Keys Perfection

This year's excursion to visit my parents in the Keys was our best Florida trip ever. So far, anyway! The weather was absolutely gorgeous - sunny, upper 70s, and light breezes pretty much all week. And when you have weather like that, it's amazing how many fun activities you can fit into 6 whole days. We went stone crabbing, fishing, snorkeling, birding, swimming and hiking, fed the tarpon at Robbie's, went to an all-you-can eat oyster fest, had an outdoor cob-oven pizza party, explored the everglades on three separate days, and ate fabulous seafood at numerous outdoor restaurants. And we had ice cream more times than you can count. It was heaven.

Aiden on the flats boat- we're crabbing here

Dad handles a stone crab- you break off a claw and then let the crab go (it grows a new one)

Pufferfish caught in a crab trap

Mom and a tired Haley

Aiden and Timber swimming in the ocean

Haley in the bonnet mom made when i was little

One of the highlights of the week had to be fishing for Spanish Mackerel on the flats boat. HaPa, Aiden, Andy and I headed out at 9 in the morning leaving Grandma at the house to watch Haley-doo. Our first stop was Bud n' Mary's marina...not for bait, but for ice cream. According to HaPa, this is the secret to a successful fishing trip. After our 9AM icy treat (made okay because it was already over 70 degrees out) we zipped out to near the Channel 2 bridge to some secret spot indicated on Dad's GPS and dropped the anchor and the chum bag. Everyone threw their hooks in, and within 2 minutes Aiden had a fish on. A nice Jack, which we let go. Then Aiden caught a sand perch. Then a slimy catfish. Then another sand perch. Then a grunt. Then a pufferfish.... you get the picture....on and on, while no one else caught anything. Andy had a dozen bites during this first half hour, but couldn't land anything. Meanwhile, Aiden was in heaven. He caught 11 fish before the tide turned some more and Andy finally reeled in what we had actually come for: a spanish mackerel. And then the real fun started... two hours of mackerel action resulting in a giant bucket of 17 keepers. Aiden caught a huge mackerel himself, just to top off his impressive daily total, which had to be well over 20 fish. We headed home to tell Grandma and Haley about it, and cleaned the fish with Coronas in hand... and had a delicious grilled mackerel with tropical fruit salsa for dinner.

Ice cream before fishing

Andy with a spanish mackerel

Holy Mackerel!

Aiden's mackerel

A second highlight was our day at Bahia Honda state park. We always go to this beach and it's always very nice, but if the weather and tides are just right it is a picture-perfect paradise. Long stretches of white rippled sand under a few feet of warm turquoise water- perfect for lounging and floating. And perfect for kids- no need to freak out over going too deep when it's shallow for such a long stretch. Both Aiden and Haley loved it. Aiden practiced snorkeling with his dad, and Haley kick-kick-kicked like a little dolphin in the blue water. She was all smiles when she wasn't dipping and sucking on her wet hand, amazed at the salty taste of the ocean water. We ate giant ripe florida avocados drizzled in balsamic vinegar for lunch, scooping them out with a spoon... and then we had ice cream. (of course)

Bahia Honda

Aiden at Bahia Honda

There were many other highlights of our trip, some involving birds, but I'll save those for another post. I'll just say that it's going to be hard to top this FL trip next year. We're going to have to eat an enormous amount of ice cream to be that lucky!

Little Doo

Gators at the Everglades

Haley enjoying summer dresses

Pizza in the outdoor cob oven

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Who wants a Magic Carpet ride?

We took Aiden skiing for the first time last weekend, with some friends. It was a huge success, all around! I have to admit I'd been putting off the whole skiing thing fearing that it would be a giant nightmare involving hours of lines and hundreds of dollars to rent skis, get tickets, and actually take some runs in the white stuff. Not worth it, I figured, especially if he ends up hating it because we tried to take him before he really had enough balance or stamina to handle it.

