Stick Season

November is often referred to as "stick season".  There usually isn't enough snow to ski upon, but it's usually pretty cold and grey.  It's also hunting season, which means that you can't really hike all that safely in the woods. That said, there are a lot of great things that happen during stick season. The UVM Outing Club always hosts the Telluride Mountain Film Festival.  It's always been one of my favorite events, but it is really fun to be have the kids join us and enjoy it.  This year, Hazen was thrilled to sit with "the big kids"- Tanner, Augie, Timmy, Willem and Shae.  And seeing Dad as one of the MC's of the event is always fun.

Cal's been spending some time teaching Hazen how to write.  It's pretty cute to see them work together and to hear her encouragement.  These two have their moments of butting heads, that is for sure, but they also have beautiful moments of helping each other and being generous towards each other.  Case in point..... Cal is allowed to borrow one book from the library at school this year.  Of the six books she has taken out, three have been selected for Hazen-- a book about Superman, another one about dinosaurs, and then another about monster trucks.  Even the librarian made a point of telling us how unusual it is for a sibling to take their only book out for a sister or brother.

Uncle Jamey and family were up in Stowe the weekend that John was in the backcountry with his students in early November, so we spent some time on the bike path-- honing the bike skills before swapping out the bikes for skis. 

In other news, Cal's school hired Jon Gailmore, and artist in residence, who helped each class in the school write a song and then perform their songs for all the parents and community members. Cally's class made up and sang a pretty cute song about dogs.

Cal's also been busy creating at Poker Hill Arts, an after school arts program.  She painted this amazing moose (with the help of her teacher who sketched his outline).

Luckily, even if the gods aren't always making snow early season, the resorts are.  I did get out for a beautiful tour up Smugglers Notch for some variable manmade snow. While the snow wasn't the best, the views certainly were.

The best part about November is celebrating the birth of John!  And incredible father, husband and friend to all of us.  He can chef up and incredible meal, rewire a socket, drywall, paint and play like no other.  We are so fortunate to have him in our life.  This year, he played hooky on his special day.  He ice climbed with a friend in the morning, ski toured in the afternoon, and then was treated to a fun dinner out with the family to top it all off.

Stick season also gives us time to get chores done.  And without epic snow, we "chucked wood" as a family and rewarded our hard workers with a visit to the playground.

Trick or Treat

I have a sort of animosity towards Halloween.  I love pumpkins and the symbolism of fall passing into stick season.  I love the kids excitement about costumes and the pumpkins.

This year, we had a fireman and a moose hitting the streets of Jericho.  Cally had been a monkey last year and the costume (with some modifications) was able to double as a moose this year.  She did say that it was difficult to walk up stairs, because the costume was a bit tight but we managed.

 We have headed up to Jericho Center for the trick or treating for the past three years.  The Country Store has a cute haunted barn and there are a manageable number of houses to visit.  We hit 7 houses in 30 minutes and it was perfect.  There is a little old lady who sits on her porch and loves seeing children and they get some candy, but not too much.  At this point, they don't know that there are some kids who get to hit dozens of houses and get tons of candy.  I'm not really sure what would happen if we got more candy than the kids already get.  It becomes the bane of my existence. Every day after school, they ask for a piece of candy and it feels like it will never run out-- and we only went to 7 houses!

My favorite part of Halloween is the pumpkin glow on Cilley Hill Road.  I've mentioned it before, but it's so much fun.  People carve hundreds of pumpkins, including a 1600 lb one!

In other recent events..... the kids and I attended a Buddy Dubay concert at the library on a rainy Saturday and they loved it!

It's so sweet to see how well they play and dance together.

Hazen got to wear face paint more than one day because he had a make up day at Poker Hill.  While they don't allow costumes, they do an amazing job with face paints!

Hazey is learning to be a good cat lover-- petting in the right direction and giving light hugs. 

And we went on a hike to find snow.  It was the kids idea!

And we found it on November 2nd! We all can't wait to ski.

Owen

 Hazen has been anxiously awaiting a visit from Owen the stuffed Hippo for weeks.  He's his class "animal" who gets to stay with us for a week (along with the book about him).  And, we had him over the fall break from school, so we got to do a lot of fun things with him......

Picking up the last of our CSA veggies at Arcana

On a hike with six dogs, six kids, and a hippo named Owen

Dinner with the Krull girls and Henry

Making a family tree during our "free time"

Picking out a pumpkin

    

Snuggling with Owen and Hippy

We also signed Cal up for the Bill Koch Nordic program that will be hosted on this beautiful piece of property in Underhill.

 And Cally was finally able to bring her first big piece of art home-- a Moose in Alaska.

O+

We've been on the road a lot recently.  I like traveling and getting away.  I do not like having to worry about finding Zephy care, packing for three member of the family, having to clean the house, load the car, remember iPad, chargers, activities for the car, and snacks.  Invariably I forget something, but usually it isn't super important.  John had been dreaming about going to the O Positive Festival in Kingston, NY for almost a year.  It's a gathering of artists and musicians, doctors, and health practitioners.  The idea is to offer free wellness services to under insured artists in trade for a weekend full of art and music. 

Kingston is a very hip town, made even hipper by this fantastic event.  We drove down on Friday night and stayed with our friends Tim and Sophia (although Sophia is in Milwaukee for ten weeks performing in a play) and their dear kids, Beckett and Iris.

Saturday was a gorgeous day and we had a great time checking out wall art installations, listening to music, and eating great food from a farmers market.

To end the day, Tim treated us to a harvest dinner fundraiser for a local nonprofit.  The kids continued to have a ball.  Swinging like monkey's from the tent and wrestling with each other.

They really do have fun with each other, sometimes. 

And they are goofballs!

Sunday was spent watching a kids music band and driving home.

We are all a little road weary, but so glad to have been where we have gone this past month.