Happy Holidays and more...

Well, Winter isn't even officially here and we just got out first big storm of the season. Just over a foot of snow got dumped on us overnight and today was spent shoveling, sliding, shoveling, making forts and did I mention shoveling? The girls had a ton of fun in it, which makes it all worth it, and I'd say it's almost a lock that Ashley's first Christmas will be white. I haven't put up many pictures lately because Picasa still isn't working right. I keep hoping it will but it appears I'm going to have to make the permanent switch to another photo hosting site. I've played around with a few but am not sure which one exactly I'll use yet. For now anyhow I've got another batch of pics up on Picasa, even though they're all grainy, blotchy and the colors aren't right with some of them. Hopefully by the time I get up another set I'll be usuin a new and improved site.

For now there's pictures from the last 5 or 6 weeks here. They go all the way back to the fall cleanup and are from a few hikes, Thanksgiving, our tree cutting trip to the White Mountains, Travis's birthday party, the Kukesh Family Christmas party and the latest snowstorm plus whatever happened in between those things. Rather than write all about it I'll just link the pictures. Hope to see everyone over the Holiday's but if not have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year! Now, for the pictures you can click right here.

Fall 2013

Well another month or two has flown by. Ashley is twice as old as the last time I posted and growing fast. Brooke is loving school still and Emily is loving being a big sister. I haven't posted in a while but we've been busy with work around the house (which is coming along slowly but surely) weddings, hikes, school, holidays and more. Busy busy busy but we even managed to work in a little vacation time up at Loon Mountain where we went on some hikes, used the pools and hot tubs and just got to relax which was really nice. I won't write a big book this time, I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. Sorry if some of them came out lousy, for some reason Picasa isn't always working right and makes them look funny, but until I figure out how to use flickr better it's all I have for now, so click below if you want to see some more of what we've been up to.

October/Fall 2013 Click Here

Pictures from our getaway to Loon last week Click Here

 

 

 

 

 

So another summer has unofficially come to a close. They always go by way too fast and this one was no different, except that at the end of it we had to put our little girl on a school bus and send her off out of our sight into the great big world. Pretty big day for her and us, except she loved doing it and we hated it. But we're glad she loves school, her teacher and the bus and is making new friends along the way. So far so good on that front.

After her first couple days of school we had the long Labor Day weekend and had plans to head up to Acadia National Park for the weekend with Stephen and Amy Haas and their girls, who our girls have been having fun with all summer so everyone was really looking forward to that. We didn't get up there until about eight o'clock Friday night, but set up shop and let everyone say hi before turning in to rest up for the busy weekend. The weather wasn't forecast to be great but other than a thunderstorm each night when we were in bed and some fog on the beach it turned out to be a really nice weekend. It was the Hass's first trip up there so we got to play tour guide and show them some of our favorite spots. The girls all got along really well and all breezed through the hikes we picked out. Ashley did great camping so we all made the most of the nice sleeping weather to and got some good R & R. Nice weather for campfires, hiking, sightseeing around the park and walking around town rounded things out and did quite a bit of all of it. The girls even had fun at the foggy beach jumping in the 58 degree water!

It rained cats and dogs on the way home (maybe the cats and dog stuffed animals they all bought for souvenirs was some type of rain maker) but it didn't really matter since we were leaving anyhow. We stopped at the Penobscott Narrows Bridge/Observatory on the way home to feed Ashley and break up the drive. Jen doesn't like bridges or towers apparently so just Brooke, Em and I went up but the cloud cover was high enough that we got a pretty good view around the area. Cap it all off with dinner at Famous Dave's and it was another great weekend with friends.

There's quite a few pictures as usual, and it took me most of the week to narrow it down and piece things all together, but for the pictures from the trip as well as a few of Brooke on her first day of school you can click below.

Pictures only click here

Slide show format click here

That's all for now!

