Mom's Gone Wild

Carlota and I went met in middle school. There was always fun stuff going on at her house...... pool parties, tree climbing, coed scary movie gatherings, etc. etc. When she and I reconnected three years ago, I just knew she'd still be up for doing more fun stuff, even as an adult.

Last week, Carlota called and mentioned that she was thinking of going up to one of the Appalachian Mountain Club Huts for a night. She was planning to leave her nine month old, Boden, behind with his dad and wondering if I'd be interested in joining her. I try to ski every spring on Mount Washington, but I'd never actually hiked in the White Mountains. And, I'd never had the opportunity to stay in one of the AMC huts (they are usually closed in the winter).

After feeling somewhat cooped up for the month of August and sensing the impending doom of the upcoming school year upon me (really, I love my job, it's just a rough transition back into the thick of it), I knew if I was going to ever get away for a night, now was the time. Plus, I thought it might be a good "bonding experience" for John and Cally after so much time apart in August.

As the week unfolded, and the reality of the weather forecast was upon us, it was looking like a pretty grim time to take an adventure. There were supposed to be high winds, a 70% chance of rain both days, and high temperatures of 35F overnight. Carlota called me on Friday, not all too excited about the prospects. I, however, was held captive in an inservice training all day, so I couldn't really communicate with her until the end of the day. Both of us were completely on the fence...... did we really want to spend our 24 hours away from everything in a soggy hut on the side of Mount Washington? Yep........ we decided to just go for it.


When I arrived at Crawford Notch to meet Carlota, pump, and drop a car, the wind was absolutely howling, the rain was spitting, and I started to wonder what sort of drugs I was on when I decided to go on this "get away". I already missed Cally and John and kept thinking about all the stuff I could be doing in my classroom if I weren't on this hike.......... But we were there, we'd paid for our bunks, and we were both prepared to carry on with the plan.

We hiked up the Ammonoosuc Ravine-- a short, but steep trail and got to the hut in about 2 1/2 hours. The hike wasn't too wet, and the temperatures were actually ideal for staying cool. However, the conditions at the hut were exactly as predicted--- the wind was honking at 60 mph, visibility was marginal, and we were pretty wet and cold.

Staying in an AMC hut was new for me, but something with which Carlota is a lot more familiar. In fact, she and her husband Matt had a surprise wedding at the Lake of the Clouds hut, where we were staying, six years ago. They somehow convinced 80 friends and family members to trudge up there in a rainstorm and then surprised them all but making a lifelong commitment to each other up there! So cool!

In any case, it was a great experience for me..... good food, a comfortable bed, hot drinks, some wine that Carlota packed up in her backpack, and a roof over our heads. It felt quite decadent. And those kids that work at these huts seem to have such a ball. It makes me wish I'd spent a summer doing that, back in the day.

By 8pm, the weather broke and we were actually able to do some star gazing with a professional astronomer (did I mention that I have to teach a unit on astronomy starting on Wednesday?-- so apropos!)


But when we woke up to one of the hut crew members singing some beautiful song about blackbirds, the mountain was, once again socked in....... However, by 8am, the clouds again broke and we had a glorious seven mile hike down the Presidential Range-- over Monroe, Eisenhower, Pearce, Adams.........

Thanks, Carlota, For motivating me to do a little something for myself. You still know how to have fun and I feel fortunate to have a friend like you out there. Reminding me about the parts of my life I sometimes lose sight of with a full time job and a two-foot tall red head in my life.

I did really miss Cal and John, but I drove home so refreshed and ready to take on this new school year. I feel a bounce to my step and an ease in my chest. I did it, I separated myself from Cal for the longest time since she was conceived...... and she didn't miss a beat.

Cally and John's Big Weekend:

So what, you might ask, were John and Cally doing back home?

John sums up their Saturday as being a "domestic day". A little cleaning, a little laundry, some baby food making, a trip to the video store, and a visit from Uncle Tom. I think both may have slipped a nap or two in there somewhere.

