It's The The Holiday Season...

 

 

 

 

 

Once again it's been a while since our last update. It's been a busy but wonderful holiday season for us this year. Christmas is just a few days away now and the girls are very excited about everything this year. They love the trees (which they've decorated 3 of) the lights, the songs, the elf on a shelf and everything else that comes along with this great time of year. On top of that if you didn't know by now Jen is pregnant again and has been feeling sick quite a bit with this one unfortunately. Other than the sickness were very excited about it and happy to say so far everything is going well with that.

Thanksgiving was fun, busy as always and not terribly relaxing, but fun. We went up to the White Mountains again this year to cut down a Christmas tree for the tall room of the house, which ended up being about 15 feet or so after the trimming was finished. Then we spent a few days down on Cape Cod and in Newport, Rhode Island relaxing and visiting the mansions that were all decorated for Christmas. The girls did great with that, they surprisingly really liked the mansions, which they called princess castles, and all the decorations so we spent a lot of time wandering through four of the biggest ones. They really got excited checking out everything from the tea sets to the bath tubs to the canopy beds. If you've never been they're pretty impressive and neat to wander through. The largest of them is The Breakers at 65,000 square feet, 70 rooms and would cost about 335 million dollars to build today. It's the 13th largest house in America and they used it for about 6 weeks a year often only on weekends when it was still an actual residence.

We've also had the Kukesh side of the family's Christmas party, where we had a great time and saw everyone on that side of the family except Peter and Katie. Travis had his birthday in there also and Brooke had her first Christmas Concert at school. In between all that we've been making cookies, ornaments, looking at lights and of course shopping and wrapping presents. Busy, busy, busy but tons of fun. The last couple days Emily had been sick with a fever of 103+ so that slowed things down a little but the Christmas season should finish with a flurry of activity as long as she gets better quickly.

That's about it but that's probably about enough for now. I've got quite a few pictures and have them broken down into two albums, pretty much the trip to the Cape and Newport and the rest of the holiday activities in the other one. Click on either one to get to those pictures. There's also a few videos below from Brooke's concert below if you're interested. They're all about a minute long so if you'd like to see them just click away. Check back soon as there's probably going to be a lot more from Christmas shortly. If we don't see you hope yours is wonderful this year and have a safe and happy new year!

Vermont, Storms & Baptism

 





So it's been a little while since the last update. We finally got a new computer which took a while to set up and get used to but now that we have it down this is much easier and faster so maybe I'll keep up with it a little more often.

 

Fall is turning into winter around here. After hurricane Sandy moved trick or treat to the Sunday before Halloween Brooke chose to go up to Vermont and trick or treat around the Shelburne Museum with her cousins instead of around here. We were going to go anyhow that day to visit but once it was moved we decided we'd better leave it up to her what we did, and apparently either she really missed her cousins or trick or treat doesn't hold the same draw to a kid who can only eat one out of every twenty or so pieces of candy she collects. I think it was some of both myself. Whatever it was we went up there that Sunday and went around the museum trick or treating at the different places. It's a really neat collection of old buildings, bridges, trains, boats, and more. Brooke even got more dairy free candy there than she ever gets around here so it worked out really well and we had a great day up there.

 

The hurricane came through and knocked out the power for the day, a nor'easter then dumped some snow on us, and once that was settled we finally got to Emily's baptism. Chris and Katie were chosen to be the Godparents and they came down for the weekend which was great. There was a full Mass and Emily was baptized in the middle of it followed by a party back at our place. Thanks to all who attended her special day and helped celebrate it with her and us.

 

That is about it fo the past few weeks. Nothing else exciting going on at the moment. Thanksgiving is coming up fast, only a week away actually and then the Christmas season kicks off which should be a ton of fun this year. Hope to see everyone sometime before Christmas if not next week on turkey day. For pictures of the past few weeks events you can click here. That's about it so bye for now.