Back On the Trails; Black Cap & the Adirondacks

 

 

 

 

This weekend was a big day for us. It was Ashley's first hike with the family and Emily's first mountain she has completely climbed by herself. It was also the first time Jen has been able to hike in about 4 months but the Doctor finally gave the OK to resume normal activities, and this, for us at least, is normal. Jen has actually set herself a goal of climbing Mt. Washington before the snow flies, which is going to require a lot of training hikes to step up to it in not a lot of time. Seems very ambitious to be shooting for that but it won't break my heart if we have to spend more time hiking than usual to build up to it! :-) This was the first step in her training. Sophia also joined us for the hike up Black Cap mountain, which is the highest summit in the Green Hills Preserve. Most of the mountains that form the backdrop of North Conway to the east are also in the preserve if you were wondering where it might be. It's 2369 feet high, but the trail starts from the height of land on Hurricane Mountain Road, which winds it's way steeply up the hills before reaching the parking lot. The trail itself is very gentle and climbs 550 feet in about 1.3 miles so it's great for kids or even non hikers if you ever get the urge to go for a little walk up that way. The summit is mostly open ledge with a few trees scattered about and has great views out over North Conway and of most of the White Mountains from various viewpoints. The hike took us about 3 hours round trip but that was with plenty of time at the top to hang out, take pictures and eat whoopee pies that Grammy had made. After the hike we headed down and got dinner on the deck at the Muddy Moose and then paid a visit to Zeb's for some rock candy. I think it's great that with all the gooey corn syrupy candy out there these days our girls favorite seems to be good old fashions rock candy. Not as easy to find as you'd think so it's always a treat when they do get some. Finally after that everyone, except me of course, fell asleep for most of the ride home. All in all it was a fun and successful day and was great to have the family back out on the trails. For more pictures from the hike you can click right here.

 

 

 I also went on an overnight trip up to climb a few more of the Adirondacks 4000 footers the weekend before that with Ryan, Stephen, Greg and Dave. We left Saturday morning, drove the 5 hours to town, got lunch and headed out into the High Peaks Wilderness. We camped at the Marcy Dam interior outpost and the next day started early on the 16 mile hike of Boundary, Iroquois, Algonquin and Wright Peaks as well as hiking through the spectacular scenery of Avalanche Pass. It was a long tiring hike, bagging 3 of their 46 4000 footers up the steepest trail in the Adirondacks, or so they say. Seemed pretty steep to me that's for sure, but the scenery and views were awesome, even if the weather didn't actually clear up until we were back at the camp site two miles from the car and packing everything up to leave. We then got a quick bite to eat and headed home. Another late night return from the area and I have a feeling that's how they're mostly going to end up. Long way away and long hikes but beautiful scenery and if we're going to chip away at the Northeast 111 as our next hiking goal we don't have much choice. It was however a great trip with great company and for a bunch of pictures from that trip you can click right here.

The other big news is that Brooke is starting kindergarten. She's had orientation, met the teacher, and now tomorrow is the big day. She wants to ride the bus and is very excited about it so we're going to let her, even though that makes it seem like our little girl is growing up way too fast. She just doesn't seem old enough to be turned out into the world without us watching over her like that. She loved pre-school however and hopefully will like this next step just as much. Looking at the homework they have she might be a bit bored with that (practice writing your letter A's and number 1's. Really?? She's been able to do that for a couple years!) but hopefully has fun in school none the less. We'll also be headed up to Acadia for Labor Day weekend, this time with the Haas's. The girls are really looking forward to it, we always look forward to going there, and since we missed out on our annual Memorial Day trip to start summer this year we are finishing off summer with a long weekend up there. So there should be a lot to report back here on in the near future. For now we hope you enjoy what we've got and check back with us soon.

Winnipesaukee 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well another great year at the lake is in the books. As usual it went by too fast but was a ton of fun. The weather was great, although if you wanted to be in the water mid 80's might have been better than mid 70's with a breeze most days but it sure beat rain or work. As luck would have it however Brett and Carey brought up an enormous inflatable "island" that allowed everyone who wanted to hop on to be on the water and in the sun and still be warm and dry. The kids loved bouncing around on it, especially jumping into its kiddie pool (yes it actually had it's own kiddie pool) and just bobbing on the waves. Mix in some fires, good food, a few drinks, golf, hiking, blueberry picking, shopping, boat rides, a movie, fishing, bike riding, mini golf and more and you end up with a great week of vacation. The girls loved it as usual and had a great time hanging out with their cousins and aunts and uncles all week. It was Ashley's first trip to camp and she seemed to love it too, as much as a baby can love it I guess. Staring at the sky and trees, getting held and rocked by everyone and spending her first few nights ever in a tent and I think she'd tell you she had fun too! Rather than tell the rest of the story however I'll let the pictures do that for me since there's a couple hundred of them, and if that's not enough let me know, I have about 1000 more that didn't make the final cut! ;-) If you want to see the ones that did make it you can click here and work your way through them. Other than that I'll just say thanks a million again to everyone who was there for everything. It's always a great time and we really look forward to it every year.

