lookin

Tua and Pip at their best tonight before bed. Pippa was a pleasure poser....Tua, not so much. In fact, most of these shots were taken as Tua was moving- thank you, Carl Zeiss.

Of Mountains and Gastroenteritis

Last Friday, April 17 2009 is a day that will live in infamy, at least for me. This is the day that I endured one of the fiercest onslaughts of stomach flu I have ever encountered while at the same time attempting one of the best mountain tours in New England.





I had risen at 4:30 just to make sure I had time to pack and eat enough breakfast. As I tip-toed down the stairs to the kitchen, I could feel a slight tension in my stomach. I quickly ignored this and assumed that it was nothing a bowl of oatmeal wouldn;t put right. I met the rest of the party at 5:15 and we were on our way north at 5:30. An hour later put us in Wells River at the beloved P&H truck stop for a slice each of one of their famous pies. I had the Pumpkin with a heavy dollop of cream. As I downed the last bite, I knew something wasn't right. But we were over half way there and I decided to err on the side of adventure....

8:30 put us into Bretton Woods and onto the Ammonussuc trailhead. The winds were light in the valley and the sun shon brightly onto the white peaks above. And the stomach gurgled....

I'll spare the boring details but will mention that the skiing was spectacular and that the views were exceptional and that the company was rich in conversation. I made it up and rested for an hour or two at the summit while Brandon and Detlef netted a few runs off into the Southern fields off Munroe. At two oclock, the winds picked up enough to warrant our departure from the highest terrain. We made our way back to the Monroe Brook trail and descended through some of the best snow of the day.

Ascending Ammonoosuc Ravine








The barren fields just under Lake of the Clouds. Washington behind.

















Shelter and lunch at Mount Monroe











Detlef on the Southern fields











and in for landing....








on Monroe Brook

A parting shot.

We arrived back in Bridgewater by 7. I was in bed by 8 hoping for a full 12 hours rest. I think I made it to 11 or so and then I was hit full force by what I knew had been coming all day.

weekenders

Friday's post brought with it a package from Illinois. Tua has opened up enough packages in her life to know that the packages from Illinois are always filled with good things and wasted no time in tearing apart the wrappings on this one in particular. In the end, we never did find out if she liked the chocolate better than the balloons.





Pippa took a break out of her hectic schedule just long enough for us to capture this shot. Tua may have scored with the balloons and the chocolate eggs, but who got the Beatrix Potter?



Tua and Seth in the midst of tortilla wraps. Though she will tell you that her favorite kitchen tool is a spoon, she has recently spent an oddly disproportionate amount of time with a rolling pin, particularly when the task has involved flour.

The artist in her studio......

Out for a walk with "mama?-mama?-mama?".....Tua refers to Bug in the triplicate interrogative tense and has declined to comment on why she chooses to do so.

The next shots are from last night's excursion. Tua and Pippa out for dinner with their friends Edie and Harriet (also sisters). The adults tagged along for the ride and made the best of it.

our budding assistant

I've got a friend who makes the tastiest whole wheat pizza dough in the state....his secret might just be the leavening process which I project involves beer...but like any good epicurian, he is not divulging anything. So Tua and I were on our own this afternoon as we marched blindly into the world of baking theory. I caught her in the middle of the process in this short clip.

points south.

On our way south, we paid our respects to the newest addition to the IKEA fleet outside of Cincinnati.












Seth Pippa Pete Noah







Silas and Tua ham it up.

Kentucky was a welcome treat. We mingled with family and reconnected with dear friends we rarely get to see. Seth got out for a ride with his pal, Pete. They haven't ridden for nearly a decade and yet they both seem to have retained their capacity for grueling climbs and breakneck downhills. We enjoyed a few 70 degree days followed almost immediatly by a cold front which brought 30 degrees and snow. The time with family was good too. Bug's sister Cydil produced a few really fine photoshoots of the girls and their grandparents, as well as all of the rest of us.

The trip home was one of the great undertakings of recent memory. In the greater scheme, the encumbrances of travelling 18 hours straight with two children under the age of three are really not all that bad. The preceding week had been restful enough and thankfully, there were no rogue March weather events to contend with on the way back. Had either not been the case, I imagine I would be writing this post from somewhere in Ohio. We left the foggy streets of Wilmore at 5am and for the next five hours, the girls slept like dew on grass. It was just after eight though when Pip's cries began to grate across my ears like fingernails across a chalkboard. At that point we were somewhere north of Columbus and we pulled into an obliging McDonalds parking lot. Tua was awake and had just emptied out her second juice box over her lap. I arranged a deal with Tua that if she would run around the lot with me for five minutes, we would go inside and order some McDonald's sausage patties (her favorite, not mine). The McDonald's lot was big and empty and it would come to serve as a benchmark against which all other pitstops were measured for the remainder of the trip. As Tua and I raced each other across the asphalt, four large tour buses pulled into the drive and emptied their cargo onto the doorstep of the eatery. Tua looked at the mobs of people entering McDonalds, looked back at me and gave her trademark "all-done"...which I knew meant only one thing- taking our place at the back of the throngs for a couple of promised sausage. However, it did make her morning and an hour later we were back on the road. That was the last happy moment on the journey...about fifty miles after that point, the girls began a volley of cries that would subside as if only to remind us of blissful silence, only to begin again, rising and falling in no apparent cadence. This cresendo and pause routine went on for the next 10 hours.

We landed back in Bridgewater promptly at 11:30 pm. As we were drifting off to sleep, Bug and I remarked to ourselves that it would be selfish on our part to push that hard for that distance again. Our recomendation therefore- if you have to travel with kids, make it fun for them. Once the journey runs out of fun, get a room. It will do wonders for your nerves and you will find rest for your souls.

Trying New Things

A new recipe we tried...peanut butter chocolate cake. We will let you know how it turns out!

Not wanting the camera to get in the way of taste-testing.

Edie was over on Friday morning for playing dress up with foam wrap. She and her mama always bring new ideas to the world of make-believe. Tua enjoyed the time while her sister slept.