 

October

Well it's been three weeks since our last update and the foliage has pretty much come and gone. We did take a lot of small hikes to try and see some more of it and I did a lot more exploring over in Pawtuckaway where there was some good color and interesting stuff to see. Brooke has been busy with school and freezing her but off at soccer every Saturday morning at 8 am, even in 31 degree temps. Emily is talking up a storm now. She talks so fast and so much when she gets going it's tough to get it all but you can actually carry on a little conversation with her if you pick up on the right words. Jen and I celebrated our 6th anniversary with a nice night out at the Oar House and are just keeping busy with the kids and work.

"Frankenstorm" has moved trick or treat from Tuesday to Sunday this week, and we had plans to go to Vermont anyhow but gave Brooke the choice of which she'd rather do and she immediately and emphatically said "Vermont!" so tomorrow we're off to Vermont for a quick visit. we're excited to go but what kid doesn't want to go trick or treating?! Apparently one that really misses her cousins and on top of that can't eat 95% of the candy anyhow! We might get to do some up there anyhow so that's good, because I'd really hate to see them miss it completely even though it was her choice. I guess maybe the day is lacking some of the excitement when you freeze for 3 hours in the dark going door to door and end up with a couple dum-dums and a roll of smarties as your reward. That kind of makes me sad for her but she still loves the costumes so all is not lost. Maybe by next year she'll outgrow the allergy.

Nothing terribly exciting to post about but I do have a bunch of pictures from the last three weeks to put up. There's four different albums. One from a hike up Blue Job Mountain, a hike to Fort Rock I took the girls on when Jen was working and a walk around the Raynes Farm in Exeter. Another has pictures from another hike I took the girls on up in the mountains when Jen was working a few weeks ago through the Big Pines Natural Area and up Great Hill plus pictures from a quick trip up Stratham Hill we all did that was Emily's first hike all by herself and some from other random stuff over the last few weeks. The third album is a collection of pictures from three different hikes in Pawtuckaway I did over the last few weeks trying to get some foliage shots and the 4th and final one is just a bunch of random stuff from the last few weeks like pumpkins, playing in leaves and the Halloween parade. There's a few other pictures mixed in here and there also of random stuff but that's what we've been up to in a nutshell. To see the pictures click on the links below. That's about it for now. Check back again soon.

Album 1 - Stratham & Great Hills
Album 2 - Blue Job, Fort Rock, Raynes Farm
Album 3 - Pumpkins, Leaves, Soccer & More
Album 4 - Pawtuckaway State Park Hikes & Photos

Foliage Hunting

Just a quick update on my foliage chase for the year. I've had a couple days where I could take pictures and both days of course it has rained and been crummy. I have Sunday off this weekend and I probably don't have to tell you what the weather is supposed to be like.

We did take a drive around the White Mountains this past Sunday where the foliage appears to be peaking. The hike we had planned was cut short by the girls splashing in puddles until they were too soaked to go for an hours walk in the drizzle. We got to eat at Bill and Bob's one more time before they close for the year but were restricted by the weather to being touristy leaf peepers mostly from the car. I tried to make the best of it and get what pictures I could. If you'd like to see them you can find the White Mountains photos here. if you'd like to see it for yourself you should go soon. It was the best color I've seen in 5 or 6 years at least.

Today I wet to scout out the leaves and trails at Pawtuckaway State Park. I didn't do much hiking, just over 2 miles in all, and the color is nowhere near peak (probably another week to 10 days I'd guess for that) but there was a few isolated spots of color around a pond there so I did what I could with that. I also checked out the Boulders Natural Area which is a bunch of house sized boulders the glaciers left behind when they melted away. They were pretty awesome to finally see after reading about them for years. There's a few pictures of those too but I didn't explore them too much because it started raining again and I plan on going back when the leaves are better. To see the pictures from today you can click right here.

That's about it for now. We're all finally getting over our colds and hopefully will be out and about again soon. Brooke is doing great with school, Emily needs to get apple picking for the first time and hiking with the fall colors is always nice since it turns the usually almost viewless trails around here into beautiful walks in the woods. All we need now if for the rain to go away!!

Now It's Official...

