked at home sure enough it was, but I didn't want to risk coming back to no car miles from a town so we skipped the hike and headed to White Lake State Park for a swim. After a rumble of thunder cleared that place out we went up to North Conway to finish cooling off and at least rinse off the sand at Echo Lake State Park and get some dinner. Then we went for a ride to look for moose and after driving all the way to Berlin we discovered the road Grammy Betty and I almost always saw moose on is now part of the prison and fenced off with warning signs about trespassing. To top that off a huge, and I mean HUGE thunderstorm descended down own us for about half an hour with torrential downpours and more lightning than I ever remember seeing in my life. Monday we stayed local and went to visit Rye Harbor State Park and Odiorne State Park for the afternoon.

Other than that Emily has gotten her first tooth, Brooke starts her tap/ballet classes Monday, Jen starts her new job Thursday, I have Jason's bachelor weekend this weekend and then in a few weeks it's his wedding. I don't know how much of that I will have pictures of other than the tooth but I'm sure there will be some of something sometime soon so check back in a little while for more. That's my book as Jen likes to call it. There's a bunch of pictures from the trips here if you're interested or you can click on the pictures above to get to them.

Camp 2011

Well the summer is coming to a quick end and our vacations wrapped up with a week at Lake Winnipesaukee. We had a good week weather-wise, with only one whole day of rain and a few quick showers here and there. Other than that there was plenty of relaxing, sunning, swimming, hiking and other fun stuff to do. It was great to spend a week or even a few days with everyone there again also since our paths don't all cross as much as they used to. Brooke had a really good time with Cameron and Em seemed to have fun on her first trip checking things out with Brandon. Jen and I also had a lot of fun so thanks again to everyone there for everything.

As you might expect there are a bunch of pictures from the week right here. Click on the link here or on the pictures above to check them out. There's also a video below of the girls enjoying the lake and another one I thought was cute of Emily the other night. Check them all out and check back soon for more. Bye for now.

Chebeague Island 2011

Last week we headed up the Maine coast to Chebeague Island in Casco Bay to meet my parents, Chris and his family, the Troys, Barons and a bunch of other faces throughout the week. It's a beautiful area and the house we rented was right on the Atlantic Ocean. It probably has one of the best views on the east coast. It's surrounded by the other islands, the mid-coast of Maine, the Atlantic, lobster buoys and boats of all kinds. There are 3 or 4 lighthouses that you can see from the yard, a typical rocky Maine beach at the bottom of the bluff and a handful of sandy beaches within a few minutes walk or drive. It was a great place to spend a week. Probably just about the right amount of time too, since a week on a 3 x 1.5 island lets you see and do most of what there is to see and do. I suppose with the right people and good weather you can spend time anywhere and enjoy it, but as far as the island itself goes any longer than a week and you'd start doing the same stuff over and over and maybe going a little stir crazy. It sure was a great spot to spend a week in the summer though.

We spent our time there beach combing, suntanning, swimming, riding bikes, hiking, playing games in the yard and finished up with a lobster bake and a fire on the beach. For flat out relaxing it doesn't get much better than that place. No TV, no Internet and only occasional phone service. We were only a few miles from Maine's largest city but may as well have been in the middle of the ocean with nothing to do but relax and get away from everyday life. Since it's where I spent many summer vacations as a kid I was excited to go back with my own family and see what had, or in most cases hadn't changed. Everything I used to do as a kid we got to do with our own kids and Chris's kids which was pretty cool.

Finally, since it's what I like to do, I spent a lot of time, way too much if you ask Jen, taking pictures. Not knowing when I'll ever get back I wanted to capture everything to look back at down the road so there are a lot of pictures. I've narrowed down the 2000 or so I took to a few hundred of my favorites and I broke those down into a few smaller groups so you can see as many or as few as you want. I also played around with a few dozen and turned them into HDR images. Some came out good and some don't look much different from the original photo. Since people usually look sun burnt in HDR they are mostly scenic photos. To see whatever you might be interested in just click on the pictures below. If anyone sees any pictures they like and would like to print up let me know (drf77@aol.com) and I'll either have them printed for you or e-mail you the original file because they don't come out great when you download them from the blog/Picasa.

Next week it's off to Lake Winnipesaukee for another relaxing week by the water and hopefully some golf and a hike or two. If Jen doesn't divorce me or throw my camera in the lake there should be a bunch of new pictures up soon from that so check back in a bit if you're interested. That's all for now.

Arrival & Hamilton Beach

Bike Ride, Sunrise & Little Chebeague

Sunrise, Sunnyside, Boats & More 

Beach, Lobster Bake & Bonfire

Chebeague in HDR



Summer Vacation!

To start our vacation week we headed up to Vermont to spend the long weekend with Chris and his family. His birthday was that Friday and the the long holiday weekend made it perfect for an extended visit.We were all excited to get up there for more than our usual 24 hour quick visit but nobody more than Brooke. She was so excited she "couldn't hardly wait" and we all had a great time up there. The weather was nice and summer-like, finally, and we worked in cookouts, Tyler's first big hike, a baseball game, a parade and much more.

