Fall

 

 While there are days when I wonder how I'm going to make it through another day of this chaos--- lack of sleep, piles of grading, busy days at school, getting the kids out the door, fed, and happy, etc. etc., there are other days when I see my kids cracking each other and I hear Cal saying, "Hazen is my best friend".  Those moments put everything in perspective.  They make all the craziness fade away and remind me how lucky I am to have these two little gems.

And who wouldn't want this guy to be her best friend?



Speaking of friends, we've had a bunch of them visiting.  Below is our good friend Mic, who came up to meet Hazen for the first time earlier in September.  Mic and I met in Montana while we were both getting our Master's.  He recently decided to go back to school to become a science teacher (his partner is a teacher and he always seemed envious of the teacher's schedule, plus he says that I made it look easy).  He's going to be a fantastic teacher, but I think he's realizing that even though teachers get more vacation time, they definitely take more work home.

Then there was the annual fall visit from Nana and Grandpa:

Another visit from the Dormer's:

 And finally, Bumpa and Grandma rounded out the visitors this past weekend:

 

And between on the visitors, we made it out apple picking:

note the "apple picking tutu"

And then a ride on a bicycle carousel at the Nor'East Fest in Burlington:

 We love the visitors.  They inspire us to keep our house clean and remind us how lucky we are to have what we have-- a lovely family with a lot of people who love us!

High Meadow

We've had a hectic start to the school year........ the transition always seems abrupt, but this year has been especially hard.  It feels a little like going from the "frying pan into the freezer" after having spent 24/7 with the kids this summer.  Fortunately, the kids have taken to their new day care situation amazingly well.  Cally loves Tammy and all the kids.  She tells John to "hurry up" in the morning because she can't wait to get there.  And Hazen is adored by all-- he's sort of like the mayor there!

Unfortunately, on Hazen's third day with Tammy, he got a fever.  It being my first day with the students, I couldn't leave school, so I came to appreciate even more the flexibility that John has with his job.  Because the next day, he also had to stay home.


We had plans to go to Lake Mooselookmeguntuk in Maine again for Labor Day this year.  And we were even able to motivate the Ganz Clan.  We spent much of Friday getting our camping gear organized and packing.  We were optimistic that Hazen's fever was just a fluke.......... Unfortunately, Hazen woke up in the middle of the night spiking a fever of 104.7 degrees.  After consulting with Nurse Ganzenmuller who happened to be in the ER, he advised that we come in.  We called Uncle Scotty to see if he'd come over and stay with Cally while we went to the ER.  He and Cynthia were over in minutes, but upon consulting with our Doctor (and the fever dropped a bit with tylernol), it was decided to go into the doctors office at 7am instead.  At least we know that Scott and Cynthia are very dedicated Godparents.

Even when he's down, he looks pretty cute!

Hazen improved by morning, but he did have an ear infection, so the doctor put him on some antibiotics.  She didn't really have a strong opinion about whether we should go camping in Maine, but thought we should wait until mid-day to leave.  After a night short of sleep and our worries about being so remote, we decided to stay put.  The only problem was that we had offered to let John's sister Lynn stay at our house with her in-laws who were visiting from Ireland.  We didn't want to have to reneg on our offer and were fortunate to not have to because Uncle Scotty offered to let us stay at High Meadow.

High Meadow is a very special place for us.  It's the place we called home for 5 months when our home was being renovated.  It's the place we came home to with our beautiful new daughter.  It's the place where I learned to be a mother.  We've been fortunate to visit for barbeque's, swims, parties, and hikes over the past three years since we lived there.  but we've never had the opprotunity to stay there again.  Scott's offer was incredibly generous.
 

We ended up inviting the Ganz Clan and a few other families to join us for an impromptu "staycation" camp out.  Five families (11 children) played "jump or dive" in the pond, played in a tree house, kicked the soccer ball, boated around the pond, and ate incredibly well before camping out in the cabin and on the property. 

 

 


Being back at High Meadow brought back so many memories of being pregnant with Cally and how clueless I was about how my life was going to change.  I had no idea what an amazing experience being a parent would be.  What I mean is that I knew that I'd like having kids, but I had no idea just how much my life would change for the better.  And it just keeps getting better everyday!  Words escape my ability to explain just why I love being a parent so much, but being at High Meadow again made me feel it in a way that felt so powerful.  Especially when I see how much fun my family has when we are there.

 

Connecticut

While John was busy training Trek leaders, the kids and I went down to the land of "steady habits", a.k.a. Connecticut, to see the grandparents. Since it rained for the first couple of days that we were down seeing Bumpa and Grandma, we hit all the local hot spots for kids. First stop was the Maritime Center where we saw seals, otters, sharks, rays, touch tanks, and play areas:



Next stop was Stepping Stones where Bumpa hung out in the infant area with Hazen:


Cally played with water and all sorts of other cool stuff,

Next stop was the zoo in Bridgeport:


Cally's biggest interest was the two worms she found while walking!




And, of course, we couldn't skip another carousel ride:


We did also get a beach/pool day:





And played at the playground, on the trampoline, in the car, and read with Bumpa:




We wrapped up our trip with a visit to Nana and Grandpa for a few days. They took us for a swim at Stratton Brook:



Invited Chris, Catherine, Mark and Lynn over for a fun dinner:


And presented yet another gorgeous sweater to Cally (the one for Hazen just needs a button added to it).


Thanks family! We had a great visit. So nice to have your help while John was busy doing what he does best..... training leaders.

Parties and the Fair

August is a busy time for the guy Cally and Hazen call Dad. He's busy getting everything in order for the biggest "event" of his year-- Trek (the orientation trips for incoming students at UVM). Even so, we did get out and about to enjoy Vermont and the great friends we have here. First there was Thompson's second birthday party:


Then there was High Meadow Farm Weekend with Uncle Scotty, his sister and all their friends:


We found a digger on the side of the road:



And then there was the fair, where we saw pig races:



Rode a pony:


Did a family carousel ride:



Went on various rides:




Cal even went on a ride all by herself!


And Cally was even quoted as saying "Hazen is my best friend".