Camping in Ascutney

School's Out!

Little Bella's is a highlight of our spring/summer.  This year, we weren't sure if Cally got in because the program filled up so quickly.  Fortunately, John works with Sabra, one of the founders of the amazing program, so she managed to get Cal off of the waitlist.  While Cal rides with a fun posse of gals, Hazen, John and I do our own adventuring at Catamount:

Cal loves being with the Bellas and learning from Lea, an Olympic medalist:

I missed the last few days of school to participate in a stream study exploration with these two clowns:

Nicole is the youngest of four sisters, whose Dad teaches Math with me and Cooper is the son of two science teachers.

I spent the week at St. Mike's college, a throwback to my dorm days:

We learned how to identify the macroinvertebrates in the lab:

Meanwhile, I snuck away for an afternoon to tie up loose ends at school and witness Cally bridge from Brownies to Girl Scouts:

Ali's Wedding

The end of May and early June were a blur.  John was away in Peru for a little over two weeks and the kids were involved in a lot of practices and games.  There was one weekend in early June where our schedule looked like this:

Friday:

6:30-7:30 Soccer Practice for Hazen

Saturday:

8:30-9:30 Lacrosse practice for Hazey

9:30- 11:00 Girls on the Run 5k race with Cal

11:30- 1:00 Soccer game for Hazey

2:00-3:30 Soccer game for Cally

Sunday:

Soccer game for each kid

Little Bella's for Cally from 4:6

Lacrosse practice for both kids from 6:30-7:30

Fortunately, John's parents were here to help with some of the pick ups and deliveries.  This was not what we meant to happen-- a clash of circumstances!

John arrived home on a Wednesday and we headed down to CT for my cousin Kip's daughter's wedding.  I have no pictures, but it was a super fun event.  My friend Greer's daughter, Marley babysat the kids and we had a great evening. 

Lost

We spent the weekend camping, climbing, mountain biking, and canoeing at Branbury State Park south of Middlebury.  It's a favorite place and we were lucky to be joined by Jen, her boys and her boyfriend Mark's family, as well as Andrea & Matt and their boys.

Unfortunately, we have almost no photos of the weekend because........ our cocktail canoe ride ended with us dumping the canoe, as well as both our phones. It was not only cold, but a bit sad to have lost both our phones with no photos backed up since February.  Photos are important to me and obviously pretty important to this blog.

In any case, it was a great weekend.  John set up climbs for the kids twice, we had fun playing in the lake, ate wonderful food, got out for adult bike rides, and played lots of fun campground games.

However, I did find a picture of a few of Hazen's end of the year moments:

Losing his first tooth

Feeding a calf during a field trip to the Davis farm

Starring in his first play- Jack in the Beanstock

And Cal got a new haircut:

May

I love Mother's Day.  It is the one day of the year that I get eggs benedict and have an excuse to have a "lie in".  John and the kids spoil me and I love feeling appreciated.

Kids in their first 5K race

Checking out the Memorial Day parade (a.k.a. "candy parade)

Big crash at Catamount!

Both kids performed in the JES talent show.  Hazen told jokes and Cally sang "The Sun will come out Tomorrow":

April Break

This year we had such a great plan for April break.  It included meeting up with 7 other families in Pisgah.  We reserved sites and we were fired up.  But sometimes the best laid plans...... are just that.  Plans ..... and we needed to be flexible because sometimes they need to change.  As it turn out, the weeks leading up to our trip were cold and rainy here in VT.  Weather forecasts showed the same exact weather holding on strong over the Asheville/Pisgah area.  Families started dropping out on the plan in the days leading up to it.... One family decided to go to the caribbean, another decided to stay here, and another headed to Florida.  So, the rest of us decided to head south to Harrisonburg, Virginia and see how the weather panned out.  We packed bikes and camping stuff and headed south as we normally do.  First stop was Nana and Grandpa's.  

Next we stopped at Hester and Hudnell's for a night.  The weather was beautiful, so we left early on Sunday morning and made it to Harrisonburg by 10am.  John and I got to join some of the guys for a great ride.  We also rode the next day, but then the rain began.  At the last moment, we decided to change plans entirely and head to Hilton Head.  Sherry and George are wonderful about always making us feel welcome,so we jumped on the opportunity to be in warm sunshine and play with them:

Within an hour of being there, we were on our bikes at Pinkney Island.  We saw crocodiles and sand crabs.  John even saw a five foot long rat snake in a tree!

viewing alligators

A corn snake that John climbed upon

searching for crabs

The following day, George arranged for us to borrow kayaks from his friend George in Beaufort, SC.  We saw crabs and sharks!  We even got fresh oysters:

It was wonderful to be at the beach!

And Sherry took the time to go shark tooth hunting with us:

We also loved hearing my Grandfather's story that Sherry is working hard to transcribe:

On our way home, we stopped through Charleston to have lunch with Izzy Johnston and then had a wonderful night at Lindsay and Silas' house north of Charleston in Cross.

Exploring Charleston

Biking with Kai