Kimball's First Snow

This week has been all trick and no treat so far. Four days before Halloween, we awoke to two inches of new snow on the ground. Ok, fine. No problem. Then, before it could even totally melt... a dump of 10" of the white stuff. The kids are ecstatic; Aiden is singing Christmas songs and teaching Haley how to make snow angels. Kimball, though she shivered outside when the weather turned colder in September, has rallied and is thoroughly enjoying her first real snow too - she does the crazy dog thing sprinting in eight different directions in the space of ten seconds when she gets out into it, and loves to catch snowballs in her mouth. Andy and I... not so much. Really? Getting out the snowblower in October? Ugh, we're in for a long stretch here, is what we're thinking. But it's all good. We'll live, I'm sure... and Halloween's going to be all the more interesting tomorrow night navigating over snowbanks and squeezing the snow gear on under the costumes!

My tired snow angels, napping together in our bed

Napa Girls Weekend

This weekend I celebrated my 40th birthday, 3 years early. I'll explain... When I lived in Vancouver, my closest friends (aside from a few who I met in grad school) were the girls I lived with in a shared house. They had all gone to UBC as well, for their undergraduate degrees, and had graduated a good 4 years before I showed up on their doorstep answering an ad for their vacant room. We all got along great, and their circle of friends became mine too, kicking off what was for me one of the most carefree and enjoyable three-year periods in my life. We threw crazy parties, went out for drinks too often, and sampled so much of the delicious food that Vancouver has to offer--anyway, just setting the pretext: these girls know how to enjoy life!

So when Linda suggested that we all get together for a long weekend in California's wine country to celebrate turning 40, I couldn't pass it up. I didn't have to plan one thing besides clicking "buy" on my own plane ticket; they had the rental house, transportation, and itinerary all figured out and I just arrived on a Thursday in San Franscisco. On Friday we toured and tasted at wineries, eating gourmet cheeses, pates, nuts, and chocolate all the way to "cleanse the palate." Our limo driver Phil was a suave dude with a slicked back ponytail who turned out to know a lot more about wine than any of us, so after a few stops we let him do the choosing and the wine did improve markedly. Either that or the previous wine was taking effect? In any case we had a wonderful day getting reacquainted (it'd been at least 6 years since I was last in Vancouver) and soaking up the abundant sunshine and wine.

On Saturday we perused the Napa Farmers Market for breakfast, did some shopping, and landed at a spa in the afternoon. I had a local Calistoga mud treatment and a mineral bath soak, while others had aromatherapy massages and cleansed toxins in the steam room. Finally, we were ready for a fancy french dinner at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville, followed by divine chocolate desserts and oysters at Bouchon. The two full days sped by and in no time I was back on the plane to Boston, excited to kiss the heads of my little munchkins and totally rejuvenated by all the luxuriating. Oh, and did I mention I have the best husband in the world for taking care of the kids, pets, and house by himself for 4 days while I traipsed around being extravagant? And the house was spotless when I got home- what is up with that?! If I didn't know better I'd think he finds it easier when I'm not there!

North Country Goodness

The cold and raw of Fall has been showing itself lately, after the glorious summery Columbus Day weekend we had last week. It's been windy and wet, the kind of weather that just makes you want to curl up on a couch with a cup of something warm and forget about the outdoors until spring. This year's autumn trip to Parishville was that way. We could only squeeze in one extra day to our weekend, and so it felt like the long drive up on Friday was barely finished before we were hopping in the car again on Sunday afternoon. We managed to get outside for a few brief excursions in the back fields and woods between the rainstorms, but spent most of our time just enjoying the company of family in the eclectic but cozy farmhouse. Pheebs and Haley are a delight to watch together - each time they see each other they interact a little more, little tastes of what they might be like as tight little scheming cousins in a few years. We coaxed them into hugging a few times over the weekend, really just so we could say "awwwww...." I think Aiden probably rolled his eyes for the first time ever over that.

The guys (who can blame them?) were half-hearted on the hunting prospects in the pouring wind and rain, but they went out most mornings and evenings nevertheless. Micah got a deer the evening that Aunt Memorie, Uncle Newt, Mindy, Ben and Mindy's boyfriend John were coming over for dinner, so between the little kids, 4 dogs, and numerous adults running around in the house while dutch oven dinner preparations were underway, it was mad chaos. And then Dad popped his head in the door to say the guys would be "indisposed" awhile while they were dressing and bring the deer to the butcher in the pitch dark. A crazy evening, but it all worked out perfectly in the end with a fittingly incongruous (but delicious) menu of lobster crostinis to start, mexican lasagna and boiled-cider pie for dessert.