But I was totally wrong. Rentals are free for kids under 6 at the ski shop at the base of the mountain, and it took us all of, oh... 5 minutes to get fitted out with rentals and ready to leave. Then, as long as your less-than-6yr-old kid uses the "magic carpet" area (basically conveyer belts that take you up hills of varying lengths and inclines) that is also free, so no stopping for a lift ticket. And since the mountain is 15 minutes from our front door, we can go for an hour towards the end of a busy weekend day, when things are winding down and its easy to grab a parking spot being vacated by somebody done for the day. Easy peasy.

Aiden on the magic carpet

Molly gets off the magic carpet

AND Aiden loved it. And he wasn't half bad either. Our attempts to guide him in slowing (make a pizza wedge) and stopping went unheeded in favor of "fast and furious" all the way down, but the important part is that he had a great time. And we learned how easily this great time can be had... a very important lesson in New Hampshire's endless winter!

Birds? What Birds?

Okay, so 2010 has gone down in the history books as our worst-birding-year-ever (to date)... not surprising seeing that I spent several of the best birding months in bed, while Andy spent them catering to my every need or shuttling Aiden all over creation. And then once that was over, we had feisty little Haley-doo to add into the mix. Newborn babies and birding do not go hand in hand, as you might imagine. So I saw a fairly pathetic 195 birds (no idea even how that number was even generated since I was certainly not keeping track, but Andy tells me its so) while Andy weighed in at a slightly less pathetic 201. Not to worry, some things (like adding to your family) are more important than birding. We're looking forward to a more birdy 2011, while at the same time being realistic that we won't get much serious birding in until the kids go off to college in 18 years or so...

Birders gathered on a residential street to gawk at a Townsend's Solitaire. Usually this freaks out the whole neighborhood... got to love it.

However... we're off to a good start with our first lifer of 2011 on a not-too-shabby January 2. We tried for a reported dovekie on our New Years Day excursion to the seacoast and came up empty handed but on Sunday we drove a little over a half-hour to find a Townsend's Solitaire (west coast relative of the robin) in Bow. A big group of geeky birders was assembled in front of some huge houses, all gawking through their ginormous spotting scopes and camera lenses, no doubt giving the residents the total creeps... in any case, it wasn't too difficult to locate the poor bird once we found the right street. Funny, those birders are... per the usual, we were the youngest 4 people there by several decades (a good half century in Haley's & Aiden's cases), and everyone enjoyed "spotting" an incredibly cute and smiley 5 month old birder in addition to the solitaire. Aiden looked for dinosaurs through his binos, and got lots of hints from the assembled crew. How long do you think we have until they both realize their parents are crazy?

Welcome, 2011

We decided on New Years Eve that instead of being totally lame by ourselves, we would invite a few friends over to be lame with us. So we had an extremely impromptu (like 3 hours advance notice) New Years Eve party, enticing people over with promises of roasting marshmallows on the deck and tromping around in the snow with headlamps. With temps in the 40s and beautifully clear starry skies, it was a great night for some kind of festivity.

Aiden with his new snowshoes on NY eve

And it was a very fun New Years, as it turned out. We had tons of laughs (and beer) as the kids ran around inside and out...there was some extreme snow-tubing, lots of flaming mallows on sticks, and even some poker. Two of the five kids even made it to the big hurrah at midnight (and then probably wondered what all the fuss was about... that's it? The big glowy ball drops and then everyone goes to bed?!) Since I don't think I've made it to midnight myself the past few years, I was impressed.

New Years Day was also gorgeous- sunny and 60! Too nice to waste a single moment indoors, so we hastily packed up the kids and drove to the seacoast to spend the day. We walked the length of Hampton Beach looking for shells and birds and poking in tidepools along the rocky sections, and then moved north to Ordione Point for some more exploring. Aiden took off his socks and shoes and ran in the surf, and then spent hours hunting for tiny bits of colored seaglass. His pockets were overflowing with treasures by the end of the day, the best find being a rare piece of yellow beach glass. Even I had to admit I hadn't seen true yellow sea glass before.