Summer is officially done. I'd say I'm sad it's over but now we're entering my favorite time of year. Cool sunny days, crisp mornings, colorful foliage, bright blue skies, apple and pumpkin picking...what's not to like. The downside is it flies by and before you know it the leaves are all dead and brown, there's frost in the mornings and a nip in the air that lasts until March, but enough about that for now.

Brooke has been the busiest out of all of us I think. She started school and soccer and was supposed to start dance class, however that's been cancelled because of not enough kids in her time slot. Great to find out after she went out and got all new dance stuff. School is going very well, she's been excited and really into it since before she even went. She just hopped out of the car and waved goodbye while Jen did her best to hold it together. It's exciting to have her take that step but sad that she's growing up that fast also. We also finally went to see the Fresh Beat Band at Meadowbrook up in Guilford, which was her long time coming birthday present from us, and she liked that a lot also. In between she's been leading the way on hikes and being a great big sister to Emily.

Jen has been keeping busy with the kids and work as well as putting together a surprise 50th birthday party with her brothers for their mom last weekend. That went very well and everyone managed to keep the thing a surprise somehow. Emily has been talking a lot more lately and is also getting a few more teeth. She sings and dances and is also, sadly, growing up very fast. She changes almost every day it seems. On our hikes she now does big chunks of them herself, usually about half a mile at a time before requesting a ride in the pack. We've been doing a lot of smaller local hikes lately too, which are usually good for her to walk at least part of, and I've done a few on my own, so there's plenty to see on that front if it interests you. There's some really nice trails around here if you know where to find them, most are great for kids too.

I've just been busy at work and with the kids, working in a hike here and there and taking my pictures whenever I can. Hopefully as the foliage turns I'll be able to get some pictures of that. I always seem to miss it but this year I'm trying to make it a point to capture more of it than usual, which shouldn't be hard because usually I get none of it.

That's what we've been up to in a nutshell. I could go into more depth about everything but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. I'm fighting a nice cold right now that Brooke presumably brought home from school and has spread it to almost everyone else in the house so I'm going to get some rest. Check back soon, I'll try and get to this more than once a month but I can't promise it'll happen. Hopefully it will though, it makes it easier to do when there's not so much catching up to do.

The pictures are here if you like. I've broken them down into sections, feel free to check out whatever you like. Just click the pictures that goes with each section to see more. bye for now!

School, Soccer, Charlene's 50th and more...

 

9/9 - Mt. Chocorua & Moat Mountain mineral site hike by myself

  

9/15 - Adams Point State Wildlife Refuge family hike

 

9/16 - Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge family hike   

  

9/19 - Sweet Trail/Durham point hike by myself

  

9/23 - Fundy trail/Pawtuckaway State Park hike with the girls

 

Summer 2012 Is Unofficially Over

Well it's a bummer but summer is unofficially over with Labor day weekend behind us now. Hopefully there will still be plenty on nice warm days before the leaves change, the pumpkins come out and things get frosty in the morning but the fun lazy days of summer are gone. Brooke starts school on Monday at the Exeter Day School, which she is very excited about and we're excited for her. She also starts dance up again Thursday and Soccer starts Saturday. She wants to do gymnastics too but we're not exactly sure where that'll fit into our busy little girls schedule and don't want her every waking moment booked up so we'll have to see about that. Emily is doing well too, besides a chipped tooth and a busted lip that came with it when she tripped in the driveway last week. She's talking a lot and loves to dance and sing and seems to be a happy healthy and smart little girl just like her big sister. We're going to be pretty busy from here on out I guess, at least until summer comes back around. We tried to squeeze in as much as possible this summer, knowing the chances we have to do things as a family will be far fewer from here on out. No more Wednesday afternoon trips to the beaches or to gather sea glass with school starting. No more weekend camping trips as she has soccer on Saturdays and soon the nights will dip down past the comfort point of 45-50 degrees for the kids. No more afternoon swims in the lakes once the water cools off and Buppy and Dew's pool is closed for business. Bummer bummer bummer. I'm sure we'll get in more hiking, as fall is a great time for that, and apple and pumpkin picking and all the other great stuff that fall in New England brings, but we're in no rush for that so let's get back to talking about summer.

