Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody! Gilly and Simon are getting very excited about Christmas. Greta is unaware of what's going on, but is content to pull the shiny things off the strange tree that has appeared in the corner of our apartment.

Happy 1st Birthday Greta!

Our little chunkette is one year old today!

Mr. Grouchypants

Earlier tonight, Simon was a little grumpy. He was deliberately annoying Greta, sticking his finger in her ear, trying to push her out of the way, etc. I asked him to stop, and he refused, so I picked him up and moved him away from her.

He stomped his foot, pointed his finger at me, and shouted at me, "I WILL CRUSH YOU INTO PIECES!"

I had to leave the room so he wouldn't see me smiling :)

More Random Photos

I'm still in a food-induced coma from Thanksgiving, and I can't think of anything to write, so here are a few random photos of the wee ones taken this month.

The Great Cake Caper

Lyn made her famous chocolate cake for my birthday. It is very dense and packed with chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate? Yeah, it's chock full of chocolate!

Needless to say, it is very tasty (and chocolatey). It is even MORE tasty, however, when consumption of aforementioned cake is unauthorized. Need proof? Just check out the smile on Greta's face:



Wee claw marks:



Her accomplice in the Great Cake Caper was her big brother. Of course, he escaped before photographic evidence could be acquired, but we have a reliable eye-witness (Lyn). How, you may ask, could such a fine young boy be led astray into this life of crime? He was taught at a young age, by the queen of refrigerator pilfering, Miss Gilly.

I guess my only choice is to eat the entire cake, and help my children avoid temptation. Ahh, the sacrifices we fathers must make.

Soggy Trick-or-Treaters

Lyn reports that in spite of the rain, Gilly and Simon had a great time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Gilly was a sheep, another hand-crafted costume by my talented wife, and Simon was a farmer in a tractor, again . . . a Lynnie creation . . . isn't she amazing!? If it were left to me, the kids would be dressing up as ghosts, and we would have sheets with holes in them :)

Our Poor Neglected Blog

Sorry! It's been a little busy around these parts. There's a little something called a "thesis" that's creeping up on me . . .

Rather than put you to sleep with my quick wit, I'll just post a photo summary of the last month or so. Some events of note: Gilly turned 4, she's back in school, and she's taking dance classes. Greta has 4 teeth, crawls like a pro, and pulls herself up to standing. Simon is mostly busy being cute, his bushy golden curls getting lots of attention wherever we go, and is a wonderful big brother to Greta, giving her lots of attention and assistance, whether she likes it or not :)

Hiking in the Rain

We went for a short father-daughter hike this morning, on a small hill nearby. It was raining, but Gilly really needed to get out of the house and burn off some energy, or we were ALL going to go crazy. It turned out well, since the rain tapered off about midway through our hike.



It was fun to see Gilly get excited about things that I would never notice, like the rock she's posing next to (below). She was walking along and all of a sudden started yelling, "turtle rock! turtle rock!" (You can see the "eyes" and "mouth")



We also spotted loads of salamanders. I've never seen so many! They must be having a great summer, with all of the rain. I lost count of how many we saw, well into the dozens.





We also saw this creepy-crawly spider. It was pretty big, and had spun its web right across the trail at eye level. I almost walked into it (yuck).



Gilly collecting some fern samples:





The victorious summit shot:



A hazy view of Baker Tower down in Hanover:

Valuable Lesson

Giant stickers and Gilly don't go well together.

Triple Trouble

And so it begins . . . they have learned to set aside their differences and collaborate against the common enemy: BEDTIME.

According to Lyn, Gilly and Simon asked to go to sleep in our bed the other night. This is a common occurrence lately. They fall asleep in our bed, and we transport them back to their own rooms once they're zonked out. Well, at least that's the case with Gilly. Simon usually ends up causing trouble, waking up Greta (who is in a crib in our room), jumping on the bed, etc.

Well, apparently Lyn went to go check on them after a bit. On her way to the room, she heard giggling, from ALL THREE of them (Greta had been asleep). The pictures below tell the rest of the story. They were having a grand old time, and Greta thinks her brother and sister are hilarious (so do we).

Trail Maintenance

A few years ago I adopted a section of the Garfield Ridge Trail, from Mount Lafayette to Mount Garfield, part of the Appalachian Trail in the White Mountains. Exactly what it means to "adopt" a trail is a bit of a mystery to most people who ask me about it. Basically, it means I have agreed to take care of the basic trail maintenance. A recent post in the AMC Trails Blog (click) explains it very well.

The next post (click) in that blog, honors Barbara Kukla as the Trails Volunteer of the Month. She was the previous adopter of my section of trail . . . for 20 YEARS! I hope I do as good a job taking care of the trail as she did.

Here are a few shots from my trail:

Way to go Pops!

Pops' photography (Roger Irwin Photography) is on display at the governor's office in Montpelier, Vermont! There will be an artist's reception on Thursday, August 13th, from 3:00-5:00PM, open to the public. His photography will be on display until September 30th. Go check it out if you have a chance. Link (click)

Puddle Runner

Random Photos

Sorry for not posting much lately. I've even been called out as a slacker! I'm talkin' to you Higgy (-:

These are just some assorted photos from the last month.

Knuckle Dimples

Weekend at the Second College Grant

We spent Memorial Day weekend with friends at the Second College Grant up in northern NH. We had lots of fun, and fortunately Pete was kind enough to document the event with his camera (our camera never made it out of the bag). Here is a link (click) to Pete's photo page (EDIT: looks like that page is gone. I'll try to fix the issue later.), and he also took the picture below.



We would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Pete & Joi, and Jon & Christi for a fun weekend and frequent "extra hands" with the kids. You guys rock.

Happy Birthday Simon!

Simon is two years old now! We had some chocolate cake to celebrate, and Simon added some spit to the frosting when blowing out his candle, thus ensuring he got the largest portion of cake. Smart kid.

Take a Hike

We took the kids for a hike yesterday afternoon, and taught them the fine art of roasting hotdogs on a stick over a roaring campfire. Ok, so it was a tiny fire, and the hotdogs were lukewarm. My campcraft skills aren't what they used to be :)

Most importantly, we had lots of fun. We did find out that, while Simon does well going uphill, those little legs don't do so well going DOWNHILL. After a half-dozen faceplants, we decided to carry him down . . . and he fell asleep (last picture).

Silly Geese