Then to top off the day we had an early dinner at one of those quintessentially cheesy oceanfront lobster houses- the kind with tons of flourescent lobster buoys hanging off the exterior and a giant painted red crustacean out front. Everything comes fried, except the lobster. We had fried fish, calamari and scallops, a lobster roll, and lobster stew. Sooo bad for you, but sooo good. Was worth every calorie. And since we hadn't made new years resolutions yet, we weren't even breaking any :)

The Blizzard that Ate Christmas

We had some grand plans for the holidays this year... we were headed down to Long Island with all of the usual festivities, xmas eve with Grandpa DaDa, dinner at Dan & Paulettes, then a late evening rendezvous at the Rising Family xmas gathering... but in addition to all that, the plan was to head into Manhattan for xmas day and have the Kulis family christmas at Kenny & Zanne's new apartment. And, since they generously offered to put us up in their guest bedroom (what luxury in Manhattan!), Andy, Aiden, Haley and I were going to stay overnight and spend the next day exploring the city. Aiden had never been to NYC before, other than driving through it (always too frustrating to point out much of anything in between honking and cursing) so we were excited to show him the big tree at Rockefeller Center, all the tall skyscrapers, and (of course) the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. We hyped it ALL up. Of course. And then...

THE BLIZZARD THAT ATE CHRISTMAS!!! OH NO!!

We did make it in to Manhattan, and had a wonderful dinner and evening with the Kulis clan (including Great Grandma Guppy)...but with everyone on their smartphones and ipads all evening relaying the moment-to-moment changes in the forecast for the next morning and subsequent two days... we chickened out/smartened up and headed back out to the island later that night. It was a definite bummer; I felt terrible breaking the news to Aiden that he wouldn't get to see the huge T. rex skeleton after all (maybe summer?) but he took it like a typical four-year-old. Which is to say, he was sad for about 5 minutes and then moved on to the next most exciting thing going on... cool, i get to watch back-to-back Dinosaur Train episodes all the way back to Grandma's house? Awesome!

The blizzard trapped us in the house with blowing 50mph winds, sleet, and snow all of the next day. Luckily we had a giant stash of xmas loot to entertain us. When all the swirling flakes settled, there was well over a foot of heavy wet snow to shovel (thanks Andy) before we could venture out onto semi-trecherous roads to continue our holiday visiting. We spent a nice lunch play-date with William and Elizabeth at the Hamm's house, popped in on the Great Grandma Rising and the Siegers to meet little (big!) Peter, and then headed back over to Grandpa Dada's for one more dinner. It was our usual whirlwind tour, only shorter and with higher winds! Merry Christmas to everyone :) Photos of our adventures below...

Haley on Xmas eve

H with Grandpa DaDa

Dan & Paulette's living room on xmas eve

Paulette feeing Little Doo

Andy got this giant At-At for xmas from his mom... yes, that's right, I said ANDY...not Aiden! He's been waiting 24 years for it!

Santa came! Xmas morning in Patchogue

Haley entertaining Great Grandma Guppy at Kenny & Zanne's in manhattan. Haley and her Great Grandma smiled and cooed at each other for hours :)

Christmas elf asleep in the big city

Michelle, Ian, Douglas & Kenny

That elf again...

Just another cute shot

After returning from Manhattan...waiting for the snowstorm to begin (T minus 1 hour at this point)

Camp Christmas Chaos

Windy Hill, Aiden's preschool, is closed for 2 weeks around the holidays. Their schedule is based on the Colby-Sawyer College calendar, so parents who are faculty/staff are all set- they already have the same days off. For those of us not associated with the college, two weeks is a long time to miss work. So a group of families who live within a few miles of one another decided to band together and each take a day to watch the kids as a group. On the days we're not watching, theoretically, we're able to go to work and spare the vacation/sick days.

Today was our day to host "Camp Chaos" as Andy and I are calling it. Three four-year olds and a three-year old. How hard could it be?! Well, as it turned out, it wasn't terribly hard... but I wouldn't say it was easy either. I handled the morning on my own, and then Andy came home for a half day of reinforcements in the afternoon. I was glad for the back-up. We did art projects, played trains and puppy rescue, visited the library and the ice cream shop, played hockey on the public ice rink on the green, and watched Ice Age 2. Then we were fresh out of ideas, so it was basically a free-for-all from that point forward.