We finished our summer off with a busy three weeks since the last post here. We have been on a couple hikes, the Sugarloafs a couple weeks ago and Mt. Cardigain this past weekend. The Sugarloafs are two peaks up near Twin Mountain and Cardigain is more towards Plymouth. The guide books say it is traditionally many New Hampshire kids first "big" mountain hike, but of course Brooke has been on many hikes that size by now, always does great and did this one with ease. Both hikes are about 3.5 miles with about 1200 feet of elevation gain and that seems to be about perfect for Brooke right now. Close to her limit but not really pushing it either. About an hour into the hike if you give her a few Pez she gets the energy to finish off the last half hour or so on hikes that size. We might try a little bigger one to see what she has in her but those two were very nice enjoyable trips. We went on a spur of the moment bare necessities camping trip too last Sunday with the Griffins and spent a beautiful lazy late summer afternoon and night at White Lake State Park swimming and camping before the hike. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. We don't usually just hang out and do nothing on a a nice afternoon but that's just what we did there. Soaked up the sun and chilled. Follow that with dinner and a couple drinks around one last campfire for the season with friends and you have a great way to spend the unofficial end of summer. Actually I can't think of many better ways to spend it.

I also spent the weekend before camping and hiking in Baxter State Park way up in Maine, where Ryan and I went to finish off the last remaining peak on our list of New England 4000 footers. Hamlin Peak on Katahdin was #67 for us and the last feather in our cap. We added in a trip across the Knife Edge on Katahdin, probably the most spectacular hiking trail in the east, and another spur to the hardly ever hiked North peaks so we actually ended up climbing all 7 of the mountains summits in one big traverse of the mountain, 4 of which we'd done before, with only Baxter peak at 5267 feet and Hamlin at 4756 meeting the requirements to be on the official AMC list of 4K's. It was a tiring day, between having a moose wake us at 2:30 in the morning and not getting back to sleep before our alarm went off at 4 to head for the trail, and then we still had to drive 6 hours home after the hike but we had perfect weather, a great hike and got to feast at Famous Dave's on the ride home so it was well worth the trouble in my book. Only a second night to recover and relax could have made it any better. We're not sure what list/peaks, if any, we'll be chasing down next. The Northeast 111 involves a lot of driving to hike the Adirondacks 4000 footers, and then there's the New England Hundred Highest, and the 52 with a view are a collection of mid sized and smaller peaks with as you might expect good views so there's plenty of options. We'll just have to see what happens I guess. 

So that's our end of our summer tales. Now like I said we're going to be busy busy busy. We're hoping to get up to visit the Vermont side of the family sometime when the leaves are changing and see all the work they've done on their house. I told Tyler I'd go up and hike Camel's Hump with him this fall so I have to get that done sometime and we'd still like to get Brooke up to Story Land before it closes down so we have a lot to squeeze in over the the next month or so. I'll try to update this a little more often so it's a quicker read with less pictures to look through but since it's been a while there's quite a few this time. I broke them down into three sections to make them easier to find. Click on the links if  you'd like to check them out. Otherwise bye for now!

For our hike up The Sugarloafs click here

For a lot of pictures from the Mt. Katahdin trip click here

Last but not least for Fort Stark, Sea Glass, White Lake and the hike up Mt. Cardigan click here

Winnipesaukee 2012

It's hard to believe it has been another year since our last trip to camp at Lake Winnipesaukee. The girls are another year older, as are the rest of us, and are growing up very fast. Last year two of the four kids slept a lot and didn't go far and pretty much stayed where you left them when they were awake. This year they were always busy and into something and as long as the weather is good there's always something to do at the lake so it worked out really well. Because they no longer stay put, and never just sit and relax, it took a real group effort to keep an eye on them the whole time so thanks to everyone there who helped us out there. Both our girls loved the water and jumped right in, literally, and enjoyed the nice sunny days we got keeping cool in the clean clear 78-82 degree water. With mostly nice weather again this year we did a lot of swimming and splashing around, some fishing, a hike, a boat ride, Clark's Trading Post, mini golf (in multiple forms), the Weirs, campfires and all the other stuff you do on vacation at a lake.