Home Sweet Home!!

 

 

Well it's official, we are home owners for the first time in our lives!! We're extremely happy and excited about it and can't wait to get going on our project list. Time however is pretty limited at the moment as you might expect so for now we're (very) slowly chipping away at things and just enjoying the family and summer in our new home. We love it and the girls love it so what more could you ask for than that?!

 

Ashley is two weeks old now and still sleeping extremely well for us. She goes 3, 4 or even 5 hours at a time usually and has her days and nights straight already (I'm sure I just jinxed that) but things are going about as well as you could expect with a newborn around here. She's already gained a pound over her birth weight and is doing perfect according to the doctor.

 

The Girls are having fun with her as well as fun with the nice summer weather. They love to hold their baby sister and so far have adjusted to her and everything else we have going on lately really well. Last week they spent a lot of time at Buppy and Dew's pool keeping cool while Charlene was on vacation and when they're not there they're keeping cool in the yard with a slip and slide, the "mini" pool I found for free on the side of the road and the sprinkler. Lot's of fun in the summer sun for sure. We've also had a couple cookouts and some great fireworks in the yards that Uncle Jeff set off. Really amazing for the backyard type. I took the girls along with Danny, Kim and Hailey for a hike up in the mountains and a swim up there last week too so they're busy busy busy but loving every minute of summer and we're all having lots of fun.

 

I'll stop there for now. We hope to have the internet hooked up here soon, for now I'm mobile hot spotting this with Jen's phone (thanks Chris for showing me how!) and there are a few albums of pictures to catch up on if you're interested. I actually have a lot more too that I might get up eventually but for now there's some of the summer fun, Ashley meeting everyone (they're in the order she met people/they held her, so don't feel bad if you're near the end) and another from the hiking trip. Hopefully that holds you over for a bit and I'll get more up soon. That's all for now, click on the links below to get to the pics.  

 

Ashley Meets the World

 

 

Summer Fun & The 4th of July

 

 

Bald Mountain & Artists Bluff

 

 



Ashley Lynn Fieldsend

So, for those of you who voted in the poll it was close and a last minute decision but we ended up with the name we wanted all along. It was the also ran name for Emily and so we went with that, although Jen ALMOST went with Molly. Anyhow at 4:21 on July 1st (sorry you have to share Chris!) Ashley Lynn Fieldsend came into our world. I don't have a lot to say right now from the hospital room other than Jen and Baby are both doing great, the girls are incredibly excited, proud and wonderful with her and our newest bundle of joy is perfect in every way (we think so at least :-) ) and getting cuter by the minute, although that's not really hard to do when you consider they come out water-logged, wrinkled, squashed and covered in blood and guts. I'll spare you those photos but for some of her cleaned up and looking her best you can click  right here. There aren't a whole lot up yet, just a few of little lady A and her sisters, but I have a lot of others and will continue to stockpile them for some more frequent updates now that Chris has shown me how to use our phones to get onto the internet even though we don't have it at home yet and have been out of touch for a while because of that. So for now thanks to everyone who's come to visit, called and sent along well wishes. We appreciate it all and hope to see everyone soon. We hope to be home tomorrow (Wednesday) so stop by and visit us anytime and meet Ashley.

Well, as usual I have a ton to catch up with, which also means a ton of photos from the last few weeks. For starters Jen and the baby are doing well, they actually think she is further along than they thought and are betting she'd not going to make it until July. Jen doesn't want to share her birthday but any other day would probably be fine with her. We're scrambling now to get everything in place in case they're right and the stork comes sooner than expected. Everything will work itself out in the end I'm sure but we're busy busy busy getting ready now. Here's some pictures of Jen at the same point in her pregnancy with all three girls from newest to oldest. She thinks she looks old now, I can't even tell a difference. What do you think??

The girls are busy with their gymnastics, which is almost over for the summer now, and Brooke has graduated from preschool and is ready for kindergarten next year. She had an end of year choral concert that I have some videos of but haven't got to put them up on YouTube yet. Hopefully I will get to that soon and if I do I'll link them here, but we've been so busy trying to get the house ready and things set for the new baby I haven't had time to do a whole lot else. By the way, the latest poll results are in for a name. If the one you like isn't winning there's still time, but not much, and it really doesn't matter, but feel free to find it and vote if you haven't already.