Today, was a much bigger day...........John decided that a race/ride up Mt. Mansfield's Toll Road towing Cally in the Chariot would be a fun way to spend the day. He's signed up for the Vermont 50 Mountain Bike Race at the end of September, so he figured this would be good training.


John pulled Cally and the trailer (all 40 plus pounds) up 4.5 miles and 3000 verticle feet! He took it nice and slow and said it was "fun". She had a ball and brought many smiles to the other participants who pretty much all got to wave at her on the way up or down.


Aside from Cally not really drinking more than 8 ounces of milk in my absence, she seemed like she didn't miss a beat when I returned home.

Last Day of Summer for Mom

All good things must come to an end, and so must my first summer with Cally. Fortunately, it was one of those perfect summer days here in Vermont. John decided to work from home and we had great ideas for my last 24 hours off...... most got quickly negated because we'd be out of cell phone service (since the Trekkies went into the woods on Saturday, John's phone has been ringing off the hook). And so, we did what we could, between phone calls, to make the most of our final day.

A family run,


A trip to Arcana to pick up our farm share and do a little u-pick in the herb garden,


and a swim up at High Meadow.


The day was topped off with a delicious Mexican meal made from an assortment of our CSA veggies.

8 month Update:

A few quick notes about Cally at 8 months, she's fully crawling, getting up to standing position, letting us "dunk" her underwater, talking tons (but only she really knows what she's saying), laughing often, eating like a champ, loving "finger food", getting her two front teeth, and continuing to smile lots!

Here she is with a new garage sale find:


Loving a little "air time" with Dad:


Loving Zephy and Lobster:



Giving Contra Dancing a try at the Maple Wind Farm Stampede:

Sweet Cal, I'm one lucky mama to have been able to spend so much quality time with you during the last 10 weeks. Motherhood is even more amazing than I ever imagined it could be. You make me so incredibly proud to call you my daughter. You aren't just an "easy baby", you are so spirited, funny, thoughtful, curious, goofy, loving, and sweet. Everyone who meets you sees just a little of your magic, but we are lucky enough to live it everyday.

A Tribute to TREK

Some say that a teacher's summer is like a weekend: June is our Friday, July is our Saturday, and August is our Sunday. Up here in Vermont, we often don't get out of school until the third week of June, so I usually run out of the school building after entering all of my grades and revel in my freedom. Realistically, I'm usually so busy trying to get all the things on my "to do" list done during those first few weeks off, that I never really get to relax and actually have a hard time slowing down. But by July, I dust the books off my bedside table that I've started and never had time to actually finish, I actually have days with no agenda, and I finally relax. Just about the time that August rolls around, everyone starts asking me, "so, when do you have to go back to school?". I usually don't actually know the exact date that I have to go back. Probably, because I'd rather not start counting down the days that I have left.

August could be particularly dreaded for me because John gets incredibly busy in August. While I'm trying to enjoy the last month of freedom, he ends up working long hours and many weekends in order to gear up for UVM's Outdoor Orientation for incoming students (aka TREK).

Tomorrow, over 250 students head out on 25 different six day wilderness trips (canoeing, backpacking, climbing, or biking). Fifty-five upperclassmen have spent the last week training for the event and John organizes it all. While it might be easy to resent TREK and all the students that take my husband away from Cally and me for so much of August, my sentiments are exactly the opposite. These students are all so fantastic.

Cally and I have visited John and the crew for a few of the training dinner events this week and the more time I spent with them all, the more I realize how lucky John is to do what he does. He is surrounded by so many motivated, fun, gracious, and outgoing students. They all make such a stink about Cally-- at any given time, one of them is smiling at her, holding her, or telling us that they are more than willing to babysit anytime (even some of the guys!). Now that I'm a parent, I look at students like this and I wonder what it takes to raise a kid who will turn out so self-assured, confident, friendly, thoughtful, and appreciative. I can only hope that Cally turns out to be so together and fun when she's in college.