After that since we had to cancel our Acadia camping trip we headed over to the White Mountains for a few days of camping, hiking, swimming and Clark's Trading Post. The weather cooperated there for the most part as well and except for one not so little thunderstorm everything went perfectly. We got home Friday and then Chris and his family showed up for the weekend for Daniella's shower which was a nice added bonus for Brooke, and us, to see them all again so soon. I won't bother writing a book, I'll just say it was great to get to spend an entire week with Jen and the kids, there's nothing I'd rather do than hang out with them and see everything they're doing these days and how quickly they're growing up.

The pictures can tell you the story if you want to know about it. As with my usual vacations there are A LOT of pictures so Brooke, and anyone else who doesn't get bored with them, can see what we were up to. They are broken into two parts. Part one is Vermont and I guess that leaves part two as New Hampshire. Click on the state name above or the pictures below to get to whichever ones you might be interested in. Fair warning, they might take a minute to load.

If that's not enough there's a few more on Chris's blog too from the visit and also there's a couple quick videos of the bears at Clark's playing "Bearsketball" and riding a scooter at the bottom of the page you can check out. That's all for now but in a couple weeks we're off again for more R&R so check back soon.

VERMONT

 NEW HAMPSHIRE



Summer is here!! I think...

Summer has officially arrived! Long cloudy days, temps in the 50's and 60's, ahhhhhh. What more could you ask for!? Especially since we shelled out money for a new NH state parks license plate that lets us park for free at the lakes and beaches! At least it gave Jen some time to potty train Brooke. She had it done in 3 days! Pretty amazing huh? Anyways, in between the crummy days we've managed to get a few warm sunny ones, usually Mondays after rainy crummy weekends, but we've tried to make the best of it anyhow. Jen turned the big 3-1 if you didn't guess from the picture above, and we've squeezed in a day at the beach, Jen has gone to Pawtuckaway Lake a couple times and we made it to York's Wild Kingdom with a ticket from the Maggie Fairy when Brooke was finally convinced to give up her pacifier. She still has a ticket to Story Land from the fairy too and if the weather is good we'll be going up there next week and camping for a few days after a long weekend in Vermont. If anyone would like to go then I know she'd love to have a friend or friends along for the day and we're thinking Wednesday will be the day, so if you want to go let us know.

For now there's some pictures of the summer if you're interested. There's a lot of the animals at York's because Brooke likes to look at the Blog and re-live what she's been up to lately but there's more of other stuff too so if you're interested click right here. That's all for now but we have a very busy summer planned out and there will be lots more to share so check back soon!

Story Land

Last year we tried to get Brooke to Story Land but things kept coming up and we never made it. This past weekend however it finally happened. Between Story land itself and her cousins meeting us there Brooke was so excited she could barely contain herself which was a lot of fun to see. We had gone up the day before with plans to go for a hike and to camp out nearby so we could get there early but the bugs were so bad during the day the hike had to be cancelled. Other than that camping worked out well, the weather was perfect the whole weekend and we had a good time with that part of the weekend. We met my Parents, Chris and his family and Brett and his family up there Sunday morning at Story Land and all the kids got to go and have fun together. Even the black flies, which were REALLY bad, couldn't stop us from enjoying the day. There was a lot more than I realized to do there and we didn't manage to get it all in. No big deal though as I'm sure Brooke can't wait to go back again once the bugs are gone. There's a lot of pictures from the day and you can find them here if you want to.

If the weather's nice this weekend I'm thinking maybe golf one afternoon and the other might be good for a little local hike as Jen and Brooke will have been at home most of the week working hard on potty training. It might be nice for them to get out since the bugs are gone from around here. Pawtuckaway hasn't happened yet and we have our new park pass license plate that will get our car and it's occupants in for free so if you want to go let us know and we can save the first couple people who tell us 4 bucks each if they want to ride with us. That's all for now, hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the day.

Well we're back from our Memorial Day weekend in Acadia. We headed up for Emily's first camping Friday afternoon under the bright 90 degree sunshine with great expectations. It was a beautiful ride to Bangor where we, and the weather, turned and headed south to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. As we got closer the temperature dropped steadily and when we finally got to within a few miles of the coast a thick coastal fog set in over the campground and most of the island along with 58 degree temps.

The cool weather there did make for nice campfire nights so I guess it could have been worse. At least it didn't actually rain until the 4 am thunderstorm Monday morning and everything but the weather was great. The camping, family, friends, food and drinks made up for the lousy weather and we had a great weekend in spite of the fog. It did limit the hiking we had planned since little kids and kids in packs didn't seem to mix with wet slippery rocks and cold viewless summits. We squeezed in a decent four mile hike along Ocean Path Saturday and for some reason downtown Bar Harbor was sunny on Sunday so we spent most of our time away from camp there that day.

Of course on Monday after the thunderstorm the clouds and fog lifted and it turned into a beautiful day so Jen, the girls and I drove around a bit and walked the Cadillac summit loop before we headed home around one. I felt bad for the people who hadn't been there before and drove 4 hours to see a fog bank but hopefully they all enjoyed the rest of the experience and will go back sometime again with us to see what they missed out on. Or maybe they don't even care about the scenery, who knows. Overall Emily's first camping trip went great and we're ready for summer to arrive now. So now that my book is written there are a lot of pictures if you're interested right here. If you check them out and this looks like fun to you we love to go every chance we get so let us know if you want to plan a trip sometime. If we're free we'll be there.