Name Game Which of these names is your favorite? Ashley 28.6% 14 Kendall 24.5% 12 Ellie 14.3% 7 Kylie 14.3% 7 Molly 10.2% 5 Acadia 4.1% 2 Taylor 4.1% 2 Leah 0% 0 total votes: 49

We've been trying to get the girls out for a little fun too before the new sister arrives in what spare time we do have, and have been trying to get out and enjoy the nice weather when we actually get some. There's one album of pictures here from Brooke's birthday party almost a month ago as well as some from York's Wild Kingdom and another group from a last minute camping trip at White Lake a couple weekends ago. Hard to believe with all the rain we've had since then that it was sunny and almost 100 degrees and made for a perfect day at White Lake with Danny, Kim and Hailey followed by a hot but fun day at Storyland, but we had an awesome time there and the girls of course loved Storyland. There's pictures from the party and York's here and the ones from White Lake and Storyland can be found here.

 

 

Yes a little late but better late than never and that's what we've been up to in a nutshell. There's some other little local hikes and walks I've been going on just to get out and try and stay in shape without going to far from home that I may post here in a little while if I have time and if nothing else exciting happens, but that's about it for right now. Maybe the next update will have some really big news to share so check back in a little while!

Brooke Turns 5, Mothers Day and 2 NH Audubon Sanctuaries

Hard to believe another year has gone by and our daughter has turned 5 already. Seems like such a quick 5 years too. One minute she's just a little baby and the next she's riding her bike and going to school and dressing up like a princess. This year she wanted a Cinderella themed pizza party, so Jen made her a castle cake and she and her little sis made themselves a dairy free pizza. Still no sign of the dairy allergy going away, but she's being tested again tomorrow so maybe there will be some positive signs to report on then. After 5 years we've adapted but hopefully someday she won't have to worry about it anymore. She's doing great otherwise though. Excelling in school, loves to dance and sing, really enjoys gymnastics and is a great big sister. Hopefully the next 5 years are as fun as the first 5, and hopefully they don't fly by quite as fast.

Mother's Day was Sunday and the girls wanted to take Jen somewhere "special" they said. Somewhere like Clark's Trading Post and Bill & Bobs to be exact was what Brooke wanted to do and then maybe some miniature golf. Those places however haven't opened for the season, so they decided Mm might like to see some animals at the Squam Lakes Science Center and follow it up with some indoor mini golf at Funspot since we were right up the road. What mother wouldn't love a special day like that?! For some pictures of both those special days you can click right here. 

I've also been keeping up with my explorations of the local conservation areas and preserves whenever I have a little free time, as going for all day hikes up in the White Mountains isn't in the cards right now. I'm afraid that even though Jen is still 7 weeks from her due date I'd come home and have our new daughter greeting me. Instead I've been for a couple little walks in the area that are great for just about anyone and have some neat stuff to see. One was a sunrise walk over in Dover at the Bellamy River Audubon Sanctuary which has a trail around a piece of land that juts out into Little Bay with the river running along side it. It was a nice scenic little mile and a half walk with some deer, birds and a sunrise to see among the sights. I also did a 2.5 mile walk in the Bellamy River Wildlife Management Area, which you might not want to confuse with the other one like I did the first time, as they are similar and close to one another, but the Sanctuary is a much nicer walk. Neither was bad however and if you'd like to see pictures from them you can find then all right here.

The last little area I walked was the Brookside Audubon Sanctuary in South Hampton, which is home to a lot of birds including woodpeckers, herons, kingfishers and a pair of osprey. I spent a little while watching the osprey and taking some pictures of the threatened birds as well as their neighbors before walking a trail on the abutting Crosby Conservation Area, which has an unmarked but easy to follow trail out to a pretty little hemlock grove along the brook that feeds the marsh/sanctuary. It was about 2.5 miles overall, but the walk just to see the osprey is very short if you're interested in seeing them. I'd suggest bringing some binoculars for a better view as the nest sits maybe 100 yards out, but they fly and swoop all over looking for fish, so you may get a good show either way. If you want to see any pictures of them or that area you can find them all right here.

Well that's about it for now. Everyone and everything is good around here. Check back soon and maybe we'll have something new to put up but for now that's all.