As you probably expect I have the usual bunch of pictures to see what went on if you're interested, as well as a few videos below you can click on to watch. Summer is quickly winding down but we have a few more things planned or at least in the works. One of them is a hike up the Sugarloafs and trip to White Lake after this Sunday. Anyone is welcome to come along so if you're interested in going let us know. Otherwise check back soon for another update. Bye for now!   

The Three Jumpers!

 

Watering Emily

 

Captain Brooke

 

The Bear Show at Clark's

Pawtuckaway, Chebeague, Lighthouses, Sea Glass & More!

  

Summer sadly is flying by. July is almost over leaving just 5 more weeks until Labor Day weekend. We try to keep busy and do something with the girls every chance we get and the last two weeks have been no exception. For starters Brooke, Emily and I went back to Pawtuckaway a couple weekends ago when Jen was working for a hike and afternoon at the lake with Sophia, Charlene and Paul and we did a nice little loop hike up the South Peak on a warm day to the tower which was followed up perfectly with a few hours of fun in the lake. Sophia seems to enjoy hiking and it's always good to have someone along to keep Brooke motivated so it works out well to have her go with us. Hopefully now that Sophia has hiked Acadia, Stratham Hill and Pawtuckaway we can get her up to the White Mountains so she can see what the really big mountains are like but for now there are pictures from that trip here if you want to check them out.

To finish off our first year of sea glass collecting we have been busy beach combing from Hampton to Portland. We saw a baby seal lounging on the beach last week but for once I didn't have my camera with me so there's no pictures of that. There are however plenty to go around from our frequent trips to Odiorne as well as a trip up the coast to the Kennebunkport area where we actually had to work hard to find a beach with sea glass. Who knew there were so many sandy beaches in Maine!? All we could find were miles and miles of soft sandy beaches. Perfect if we wanted a beach day but not so perfect for sea glass hunting. We did however find two more lighthouses along the way that we'd never seen before. Goat Island light in Cape Porpoise and Wood Island light in Biddefored Pool were both new to us so we added them to our list of visited/seen lighthouses. I also got up to see the sunrise one morning from Agamenticus but the gate was locked so I wound up at the Nubble lighthouse. Those three were just the tip of the lighthouse iceberg, as in the last week we also saw Whaleback and White Island lights from Odiorne and Portsmouth harbor from the Newcastle commons when we were at a birthday party. That makes 6 but we weren't done there! 

For the grand sea glass finale we made the trip back to Chebeague Island in Casco Bay where it all began, this time with Danny and his friend Kim for a day last weekend. Besides the boat ride, which Brooke said she really liked, we gathered up a couple pounds of glass, picnicked, jumped into the refreshing Atlantic for a swim and wandered the island getting some sun and having some fun. It was a great way to spend a nice summer day and end our first 365 days of sea glass collecting. The boat ride out to the island takes you past 4 more lighthouses. Portland Breakwater, Spring Point, Portland Head and Pocahontas lights. We'd seen them all before so nothing new but that brought our total for the week to 10 lighthouses. Not too shabby : ) and there are pictures of that stuff right here if you're interested.    

If you want to know anything else about these or the many other lighthouses in Maine there's a great site you can click right here http://www.lighthousefriends.com/me.html. If your interested in more about sea glass there's a really good site for that also right here http://www.odysseyseaglass.com/.

That's about it for the last couple of weeks. On deck is my fathers 60th birthday, camp at Lake Winnipesaukee, hopefully some hikes and I'm sure more of Brooke's new favorite past time of sea glass collecting so you can check back in a little while to see what's new with us but that's all for now! 

