Camping in Vermont

The great camping weekend that Brad had been waiting for finally arrived! We got a late start. Someone needed help moving out of a storage unit on a Friday when most people were at work. Brad and two friends who also had the day off for camping went to the rescue. I was pretty proud of them.

Brad let out a little WHOOP! when we (he) finally packed all the gear in our car. We cheated a little and had some friends take up a few things for us. But considering that we have the smallest car and the most kids of anyone who went I was very impressed that we were able to take all we did. Brad inherited his Dad's packing skills!

The kids mostly slept on the two and half hour drive to Vermont and we enjoyed the scenery we got there and were greeted by friends and a lot of bugs. It seemed like the tents were up in no time. We scrapped the dutch oven meal for the first night because it was going to take too long... but who can resist a hot dog cooked over an open fire?

Naturally we got away from it all but Andrew had to check his phone...

The girls and some of the kids hide from the bugs.

Brad and Dan by the fire.

David being cheesy.

William eating what has since been named "camping applesauce."

David and William had a rocky start with going to bed but since they couldn't reach the tent zipper if it was at the top (hallelujah!) they decided to quickly settle down and sleep, the fact that is was hours after bedtime probably helped too. The adults enjoyed conversation and a rousing game of two truths and a lie. It was fun to learn simple, funny, scandalous, scary, and outlandish things that our friends have done.

Goodbye!

I am remembering this week in May as the start of saying goodbye to SIX wonderful families that were scheduled to move away this summer.

Here is David playing with his friend Bridger (a normally happy guy) at the library. We spent some time with Bridger on Monday nights and at many other little playgroups and play dates.

I also enjoyed the company of Bridger's mom Daija. Daija encouraged me to run with her in the mornings. Because she was so diligent at getting up early and picking me up I got to exercise and have some wonderful company at the same time.

I'll add that Daija went on to run her first half marathon during the 1st trimester of her second pregnancy. Go Daija! I never ran more than three miles and I would not have been able to keep up with her if it wasn't for the fact that she was expecting.

Here is a picture of Akayleia (who has also recently moved) and Lacey giving Daija a quilt that they had made as a goodbye present. It has been sad to see the Heaton's and many other families that we love move on. I think that is because our friends have become our family.

Sports Class

I love community recreation programs...I worked for my city's recreation department on and off for five or six years so maybe I'm a little biased!

For $30 I was able to enroll David in a sports class for 6 weeks (or was it 8? I can't remember) The class was a full hour and coaches were wonderful. I was almost teary over how sweet the guys running the class were. They seemed to be a bunch of retired men who were just doing this because they love kids.

The idea was to teach the some of the basics. Today was soccer. Of course the class starts with a warm up. If you look closely at my not too good picture you can see that David wasn't bending his knees with everyone else. This should be something he will like!

Another Birthday

Brad turned 28 in May and as every year his birthday was smashed right next to Mother's Day. It was nice that he didn't have to share the exact same day but I'm sure he did a lot more service for me than I did for him! Brad's birthday involved making some camping gear purchases.

He was given a bit of money from school as a "gift" for his volunteer service giving interviewing students tours of the dental school. He combined that sum with a few gift cards and checks that he received and was able to do pretty well! It was fun to watch him get more and more excited for our upcoming camping trip with each purchase. He even set the tent up in the backyard just make sure it worked and was what he wanted.

Opening a few gifts...

To celebrate Brad's birthday we were able to leave the kids with some friends and enjoy a movie and a Brazilian style churrasco de rodizo. We could not even eat the last several meats because we were so full! The waiter would not take no for an answer and we had to beg him to stop bringing the food around. It was tasty but we did leave waaay to full. We'd been to the same place two years before and they had really changed it--nicer, more food, better decor. It was a great dinner.

We were able to play game with friends afterward too. They even made a special dessert and had a little gift for Brad. He commented after that was the first time in a long time anyone but his family had made a big deal out of his birthday.

Here are the boys signing a card for their aunt Danielley...her birthday was two days after Brad's. We felt bad getting the card out late but hoped she would forgive us!

It was a pretty cool card...

Make Way For Swans

May 3 was a beautiful day for an outing in Boston. We took the train with our friends the Robertson's and met about 50 of our friends from church for the annual celebration of "Returning the Swans to the Public Gardens." We were all a little "high" on Spring. We'd suffered a long winter and this day was perfect--not too hot, not too cold, all of the trees in bloom. It was absolutely lovely.

I might have copied the above paragraph almost verbatim from my friend Megan's post about this same outing but it was REALLY good!

David is ready for a story!

You can't complete a trip to the Public Garden without a photo of those famous ducks!

William is wearing one of his expressions...

I have to say this rendering of the book wasn't as grand as I had hoped. Maybe they can hire Danielle to read it next year? She'd nail it.

Cute friend with a cute baby.

The swans are about to be released into the public garden pond...their home for the summer.

We are all watching on the grass...I look thrilled. This might have been after William tumbled down the hill and almost fell into the pond.

We were further away from the action after the little parade but the real treat was the weather...SPRING...FINALLY! In the words of Jamie Cook another friend the it was just an "iconic Boston experience" She was interviewed by WBUR and made it onto the NPR broadcast in the evening!

More of little boys playing. Interestingly it was when William was up the hill and not playing with the water that he almost took a plunge!

A swan boat ride. Ahhhh...SPRING!

We only had to wait until May.

I was very pleased that so many enjoyed the outing because I organized it. I only really sent out a bunch of e-mails but we had a GIANT group of friends there to celebrate the swans and a new season.

Art in Bloom

I enjoyed Art in Bloom at the Museum of Fine Arts so much last year I had to go again.

Luckily Jenna and Landon came along so that made it even more fun! I got to take a glimpse at the Art of Americas exhibit I was able to enjoy a few impressive Cassatts even though they weren't part of the Art in Bloom.

The displays of flowers were exquisite. Some of them made sense with the paintings and some didn't but really how much better could it get? Beautiful art. Beautiful flowers. I was in heaven.

Obvious.

More obvious...

One of my favorites! Aren't they all lovely? This was just a fraction of the pictures I took and the arrangements and art that I saw.

There was an outstanding acapella choir there that the boys LOVED watching and listening to. Who doesn't love live music? It was delicious! We ran into several other friends making their way through the arrangements in the Art of the Americas exhibit wing.

Brad was able to meet up with us and he took William home on the T.

I am very proud that we got three boys to sort of cooperate at a museum!