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).

LW & Silas-- Hilton Head Take II

Here's to my youngest cousin Lindsay and her marriage to Silas! We did our best to get to their wedding. I won't go into the details, but let's just say it was a travel disaster and we therefore didn't make their nuptuals. We did, however, get to spend some time with them after they became Mr. and Mrs. Odell.


The guys all got to go for a kayak excursion:


Cally finally saw a real live alligator:


She got to ride in Uncle James' rented Mustang Convertable and wondered why the windows wouldn't go up:


And Grandma gave Cal her first pedicure:


And we all got to spend some time on the beach again:





And we all got to spend some quality time cuddling with his relatives:






Here's to the Underwood sisters, who continue the tradition of getting family together!


And here's to cute kids who aren't necessarily that much fun to travel with, but keep us smiling and feeling fortunate to be a family!

Look Who's 2 1/2 !

Turtles

Cally, John and Hazen has the opportunity to help release 50 threatened spiney softshelled turtles into Lake Champlain.


These little guys were brought to the ECHO science center in October and carefully cared for so that they could be released into the lake. Cally may not remember actually doing this, but hopefully, this sort of stewardship will become a part of who she is:

Happy Father's Day!

Every once in while, I hear Cally blurt out to her dad, "Dad, you're the best dad in the whole world". I'm not exactly sure if her two and a half year old brain really knows what she's saying, but then again, I think she does. I hope she knows how lucky she is to have a dad that arranges his work schedule so that he can stay home with the kids one day a week, who has a sit down breakfast with the family every single morning, who picks up toys for his kids at the freecycle zone at the dump, who gets a swingset on Craigslist and assembles it, who hasn't missed a single doctors appointment for either of his kids (even when in utero), and who loves his kids more than anything in the world.




Yesterday, on Father's Day, there wasn't a lot that was done for Dear Dad. We did, however, let him sleep in, delivered him coffee in bed, and made French Toast. Cally made a card and we had some photos printed for him. It's the little things that matter to this dad. He loved it all. And he's pretty sure that there isn't a dad in the world who loves his family as much as he does.



It may be a while before Cally and Hazen realize what an amazing father they have. It may not be until they have their own kids. But I know that he is pretty unbelievable. I know how much he's put on the back burner (powder days, international mountain adventures, epic mountain bike rides, music festivals, and more) so that his kids can be front and center in his life. And I know how innovative he's been to make it so his children can be a part of what he loves and represents. Right now, the kids are too young to really understand, and I know there will be a period of time where they actually resent spending time with their family, but they will never be light on love with this guy around!



Happy Father's Day, John!