Below is a picture of Cally on John's back at a recent BBQ with all the leaders:


Throughout the summer, three particular students have been working for John to help everything run more smoothly. John Ringer, Catherine, and Cory make up the "lojo" team (short for logistics) and they've been spending A LOT of time with John. Subsequently, they've gotten to spend some quality time with Cally. Above was a picture of Catherine and John Ringer with Lobster and Cal during a working lunch a few weeks ago. They make it so John has been able to sneak away from planning and leave some of the details of organizing to them. Because of them, he can get home every once in a while to give Cally a bath or put her to bed.

Thank you TREK leaders, and particularly, the Lo Jo crew. You guys give so much to help incoming students, but you also make our family richer.

Cally Sort of Crawls

She hasn't officially linked numerous movements together, but this shows Cal having a little fun with Zephy.

Cally Goes to the Fair

I never thought I'd be one of those people to go out of my way to entertain an infant. Don't get me wrong, both John and I entertain our daughter all the time-- we read books, sing goofy songs, crawl around on the floor with her, etc. etc. What I mean is I thought there would be a time and a place to go out of our way to expose Cally to different places and events for the sake of her. I just didn't think it was necessary when she was so young........ I figured we'd do those kinds of things later when she'd have more of a capacity to remember the events.

Well, that was before I realized that even infants can have a propensity for certain things and demonstrate a real thrill upon being around them. For Cally, this propensity is for animals. We see it everyday when she smiles and screeches upon catching a glimpse of our kitty, Lobster, or pup, Zephy.

And so, when we were trying to figure out what to do on a beautiful Saturday and we threw around our options-- an all-day local music festival (which would have been a no-brainer for the adults involved) or the Addison Country Fair (which I'd actually never been to, nor ever really had an interest in going to), we opted for the fair-- figuring it would bring a lot of smiles to Cally:




She beamed from ear to ear whenever she saw a cow, a sheep, a goat, a donkey..... anything with four legs. And the Kids Barn was pretty unreal-- the place was packed to the gills with parents, kids, and very mellow animals.

We couldn't pass up the following photo opportunities:


Hopefully this will be the only snow-mobile that Cally ever sits on.......



She can't wait to ride on one of the Kubota tractors that several of our friends have.

We went to the fair with our friend's, Tim, Sophia, and Beckett. They came up from the New Paltz area of New York. Beckett is 20 months old and Cally took quite a shining to him.

In the end, we did go out of our way to entertain our infant. She probably wouldn't remember if we'd gone to see the music or the fair, but she certainly had a ball at the fair and it felt good to do something for the kids. I guess I'm learing a little everyday.

Cally First Hike Up Camels Hump

Cally and I joined Medora, Addy, and Tanner for a perfect hike up Camels Hump. It was a first for all of the kids and no easy feat-- a five mile round trip hike with 2300 vertical feet to climb. With the temperatures hovering below 70 degrees, very little whining, and incredible views it, it was an ideal day

Cousin Will

Meet William King Niquette. He was born on July 6th and weighed in an ounce under five pounds. Will is my sister Jenn's first child and he lives in Baltimore. Considering he decided to enter the world six weeks early, he is doing incredibly well. And he's clearly, incredibly cute!





As you can also see, Cally was incredibly thrilled to meet her little cousin. She wanted to pet him like she would her cat, Lobster and dog, Zephy. But mostly, he just wanted to sleep.



It seems like ages ago that we had to do things like support Cally's head and gingerly change her diapers or were able to have her sleep for extended periods of time on our chest......... But we jumped back into it and even did some babysitting so Jenn and Rob could go out to the movies. Will is such a good-natured little guy. He's doing a lot of sleeping, eating, pooping and growing right now.

As much as Will was the reason for our visit to Baltimore...... John and Rob managed to get out to see the Red Sox play the Orioles on Saturday night at Camden Yard:

And on Sunday, we visited with John's good buddy from Bates, Bradley Turner and his beautiful family. He and Felicity live a couple of miles from my sister and rarely have a dull moment with their two kids Henry and Ruby. After a delicious brunch, Bradley and Henry took us on a great tour of Baltimore-- including some of the 'hoods from "The Wire".