And there was the trip to Birchbark Books. As always. And steam baths in the cedar sauna. And dutch oven dinners and breakfasts, and mountain pies cooked over open coals for lunch. Really, even though the weather was less than ideal, we did everything we love do in Parishville, and it was lovely. As expected, Kimball enjoyed every minute of running through the back meadows and playing with the other dogs on her very first visit to the farm. She was in doggie heaven. I think she'll be the first one in the car for next year's trip!

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time there was a beautiful summery weekend that came in the middle of Fall. And so the villagers decided to visit two fairs in as many days, to take advantage of the "faire" weather.

First, the Oktoberfest. What better way to enjoy an indian summer afternoon than dancing to an oompa band, sipping pale ale from frosty mugs, and chowing on knockwurst, bratwurst, and potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream? The kids loved the music. Aiden even did half of a chicken dance competition with me, until he chickened out (ha ha) when the tempo got too furious for him. And Haley has her own special brand of oompa dancing; I think we'll have to download some german beer music for her on iTunes.

On Sunday we left Andy behind to complete eleven million chores and watch football, while Aiden, Haley and I (along with Cristine, Sonya, Finn, and Molly) piled into the mini-van and headed 2.5 hrs south to King Richard's Faire. Mike and Kyle got to drive separately in a much more reasonably sized vehicle. The "faire" was wild- lots of crazy things to do and see... if you don't mind shelling out a few pieces of gold, so to speak. Aiden tried catapulting (stuffed) animals, archery, knife throwing (no age restriction, go figure... maybe Haley should've tried it), and zip-line dragon slaying. We sunk our teeth into the obligatory humongous roast turkey legs for lunch, washed down with raspberry mead, honey mead, and plain ol' beer. Other highlights included "Cirque du Sewer" which featured trained rats walking tightropes and jumping through burning hoops, and the "Mud Show" which I didn't see (Haley was taking a nap) but sounded very messy. All sorts of fancifully costumed people roamed around too, making the people watching just as entertaining as any of the actual performances. There were giants on stilts, knights in chain maille, winged fairies with flower wreaths on their heads, fauns with devilish horns, and lots and lots of impressive cleavage on display! The bar wenches were especially well endowed, and allowed customers to place tips in the convenient "notch" between their jugs. If Finn and Aiden had been paying attention to anything but the weaponry, they'd have gotten quite an education!

After five hours of revelry, the villagers were quite weary and headed home... to dream of "faire" weekends happily ever after.

Racing in the Rain

I have been training for a half marathon with my friend Cristine for the past 8 weeks. This is basically the shortest possible time you can reasonably expect to train for running 20K and still have a good chance at successfully finishing. It's not that I like to live on the edge or anything, I just don't really like running more than 3 miles or so as a general rule. It's boring is the main issue, that and the fact that runs over 45 minutes basically don't fit into the hectic kids-work-life schedule these days. But Cristine talked me into it, and she said we had "plenty of time" (i.e. the minimum 8 wks) so off we went.

Ages ago (more than a decade, anyway) I ran a full marathon in Vancouver, also with a bunch of good friends. I loved the training runs, even the long ones, waking up at the crack of dawn on weekend mornings to run some ungodly number of miles in the fog and drizzle while chatting along with friends, and then going out afterwards for a delicious brunch and a Caesar (like a bloody mary made with Clamato juice- don't knock it til you've tried it...they are amazing when you need to replenish your salt!). But when the marathon itself arrived, oh GOD. It was not fun for me. I don't know if I didn't pace myself or what happened... I did finish, but the last 10K or so was pure agony. That pretty much had cured me of long distance running for, well, over a decade.

Cristine, Molly and Aiden at Flatbread in Portsmouth- carbing up before race day!

But as anyone who does any endurance sport will tell you, completing the event is more a mental challenge than a physical one. Knowing I did once run 40 kilometers meant that I was pretty sure I could do half that, even a decade and two babies later. The surprise was that it was really fun this time. EVEN in the freezing, downpouring rain and wind that we ended up with on race day. The Smuttynose Half Marathon is on the seacoast, blessedly flat with many miles running along Hampton Beach, and though the conditions were less than ideal and our cheering squad (Andy, Mike, Molly, Aiden and Haley) had to return to New London (driving, chilly rain is not the best for one-to-five-year-olds with runny noses), I'm pretty sure we smiled the whole race. It was a pleasure. We chugged along at our training pace, stopped 4 times to pee (yes, really... too much gatorade) and told each other life stories from the distant and not-so-distant past as we watched surfers in the waves and ogled at huge houses we could never afford. When we finished, we shivered through a free Smuttynose beer until our fingers were barely nimble enough to change into dry clothes, and headed home feeling sore but happy. I may even try another one some day, maybe even before another decade passes. :)