Camping In Pawtuckaway

Last weekend we met Chris and his family all the way over in Nottingham at Pawtuckaway State Park for a night of camping and a weekend of fun. They had never been camping before and the place they wanted to try it for a night happened to be right up the road from us, so it was a much different experience than our usual long drives and packing everything but the kitchen sink. We packed what we needed for a night, which was surprisingly still a lot, and made the 25 minute drive over there to set up everything Saturday after lunch. Once that was set we got to relax and have fun. The campground was just a bit rowdier than most that we go to but nothing terrible. After the fireworks died out from the houses along the opposite lake shore the only real noise was the loons calling and the fires crackling.

With all it had to do Pawtuckaway was a surprisingly nice little local park for a quick day or weekend trip. It has a great sandy beach with cool clear water, which we spent a lot of time in, and canoe rentals that we took advantage of for an picnic lunch and site-seeing tour. EMS was also having a free demo weekend with kayaks and stand up paddle boards, aka SUP's. The kids, especially Tyler, had fun with the kayaks and almost everyone else tried out the SUP's too, which were interesting and fun for a bit but seemed like they could get pretty boring after a while. I'd definitely choose a kayak over them if I had to buy one but have always seen people out in the ocean on one and wanted to try one. Now I can say I have at least even if it wasn't my favorite thing in the world. Mix in some drinks, a campfire and some s'mores and you wind up with a quick and easy getaway weekend, if you like camping that is. My parents even joined us for everything but the overnight part, although they stayed for a big chunk of that too so really they only missed out on about 8 hours of sleeping in a tent, which was probably fine with them.

The only thing we didn't squeeze in that they wanted to do was a hike but it was so hot and nice out we decided to stay near the water most of the time. Jen, Brooke and I have done it before and we can all go do that one some other time when they visit. It's probably a very nice little hike in the fall I'd guess, as the views aren't overwhelming but with some foliage it'd be a pretty nice hike. Hopefully they liked their trial run of camping enough that we can go back or go somewhere else sometime. For now the pictures are here from this trip along with a couple from the 4th. Hope you enjoy them!

Summer Vacation In Acadia

 

 
Well summer has finally arrived and it wasted no time getting hot hot hot. Of course as soon as we were ready to head up the coast with Jens parents and cousin Sophia to Acadia for a week of camping on summer vacation it wasted no time cooling off again and bringing the rain in. The weather wasn't perfect, usually half a day was decent and the other half was rainy, and we even got one day with just a brief shower and sunshine otherwise. Of course the shower happened while we were at the beach, but that's just the way this trip went. Not exactly what you'd want for a summer camping trip but not a washout either. The glass half full (of Captain and Coke and Italian margaritas) guy in me would say it could have been much much worse and it definitely beat spending the week at work. Mix in good people and good food and you end up with a good vacation no matter what mother nature sends your way.

The one downside to the ever changing weather was we didn't get in as much hiking as we'd planned to and there was no deep sea fishing or boat rides happening this time. Since it Sophia's first camping trip and she was very excited about the mountains I wanted to get her out on some nice hikes. Unfortunately a shorter hike up South Bubble and to Bubble Rock and a couple walks were all we managed this time, but the mountains will be there again when we return and we return often, hopefully she'll go with us again soon. We also drove to the easternmost point in the US where Quoddy Head lighthouse is located on the Bay of Fundy, but it was in the fog so we didn't see much of the scenery the area is noted for. Bus rides, ice cream, a couple nice dinners out, poking in the souvenir shops, campfires, beach combing, games etc rounded out our week. We definitely made the best of it and had a good time doing it. Hopefully everyone else on the trip enjoyed it enough to go back because we still have a long list of things we want to do there in the future and can't wait to go back, as long as we take the highway this time and not the 7 hour long scenic route!

I tried to pick out my favorites from the trip but there's still a lot of pictures if you want to see them. You can pick through the ones you want here or if you want to see them all there's a slide show here instead. If you're not sick of us by then there's a video below of the girls getting "Footloose" last night. That should be enough for a bit but eventually there will be more stuff here to see so check back in a while. That's all for now!