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".

A New Way of Biking

When John and I met 14 years ago, it was on a mountain bike ride. When I returned to Vermont 9 years ago, John and I went on a mountain bike ride with a group of friend. When we began dating three years later, it was on a few mountain bike rides. Most of these mountain bike adventures involved a failed bike part, a crash, and maybe a little swearing. Mountain bike rides show you "the good, the bad, and the ugly" sides of a person. And for those people who know John well, or have had the opportunity to go on a long mountain bike ride with him, they know that he often displays it all. That said, I still managed to fall in love with John.


Two years ago, John and I went on a lot of mountain bike rides. I think we went for rides 3-4 times a week. In fact, John proposed to me at our favorite network of trails after one of those unusual flawless rides (meaning there were no crashes or bike failures).


Last summer, even though I was four-six months pregnant, we continued to mountain bike. I took the less aggressive routes, but we still got out quite a bit. As the leaves began to change, my rides took me on the dirt roads and mellow terrain, but we were out there.



Since Cally was born, we've had three "mountain bike dates". On the first one, we hired a babysitter, left the house, and realized we had forgotten my wheel (fortunately, we were riding near by and the turn around didn't cost us too much time), then John's had some catastrophic bike failure and I ended up riding with two of his past students for the rest of the ride........ not exactly the date we had in mind. For the next ride, we dropped Cally with Medora and Mary and met up with our friends Jen and Nils. Within minutes, John's tire had a catastrophic blow........ Finally, while my parents were here, we got out for a two hour long ride and were reminded of those days when we were corting.

We have each gotten out on individual rides with our friends, but those have been fewer and further in between because of the rain and a desire to hang out as a family. And so, we've found a new way to get out on our bikes. Two years ago, we would have poo pooed this type of activity, but these days, this is how we get out:


More and more often, we jump on the bikes, head out to a bike path (Burlington or Stowe) and get Cally out on a casual ride. Sometimes, we throw a few tennis rackets in the back of the Chariot and get a few games of tennis in while we are out. Other times, we do a dirt road loop and cap it off with a cremee.

While these rides are way less aggressive and exciting than the rides we used to take, they never involve swearing, bike failures, or injuries. Someday, we'll get those multiple days of epic mountain biking in again. In the mean time, I'm actually liking the bike path rides. When Cally isn't sleeping, she's taking in the beautiful scenery where we live and usually wearing one of those enormous smiles.

Nana & Grandpa's Weekend with Cally

For the past three years, John's parents, Art and Peg, have come up to Vermont the last weekend in July. We look forward to their visit every year, but this year we were particularly excited for the visit. They offered to watch Cally so we could attend our friend's Anton and Amy's wedding in Charlotte. VT.

John and I haven't gone on many "dates" this summer. With a tight budget, we've been able to sneak a few hours out here and there for a bike ride or a run when family or friends are in town, but a whole afternoon and evening out together was going to be a real treat. In order to make it worth their while, we decided to take Art and Peg raspberry picking with Cally. I'm not sure who had more fun: Cally, Nana, John, Art or me!


Because we don't get out much these days, we took the opportunity to get a snap shot of the fancy couple and child:


And this is a parting shot taken of Cally's fabulous babysitters. They had a great night together. Cally did everything on cue and slept until the minute we walked in the door at 1am.....

Tour de New England

Over the past week, we took a vacation visiting old friends, new friends, and family. Below is a brief summary of our adventures:

First stop was a lunchtime visit with Boden and Carlota Dormer. Boden is about five weeks older than Cally and Carlota is one of my friends from growing up. The kids met in February when they could hardly hold their necks up. We can't wait for these two to have many adventures in the future.

Next stop, Duxbury, MA to visit Uncle James, Aunt Paula, and cousins Kesley and Jameson. But, first we had to make it through Boston and Cape traffic. Fortunately, we made it and got to go out on a lovely dinner boatride:



On Saturday we walked out to the Duxbury beach and Cally got to feel some chilly Atlantic Ocean water.
Next, Cally got to try the baby pool at Blackrock and had an entertained dinner.




On Sunday, we had gorgeous weather and spent the morning back at the Duxbury beach before heading up to Cape Elizabeth, ME to spend some time with John's buddy Alex Johnston and his family. We had a surprise visit from Joc Clark and family, headed to the beach for dinner and had a fun night in a packed house.

You might have noticed in the picture above, that Cally acquired her first visor (a hand me down from cousin Kesley)! John is rarely seen without his visor, so it is only fitting that Cally has one, too.


On Monday, Mary Jane was sweet enough to watch Cally, so John, Alex, and I could hit the surf and do some boogie boarding. Upon returning, we headed to Portland and went for a sail in Alison's boat. Note that in the photo below, Cally looks thrilled to be sailing......... she actually decided that she kind of hates those infant PFD's and showed Alex and M.J. what "Cranky Cally" looks like:


After a salty, ocean day we headed up to Sebego Lake to meet back up with Joc and family and gather with lots of other folks. Below is a picture of Guy's family's house:


Here's a picture of Guy's wife, Tatiana and their son Lucas who took quite a liking to Cally:


Joc's daughter Ander thought Cally was a lot like her favorite doll, Tallulah:


Oh, and the music and food...... It's pretty amazing how an unorganized meal can come together and feed so many and taste so good:


We even played a game of SPUD and since John lost, he had to go through the dreaded "spanking machine".


Cally got some good dock time:


And the following is a little number the ladies threw together as a part of what was supposed to be a multi-act talent show. It turns out, we were the only act!


Thanks to Jamey, Paula, Kesley, Jameson, Alex, MJ, Zoe, Izzy, Joc, Kelly, Ander, Avery, Guy, Tatianna, Lucas, and all the other folks who opened up their homes and hearts to Cally, John and me. It's so fun to introduce Cally to all the people who mean so much to us. Cally is surely not going to be short on love from her extended family and friends!