A New Way of Biking

When John and I met 14 years ago, it was on a mountain bike ride. When I returned to Vermont 9 years ago, John and I went on a mountain bike ride with a group of friend. When we began dating three years later, it was on a few mountain bike rides. Most of these mountain bike adventures involved a failed bike part, a crash, and maybe a little swearing. Mountain bike rides show you "the good, the bad, and the ugly" sides of a person. And for those people who know John well, or have had the opportunity to go on a long mountain bike ride with him, they know that he often displays it all. That said, I still managed to fall in love with John.


Two years ago, John and I went on a lot of mountain bike rides. I think we went for rides 3-4 times a week. In fact, John proposed to me at our favorite network of trails after one of those unusual flawless rides (meaning there were no crashes or bike failures).


Last summer, even though I was four-six months pregnant, we continued to mountain bike. I took the less aggressive routes, but we still got out quite a bit. As the leaves began to change, my rides took me on the dirt roads and mellow terrain, but we were out there.



Since Cally was born, we've had three "mountain bike dates". On the first one, we hired a babysitter, left the house, and realized we had forgotten my wheel (fortunately, we were riding near by and the turn around didn't cost us too much time), then John's had some catastrophic bike failure and I ended up riding with two of his past students for the rest of the ride........ not exactly the date we had in mind. For the next ride, we dropped Cally with Medora and Mary and met up with our friends Jen and Nils. Within minutes, John's tire had a catastrophic blow........ Finally, while my parents were here, we got out for a two hour long ride and were reminded of those days when we were corting.

We have each gotten out on individual rides with our friends, but those have been fewer and further in between because of the rain and a desire to hang out as a family. And so, we've found a new way to get out on our bikes. Two years ago, we would have poo pooed this type of activity, but these days, this is how we get out:


More and more often, we jump on the bikes, head out to a bike path (Burlington or Stowe) and get Cally out on a casual ride. Sometimes, we throw a few tennis rackets in the back of the Chariot and get a few games of tennis in while we are out. Other times, we do a dirt road loop and cap it off with a cremee.

While these rides are way less aggressive and exciting than the rides we used to take, they never involve swearing, bike failures, or injuries. Someday, we'll get those multiple days of epic mountain biking in again. In the mean time, I'm actually liking the bike path rides. When Cally isn't sleeping, she's taking in the beautiful scenery where we live and usually wearing one of those enormous smiles.

Nana & Grandpa's Weekend with Cally

For the past three years, John's parents, Art and Peg, have come up to Vermont the last weekend in July. We look forward to their visit every year, but this year we were particularly excited for the visit. They offered to watch Cally so we could attend our friend's Anton and Amy's wedding in Charlotte. VT.

John and I haven't gone on many "dates" this summer. With a tight budget, we've been able to sneak a few hours out here and there for a bike ride or a run when family or friends are in town, but a whole afternoon and evening out together was going to be a real treat. In order to make it worth their while, we decided to take Art and Peg raspberry picking with Cally. I'm not sure who had more fun: Cally, Nana, John, Art or me!


Because we don't get out much these days, we took the opportunity to get a snap shot of the fancy couple and child:


And this is a parting shot taken of Cally's fabulous babysitters. They had a great night together. Cally did everything on cue and slept until the minute we walked in the door at 1am.....

Tour de New England

Over the past week, we took a vacation visiting old friends, new friends, and family. Below is a brief summary of our adventures:

First stop was a lunchtime visit with Boden and Carlota Dormer. Boden is about five weeks older than Cally and Carlota is one of my friends from growing up. The kids met in February when they could hardly hold their necks up. We can't wait for these two to have many adventures in the future.

Next stop, Duxbury, MA to visit Uncle James, Aunt Paula, and cousins Kesley and Jameson. But, first we had to make it through Boston and Cape traffic. Fortunately, we made it and got to go out on a lovely dinner boatride:



On Saturday we walked out to the Duxbury beach and Cally got to feel some chilly Atlantic Ocean water.
Next, Cally got to try the baby pool at Blackrock and had an entertained dinner.




On Sunday, we had gorgeous weather and spent the morning back at the Duxbury beach before heading up to Cape Elizabeth, ME to spend some time with John's buddy Alex Johnston and his family. We had a surprise visit from Joc Clark and family, headed to the beach for dinner and had a fun night in a packed house.

You might have noticed in the picture above, that Cally acquired her first visor (a hand me down from cousin Kesley)! John is rarely seen without his visor, so it is only fitting that Cally has one, too.


