Calm before the storm

Thanks to Hurricane Irene, we had to cut our annual summer visit to Long Island short by a few days this year. It was a bummer, but considering that most of Andy's family (mom, dad, brother, sister-in law) was under a mandatory evacuation order, there wasn't much point in us weathering the storm there and we figured we'd better get back to NH to make sure our own house was ready for the high winds and rain. When we visited last Christmas, there was a major blizzard on the island, and this summer we had an earthquake and a hurricane... I think it's fair to say that our families are awaiting our visit at Thanksgiving with some trepidation. Tornado? Tidal wave? UFO landing? Yikes.

Beware of Munson!

Ferry to Watch Hill

At Coyles with William and Elizabeth

Despite the abbreviation of our visit, we had an excellent time and enjoyed some beautiful weather with friends and family for the week we were there. We spent our first and last days (both blue-sky beauties) relaxing on Oak Island... swimming, fishing, kayaking, crabbing, reading, and playing in the sand. If I had to guess which of our kids loved Oak Island the best, it'd be a close vote, but I'd have to go with Kimball. The dog was in complete canine heaven there... no roads and no leashes and no rules! Kimball spent her time digging colossal holes in the sand, diving into the phragmites to find crabs and other stinky sea creatures to crunch on, vegging out in the shade under the house or the boardwalks, and playing tug-of-war with all the rope ends tied to cleats and marine pilings. And she got to stay a lot longer on Oak Island than we did, since Andy's dad was very nicely watching her for the whole week. Aiden and Haley also had a wonderful time... Aiden loved crabbing and fishing and got to kayak around the whole island (a long trip!); Haley loved running her fingers and toes (and occasionally her tongue) through the sand, and both of them enjoyed swimming right off the dock.

Oak Island House

Searching for jellies

Crabbin'

Oak Is House

Kayak Trip #1

Aiden's snapper

Tug of War at Oak

Aunt Paulette and Munson

Kayak Trip #2 - around whole island!

We also got into the Big City this time, when Grandma Chris and Crazy Uncle Dan went with us to the Intrepid Museum on the lower west side of Manhattan. Tons of planes and helicopters, submarines and of course the Intrepid herself, a huge aircraft carrier which we got to explore thoroughly. We spent one day at the Coney Island Aquarium with Lisa and her boys Alex, Christian and Edward, and another at Watch Hill Beach on Fire Island. We had family picnics and dinners with friends, visited both great grandmothers and spent time with cousins. It was a full trip, as usual...we're not much for down time anyhow. You never know when your trip will be cut short, so it's best to live it up while you can!

Aiden and Alex at Coney island

Alex at the Coney Is Aquarium

Visiting Great Grandma Guppy

Haley at Watch Hill

Fire Island

Intrepid Museum

Intrepid

Home and dressed for Hurricane Irene!

Dragonfly Walks

Andy and I led two dragonfly walks lately that were jointly sponsored by the Forest Society and Ausbon-Sargent Land Preservation Trust. The first was at an easement property protected by ASLPT, and it was an overcast day, threatening rain. We didn't have a rain date set (live and learn, I guess) so we just had to make the best of it with 35 people arriving to see dragonflies that, oh by the way, don't like to come out unless its sunny! When we arrived we tried our best to hunt up a few dragons for show and did manage to catch one or two small and shabby looking ones before the crowds arrived. There were numerous families with young kids, so we talked up all the dreadfully juicy details of dragonfly biology (crawling predatory nymphs, mosquito gorge-fests, eyes with 30,000 lenses and toothy jaws to catch prey in mid-air... that kind of stuff) and then passed out the nets for people to try catching (or finding, more accurately) dragonflies themselves. There was precious little to see... just a few fairly inconspicuous damselflies and only two types of actual dragonfly. Luckily one of them was a bright red meadowhawk that was at least very striking. Amazingly, people had a really good time on the walk... maybe because they didn't know what they'd actually missed if it had been a sunny day, but more likely because it's just great to be outside and learning new things, swinging a net to see what sort of bio-treasures you can find.

The second dragonfly walk was picture-perfect. Of course it was! We had a rain date all set this time. We held it at the Langenau Forest in Wilmot, which is one of our NH Dragonfly Survey sites so we're pretty familiar with it. We had only 20 participants on this walk, and only one child, so it was a different dynamic entirely. With the sunny day there were plenty of large and flashy darners to be caught, and many participants did catch them too... impressive since darners are not easy to grab. We found about a dozen different species between the spreadwings, darners, bluets, meadowhawks, and skimmers buzzing around the small pond at Langenau.

Can you spot the dragonfly?

We're hoping to lead another dragonfly adventure with Aiden's kindergarten class once it starts up again this fall. We're learning that very few people have actually seen a dragonfly up really close, and kids are especially amazed when they get to hold a dragonfly before it flies away. It's definitely fun to see their eyes pop with a big dragon sitting on their finger prepping his wings for flight!

Much Better, Thank You!

