Ok, I’m back. I was posting to www.dreamydream.com/blog for months while I trained for the Boston Marathon and raised $20,000 (thank you once again for all of the incredible support from everyone). What an adventure! Amazing! But now I need to share pics on this site from the past many months. Sorry for the overload now…and most of my comments are short…just got to get this posted!!!
Check out slick with his birthday cake 🙂 The day he turned 13 was the same day he first started wearing gel. He’s a great kid – if anything, he’s offering to help out MORE as a teenager!
Colleen spent a week in Kentucky working on houses with an ASP (Appalachia Service Project) trip with our church. Here she is learning how to use a saw. It was a good trip for her. I still find it odd and a bit frustrating that we send people to Kentucky instead of working to help people in our own state, but I’m glad we help regardless.
Us, and the sky, in St. Louis.
Megan loves playing her saxophone. She is great at it and got invited to play in this special concert. Amazing how much better these instruments sound when finally one of our kids actually practices! Looks like Megan will be our first band kid.
Something bigger than a bunny was in our yard. Fox? Coyote? Wolf?
This is only a few days after planting our seeds. Amazing that this is how a 1000lb+ pumpkin starts!
The universe listens so be careful what you ask for (in my case, I asked for just enough money for a fire pit and somehow Great Uncle Bill responded from beyond). You were a great man Great Uncle Bill – thanks for your service to our country and love to our family!
Our garlic crop/harvest was our best yet this year. Here’s the Megs with a scape.
And here’s our full harvest drying to be used later!
Happy Marathon to me! I made a little poster/tribute with mementos from the race. Cool that my name is on the poster!
I said just one bite…wonder who they learned that from?
I’ll do a future post on Beth’s 3-minute-thesis. After she gave her most recent presentation, we did a quick trip through the science museum where she was presenting. Lucky (?) for us the museum staff said we just happened to be there on a rare occasion when they had the “vaults” open that are filled with tons of things rarely on exhibit. How could we miss that? We followed a path through their storage area and suddenly weren’t sure we had made the right decision. They had things in jars (e.g., deer fetus), all sorts of bones and dead things, and we even had the opportunity to put a clothespin on our nose and skin our own rat. How fun!?!?! Especially before our “date night” dinner. The best part was how excited the museum staff were to show off their crazy displays. Ick.
Helpers?
Ta-da!
See what happens when you put things on your dream list? Megan’s apple tree 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day from the kids. She got this, and on Father’s Day I got Colleen coming back from a week away at ASP.
My favorite part of this pic is trying to figure out where the soccer ball is following the penalty kick, and wondering how it got there. Guess we’ll have to work on our wall 🙂
Ahhh, foaming. Rabies?
We had a great time at Niagara Falls. Our timing was perfect – 2nd to last boat of the night – it was mostly empty so we could go wherever we wanted. The boat was fun, but the cave of the winds walk and hurricane deck were even better! So glad we got rain coats and shoes for this 🙂 We’ve been talking about doing this for years on our trip – glad we FINALLY made it happen. And only one of us got pooped on by the seagulls – not bad (nope, wasn’t me, keep guessing).
One of our favorites – Parker’s Maple Barn! And fun to have Sarah and Rose with us too. Yummy maple everything (including the coffee)! Except no fresh maple donuts for Beth this time 🙁
We stopped by my sister’s best friend’s house – so great to see Heather and her family. Their house is hundreds of years old and the type of place where you feel like you could just hang out on their porch all day while your worries blow away in the breeze. Heather feels like such an important piece of my sister’s history and life – words never quite express everything wrapped up in that. Always so great to see her – hopefully we get to see Mike again at some point too!
Our visit to New Hampshire involved lots of chipmonk catching, escaping, transporting and releasing. Seemed like we were in a roadrunner cartoon at times. The best was when the first chipmonk ran in the cage, ate most of the food, and for some reason wasn’t quite tripping the door to shut on him. Fun times.
Rockport, MA is one of my favorite little artsy towns to visit. It was a beautiful day for a quick trip there, lobster rolls, chowder, a local beer, and then off to Wingaersheek beach.
Two pics are jammed into this one. The bottom half is the girls staring at their reflection. The top half is what they are giggling at.
Blueberry picking in Hollis, NH. I think we ate twice as much as what you can see in the first picture. Yummy!
Throw Colleen’s name in the hat for one more person who wants the Cougar 🙂 Except we don’t have a garage big enough to fit it.
Merrimack Brewery. I swear those aren’t all mine 🙂
Well…we got almost everybody to cooperate for this one. Man those Clydesdales are big!!
Love me some strawberry rhubarb pie on my birthday!
And here’s the newest addition to our house. We have two Axolotls now. I call them Axel and Ottle, but Megan has other names for them that I can never seem to remember. We feed them each 10 salmon pellets every other day. But you have to get their attention and then drop the pellets right on their head so they can suck them down. But don’t get your fingers too close or they’ll try to suck that down too. And if they are still chewing or not ready, then you have to reach into the tank to pick up the old pellets and try again. Any volunteers to feed them the next time we’re on vacation?
This will be the second time today that I’ve commented. Since I don’t seem to get around to it at night, I commented this morning. When I finished and clicked on “submit” I hadn’t noticed that our Comcast connection had been dropped. Anyway, I’ll try it again.
I won’t comment on all the pics, but enjoyed them all and reading your comments. I looked at your other blog, but haven’t read all the links.
How is it going with two teenagers in your house? Chris is looking more mature all the time. Hope he and Colleen enjoyed their birthdays. It was good that Colleen was able to go to KY. I often have similar thoughts as our church sends groups to other areas while we have obvious needs right in our own community. Seems to be the way things are done though. I’m glad Megan is enjoying the saxophone. Too bad we didn’t get Megan and neighbor, Mathew, together in July for a duet on their saxophones. We now have a basketball-sized pumpkin. We only pollinated one blossom. As much room as our one plant is taking I can only imagine how much room all of your plants are taking. Looks like you found the perfect spot for your Uncle Bill memorial. I like the marathon poster you made. It should give you much pride as you pass by it and think of Katherine and all the people you helped raising funds in her memory. I think I’ll pass if offered a backroom tour at the science museum. Has the weather cooled to the point of using your new fireplace? It looks real nice and must make that room look much larger. Glad you were able to enjoy Niagara Falls and other sites along the way and things on your list in NH. We sure enjoyed your visit in July. I’ll keep Colleen on the list, as maybe an addition to your garage will happen someday. The Axolotl looks like one of those things that’s so ugly that it’s cute. Not sure I would want that looking at me when I go to bed or wake up.
Speaking of the Cougar and lists – one more car show in a couple weeks and I’ll be putting the Cougar away for the season. I made it to more car shows this summer than usual and always enjoy viewing that form of “American art.” One thing on my summer list was the cog railroad up Mt. Washington. Mom and I took the ride last Thurs. It was a beautiful sunny day. We spent the night in a nearby inn. The next day it rained – timing is everything. Also, in May I drove the car halfway up the other side, so I can certainly cross Mt. Washington off my list.
Better finish this up. Sat. we are walking with the Samaritans for Katherine’s pride. This will put the total raised in Katherine’s memory well over $100,000. The $20,000 you raised for the marathon is a big part of that total. We share your pride for all the work you did in raising funds and increasing awareness of the important work the Samaritans do in helping others who are struggling. Although we will never be able to enjoy Katherine’s smile, loving ways or her presence among us, our memory of her sustains us and it is comforting to know that funds raised for the Samaritans are helping others who are struggling.
Give our love to all and keep the updates coming when you get a chance. We always enjoy the pics and reading about what all of you are up to.