Ricker Pond

For the past four years, our dear friend Medora has reserved a bunch of campsites at one of Vermont's state parks. She makes the reservations in the middle of winter and invites all of the Wombats and their families. Last year we couldn't make it, but this year we needed an excuse to take a break from our siding project and join in on the fun. 9 families (18 adults and almost as many kids) all joined up at Ricker Pond in Groton State Park and we had an amazing time.

Cally loved being surrounded by all her "friends". She ranged around independently between campsites and was always being looked after by one of the adults or kids. And Hazen was never without one of his aunties to make him smile.



And even the dads did some bonding with group initiatives:


While at times, things got a little hectic, there is nothing better than being surrounded by good friends, the natural world, campfires, and a lake to cool off in:


And Thank you, ladies, for giving John and me another rare "biking date". You all jumped at the chance to watch our children and we were so appreciative of going on a ride together. Even if it did end with a crash where John's face made direct contact with his handlebars and landed him in the ER on Sunday. Even so, it was worth the escape and we knew our kids were in excellent hands


Having this community of friends is amazing. I feel so, so lucky!

Shingle Shin-Dig

We live in a great place. We have great friends and a beautiful house..... that is so close to being done, but not quite there. For the past two years, we've gotten so used to the look of Tyvec paper as our exterior, that we hardly notice what is missing. Last summer, John tried to do the siding himself, but didn't get all that far before he realized he was in over his head. This spring, we hired two fine carpenters and a lift to jump start the project. Once the tough stuff was done and the coffers were empty, we tried to motivate to do the shingling ourselves, once again. But we needed something to jump start the momentum. Which is why, we had to call in the troops, once again, and ask our friends to help us make some more headway on our siding project. It's never fun to have to ask for help, but it's great to have it once you get it. A few weeks ago, we had a Siding Party. This is what our house looked like at 9am:



And this is what it looked like by 6pm:



Five fine men worked on a gorgeous day. My job was to keep these fine men fed, dip shingles, and do my best to keep kids entertained. Fortunately, the kids did a good job of entertaining themselves and a few of my ladies helped keep everything sane:






And since then, we've kept the momentum going. During the day, while the kids are napping, I dip shingles. When John comes home from work, he jumps on the staging, picks up the nail gun and gets going. Once the kids are fed and in bed, I get back to dipping....... and so that is how our summer has been going. I've got stain between my toes and the kids fall asleep to the sweet sound of the compressor and nail gun.




But we're getting there!

We can see the light and feel really good about what our families home is going to look like.

4th of July

Happy Independence Day! We made it down to the Warren Parade for a fun morning of left leaning political floats and festivities with our friend's the Dormers.








Part II of the day included a hike up Mt. Abe with Tom and Cara (who even helped carry Cally up the steep section to the top).