On Monday, Mary Jane was sweet enough to watch Cally, so John, Alex, and I could hit the surf and do some boogie boarding. Upon returning, we headed to Portland and went for a sail in Alison's boat. Note that in the photo below, Cally looks thrilled to be sailing......... she actually decided that she kind of hates those infant PFD's and showed Alex and M.J. what "Cranky Cally" looks like:


After a salty, ocean day we headed up to Sebego Lake to meet back up with Joc and family and gather with lots of other folks. Below is a picture of Guy's family's house:


Here's a picture of Guy's wife, Tatiana and their son Lucas who took quite a liking to Cally:


Joc's daughter Ander thought Cally was a lot like her favorite doll, Tallulah:


Oh, and the music and food...... It's pretty amazing how an unorganized meal can come together and feed so many and taste so good:


We even played a game of SPUD and since John lost, he had to go through the dreaded "spanking machine".


Cally got some good dock time:


And the following is a little number the ladies threw together as a part of what was supposed to be a multi-act talent show. It turns out, we were the only act!


Thanks to Jamey, Paula, Kesley, Jameson, Alex, MJ, Zoe, Izzy, Joc, Kelly, Ander, Avery, Guy, Tatianna, Lucas, and all the other folks who opened up their homes and hearts to Cally, John and me. It's so fun to introduce Cally to all the people who mean so much to us. Cally is surely not going to be short on love from her extended family and friends!

Cally Goes Backpacking

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for"

- William Shedd

John and I have both spent many months of our lives in the backcountry. When we decided to spend the rest of our life together and bring a kid or two into the equation, we both agreed that, if we could, we'd continue incorporate the backcountry into our family life.

For the past few weeks, we've been trying to figure out how to bring Cally into the woods on a backpacking trip. We'd done the car camping thing, we'd mastered the day hike, but we hadn't put both together. So, when we saw the first break in the weather, we decided to go for it. We had a plan, but carrying it out was a whole different ball of wax....... As the day got away from us on Sunday, it started to seem more and more daunting. Did we REALLY want to find all our gear, schlep Cally into the woods, expose her to more bugs, and possibly have a sleepless night? Grilling some food in our fridge, putting Cally to bed in her crib, and sleeping to the sound of my fan was seeming a lot more appealing.

In the end, we decided to "go for it". We only live once and because Cally is such an easy going kid right now, we figured we'd kick ourselves for not trying it while we could. Plus, there will be a time when she can actually tell us she hates backpacking and refuses to go on this type of "Forced Family Outing" (a.k.a. FFO-- a Meyerism). So, we packed up the car and made our way down to the trailhead:


Mind you, this wasn't a real "aggressive" kind of hike. It entailed hiking about 1/2 mile on a flat double track road and a mile up to the Long Trail. It is possibly the shortest access point to a place where you can camp on the Long Trail in Vermont. We figured it would be an easy escape route if things didn't go as planned.

As we hiked up the trail, Cally laughed at Zephy and seemed to have a ball. Once we got to camp, she carefully watched us pitch the tent and then hung out while John cooked up his famous Chili Mac & Cheese.


There was a group of 11 and 12 year old girls from Songaweedin (a sister camp of Keewaydin on Lake Dunmore) on day three of a seven day trip on the Long Trail camping at the Hump Brook Cabin. They took this picture of the happy family:


Cally went down in the "nest" that we made for her in the tent without a problem. John and I played a couple games of cribbage (we each won a game, the rubber match will take place soon-- the stakes were high-- a massage!) and even read the Sunday Times by headlamp before falling asleep to the sound of a mountain stream. And we all slept until almost 8am!

All in all, it was a great first backpacking trip. I'm so glad we didn't take the easy route and sleep in the safe comfort of our bed.

Visitors

The fourth of July weekend was full of visitors:


Above is a picture of Cally, John, Bumpa, and Grandma Meyer at the Richmond 4th of July Parade.

Here she is with my uncle George who drove up from Hilton Head, SC to deliver Lobster our new kitty.


This is my six year old niece, Kesley who lives down in Duxbury, MA, but comes up to their place in Stowe a bunch.


And this is Kesley, her little brother Jameson (2.5 years old) and my brother James (and Zephy).

Lobster

A few days ago, Cally got a special delivery from Hilton Head, SC......... Lobster, a seven week old kitten arrived with my Aunt Sherry and Uncle George. As you can see, Cally and her cousins, Kesley and Jameson, are thrilled to have her around. Even Zephy is excited to have a new friend. You might also notice that Lobster has the same coloring as Cally-- orange with bright blue eyes!

A Last Minute Visit with Family

Last weekend, Cally and I headed down south for a last minute trip to Connecticut. I needed to head down for a friend's memorial service (see previous post-- Meg Hahr) in New Jersey. My parents were kind enough to watch Cally for the afternoon so that I could be at the service. Cally had a ball playing with Bumpa's newest friend, Gus the cat and Maggie the dog. Her eyes light up when she sees any four-legged critter, but she's working on soft petting instead of fur pulling.

En route back to Vermont, we stopped by to see John's family-- Nana, Grandpa, Lynn, Mark, Chris and Catherine. They are always thrilled to see their gal Cal and treated us to a great lunch.