We learned that 15 minutes is about as long as you can reasonably expect four 3-4 yr olds to concentrate on any one activity. We learned that getting four kids to nap at the same time is not even something you want to attempt. We learned that 1 meltdown/hour is about average for a group that size. We learned that even if you keep them playing out in the cold for a few hours, that doesn't mean they'll be ready to chill out quietly (even if there's TV involved) when they get back inside. Finally I'd say we have a sincere and newfound respect for the Windy Hill teachers who take these little monster-angels for 8 hours every day at a ratio of 6 kids to 1 staff. Don't know how they do it, but we are seriously impressed!

Holiday Cheer

It's that time of year... we can't turn a corner without running into a christmas tree or some holiday lights or something else that reminds Aiden he's about to hit pay-dirt. Like a big guy dressed in a red suit. He's everywhere! Aiden's sat on more than one jolly red lap in the last few weeks, and the wheels are starting to turn in his head. "Hey Mom, why are there so many santas?"... "Hey Dad, why didn't that santa have a long beard?" ... "Hey Mom..." We're having to come up with an elaborate set of fabrications to keep the dream alive, if you see what I mean. I think this may be the last year we can leverage good behavior on Mr. Saint Nick's decision to stop at 21 Gould Road. Oh well. I just feel badly for poor little Haley... she doesn't stand a chance at swallowing this Santa business with a critically minded brother 4 years her senior.

Haley looking a little bit like Kenny from South Park

That doesn't mean Aiden hasn't fully embraced the holiday season though. He's been super excited to decorate the Christmas tree, open his advent calendar every morning, listen to Christmas songs (beautiful and terrible alike) and reacquaint himself with sledding, skating, hockey and other snow pursuits. He's given each of the presents under the tree a good shaking too. And despite his skepticism, he did write and mail a letter to Santa. So we're full of holiday cheer over here in New London. Come on down, Santa!

Hockey on the ice rink on the town green

Decorating the tree

Haley after a few hours watching her dad & bro play hockey

Rockin' the MiniVan

I've been in denial for years now... trying to hold off the inevitable fact that eventually we would need to purchase an even more "family friendly" vehicle than a subaru wagon. I loved my sube, and Andy's before that one... they are so good in our sleety nasty winters, they are nice to drive even for long distances, and they just sort of scream "outdoorsy" too. What's not to like?

Well, I'll tell you. What's not to like is a 4+ hour car ride to somewhere with a screaming infant and a bored 4 year old, with yours truly sandwiched in between their two carseats where there is clearly not enough room for a behind your size, desperately trying to heat up a bottle of something to placate the infant while answering 10,000 questions and simultaneously trying to play a game of I Spy with the older one. Never mind the seatbelt for you. Just kindly ask your hubbie to please not crash the vehicle while driving 75 on the highway and potentially send you blasting through the windshield. That's when i knew Andy was right (ack, I hate saying that)... it was time to look at minivans.

We didn't look long or hard, because there's only one minivan that comes in AWD. So we ended up with a Toyota Sienna, in blue since that's what was available off the lot. It's a smooth ride but feels like a bus compared to the Outback. Aiden ADORES it, especially the automatic sliding doors. I'm still adjusting. It still feels all-wrong, even though I know it was a good decision for us. Aside from poking shameless fun at us, friends and family are telling me I need to "ROCK" the minivan. In other words, own it. love it. flaunt it. brag about it. It's the party mobile, a dream for long road trips, a living room on wheels! So far, I'm not there yet. Talk to me after our 6 hour xmas trip to Long Island in a few weeks...

Milk's favorite cookie...gets the Aiden treatment

I think maybe we dropped the ball somewhere with the whole table manners thing. Maybe there's no right way to eat an oreo, but I've certainly seen neater attempts. This is actually one of Aiden's cleaner oreo consumptions...

Oh, and the oreo is red because it's a special holiday version...