Cally's Valentines

It was hard to decide who would be Cally's Valentine this year.......... Of course, her long distant Valentine's were both sets of grandparents. Seriously, she loved getting their cards and has been walking around the house with both of them for the past week:


There's always Nate, her daycare buddy. She learned how to give him hugs recently:


Doesn't this shot look like the classic, "pre-prom" shot? The only things missing are the fancy attire, a corsage, and boutonniere.

But it was Boden Dormer who was here for Valentine's Weekend. She really liked having him around. Especially when he willingly pushed her around on her Winnie the Pooh Plane.

He was even kind enough to check the tires before they went too far:


They even snuggled up with Carlota for a little story time.


Guess who's hair is almost long enough for big tails?

She definitely wears a mullet well.

Dream Weekend

John and I have been antsy to get out of town...... we knew we couldn't go really far away, but we wanted to get away from the never ending "to do list" that lies in wait at home. So last weekend, we asked my brother if we could pretend to be tourists and stay at their house in Stowe. He was gracious enough to let us enjoy the weekend at his house.


John and I have both done a lot of mountain biking and skiing in Stowe, but we rarely stay long enough to visit stores or eat at restaurants........ So that's what we did this weekend.

Saturday, we packed Cally in the Chariot and set out on the groomed bike path for an adventure. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, and the temperatures were pretty comfortable (plus the path is pretty much flat, so it was a great change of pace from the hills we are used to dragging Cally up).


We stopped at the Harvest Market for coffee and a snack, bought a raw hide for Zephy at the expensive pet store, did a little thrift store shopping, and watched some pick up hockey at the outdoor rink along the way.


Later in the afternoon, we met up with the Ganzenmuller Clan (Mary- aka "The Homesteading Hussy", Claire, and the twins Auggie and Timmy) for a swim at the Community "Swimming Hole". As has been the case, Cally loved the water:



but only about a fraction as much as the Ganz kids did:


After extricating seven pruned bodies from the pool, we headed to Frida's for some tasty Mexican food and margarita's. It's always a gamble to take Cally out to eat, but she finds the older kids completely fascinating and we all had a ball.

We capped off the weekend by splitting a lift ticket and getting some serious laps in on the groomers at Stowe on Sunday (while we've got snow, we could certainly use some of the excess that has been falling in the Mid-Atlantic states.......). In any case, you'll never hear me complain about making turns on snow at this point in my life.

Nothing like a little "get-away" to recharge the batteries and escape the duties of being at home. Thanks James and Paula, we had a fantastic time!

As you can see, Cally was pretty happy to see her friend Lobster upon our return.