Things went much smoother this week than last... Haley is almost fully recovered now from her mystery bug and that makes life so much easier for everyone! Besides one small hiccough where Haley almost got booted from her daycare for an indeterminate period of time based on the theory that she might have had an intestinal parasite that might continue to be spread (truth is we don't know, and her doctors surmise it was probably viral)... this week was easy-peasy. So we celebrated at the weekend by climbing Mt. Kearsarge (first time for Haley and the dog) on a hazy but beautiful Saturday, and then headed over to the Kennedy's to surprise Kyle for his 4oth birthday bash. The theme was 1971, which was pretty amusing considering most people actually dressed themselves out of what they found in their own closets. We did our best with some closet items and some thrift store finds and had a great time eating Sonya's yummy fondue and listening to 70s tunes while the kids ran around wild.

Kimball finds a patch of shade on the summit

Oh yeah...

Happy Birthday Kyle!

On Sunday we had Aiden's birthday party at Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, VT. We decided to have it there because he (and every other kid we know) loves it at the Montshire, and rain or shine or snow (I'm sure its happened in NH in August before), it could not be easier. The kids run around checking out all the hands-on exhibits, we convene for cake, more running around, and then we're done! No mess to clean up at home, no activity planning beforehand. Love it! HaPa and Grandma made it down for the party and Aiden and his friends had a wonderful time. Even though it was "easy" I somehow only managed to take two photographs of the whole afternoon!? I'm not sure what happened there... can't even blame it on a low battery!

Hippie Haley

Aiden and friend Sam at Montshire

Haley at Montshire

Mystery Bug Makes a Wreck of Everything!

On Tuesday Haley doo was fine. On Wednesday morning she woke up on fire - 103 fever and completely miserable. Okay, we thought, so she can't go to daycare today and one of us will stay home until this fever goes away. Strange, a fever in the middle of the summer, out of nowhere like that. For the most part, she just wanted to lie against one of our chests and moan... that's how Wednesday went. On Thursday she was no better, but started throwing up and couldn't hold any food down. On Friday when her temp was still just as high, we knew we knew she had to go back to the doctor. They took one look at her (ok, maybe a few minutes worth of looks) and sent us straight to Dartmouth Hospital.

The ER (like any ER I have ever been to and will ever go to) was a nightmare. FOUR HOURS after our arrival, holding a wimpering, vomiting, and sweltering Haley to our chests, they had still not gotten her on the promised IV fluids or given her any tylenol or anti-emetic. Nightmare, like I said. Finally they tried to get an IV in, but her little hands were too chubby to find the veins so after blowing out all the possibilities on both hands and one foot, they called in the phlebotomist experts. Another 45 mins later, she had an IV, and another 5 hours later we were admitted finally to the Childrens Hospital. After that, things went much smoother (medically speaking- CHAD doctors and support staff were great) but Haley still wasn't much better by Saturday morning. Finally on Saturday afternoon she began to turn a corner, sitting up and eating pieces of saltines and having sips of water. Phew! On Sunday she was well enough to come home, and she's still recovering now but doing fine. Her parents are definitely still recovering.

While Andy and I were sweating it out with Haley (literally) Aiden was having a grand ol' weekend with friends and with HaPa and Grandma who came down on Saturday to help out. He played soccer and t-ball and frisbee on the green, got into some suds at the fire station, watched a big parade, went hiking at Low Plain, swimming at Elkins Beach, watched two movies, and went shopping to buy some new Nike sneakers. What sick sister?! A huge thanks to everyone who helped out watching him while we were tending to Haley.

So what was it? Random virus? Parasite from swimming in a lake? Bacteria from eating soil or pulling herself up on the trash can? Protozoa from playing with the dog? Contaminated food? We may never know. Some of the numerous test which were done on her poop have come back, but all were negative so far. We're just so thankful it's gone and she's on the mend.

Lake Winni!

It's been a long time since I've hung out with friends from college... with kids and families and complicated work schedules it's much harder to coordinate a reunion than it used to be. But when a good friend who normally lives 12 hours away spends a week at a killer lake house in the same state you live in, it's go time! The Downers drove over to our house to spend Saturday night, and then we all caravaned over to Wolfeboro to the house the Lefraks rented on Lake Winnipesaukee on Sunday. Becky came up from Cambridge too, which meant everyone "local" to NH was there except poor Tim who is recovering from back surgery.

Saturday afternoon and night were an adventure in and of themselves. Aiden learned that you can't hang out with 5 girls under the age of ten without getting a little bit crraaaz-eeee! We didn't have actual beds enough to sleep everyone, so we popped up a tent in the backyard for the overflow. Aiden, Michaela, Livvy and I volunteered to sleep in the "wilds" of the backyard - everyone thought there'd be mass exodus back to the house after it got dark but I'm proud to say that we were all brave enough to stay out all night, even despite the ghost stories! There was a lot of silliness in the tent before sleeping occurred but it did finally settle down. The only incident during the nighttime involved Livvy being convinced that we'd all switched sleeping directions without informing her- she was determined to put her pillow pet on Michaela's bum and her legs on Aiden's back, which caused a bit of turmoil for a few moments.

At Lake Winnipesaukee there was an abundance of swimming, lounging, food, and beer. There was even some waterskiing, though the waves near the rental house were huge (there are some big-ass boats on Winnipesaukee!) We got to meet Malcolm (Allison's hubby) and Luke and Harper (their kids) for the first time too, since we missed their wedding in DC 4 years ago. It was an amazing day, long overdue. We all agreed to plan another reunion soon, especially since the NYC-area contingent was absent at this one.