Yesterday, we packed up the car for an afternoon in Lincoln, VT. Our good friend HR decided, at the last minute, to retire from teaching at MMUHS (the school where I teach) after 25 years or something. He's been a really amazing part of the community there, so will be quite missed. His wife, Ellie, decided to throw him a celebration:
That's a picture of Cally helping him open one of his retirement gifts. He's amazing with children and there were a few of them there to celebrate.
Here's Uncle Eric with the three babies of the 300 wing. Eric teaches English across the hall from me and he's holding Piper (on the left-- she's about seven weeks younger than Cally), Isaac is in the middle, his father Bryan teaches History down the hall from me (he's in the center and eight weeks younger than Cal). You might notice that Cally (on the right) is the smallest of the crowd, even though she's the oldest. She actually got "hand-me-downs" from Piper the other day. That said, she's got a lot more coordination and tends to do just what she's doing in this photo to her friends-- patting Isaac on the head, touching faces, etc.
Here's a better shot of Cally and Piper during a "play date" today:
Before heading to Lincoln, we had a plan to take a dirt road mountain bike ride with Cally in the Chariot-- the beloved stroller of choice. We loaded the bikes on the rack, stuffed the chariot in the car, and packed biking clothes and outfits for later in the night. It took me about a half hour getting it all together-- I guess that is par for the course when you have some many thing to remember. However, as seems to happen more frequently than not, a major piece was missing from the equation. I loaded the chariot with the jogger attachment and forgot the bike attachment.
People have told me about "breast feeding brain". This packing snafu is yet another example of me exhibiting the forgetful behavior that can accompany a breast feeding mom. Since we were already half way down to Lincoln when I figured out this brain fart, we decided the head out on a hike instead. Fortunately, we did have a baby carrier and hiking shoes. We parked up at Lincoln Gap. Instead of heading north on the Long Trail to Mt. Abe, we headed south to Sunset Ridge:
Cally loved the ride in the Ergo carrier (currently our carrier of choice)
The view from the top was beautiful.
I highly recommend the hike-- for kids, adults, whoever. It's 1.1 miles each way and not too steep. It was the perfect "plan B".
