We seem to have settled into a nice pattern of repeating the cycles of our respective youths, in that the “lengthy summer road trip” is becoming an annual event.
This year, we started off with a 14-hour drive to Angliers, Quebec, Canada, where Julie’s aunt and uncle have had a cabin on Lac des Quinze for the past 40 years (that’s 40 years of steady expansion and improvement in support of a large family — easily qualifying as a “resort” without even factoring in the warm and entertaining hosts!). After 3 full days there, we loaded up the family again and drove 13.5 hours to my folks’ cabin on Rangeley Lake in Maine (“funny” story: up until the day before we left on the first leg of the trip, Julie thought that the second leg was going to be 4.5 hours; it turns out that Googling directions from “Quebec” to Rangeley, ME, is sort of like googling directions from “Texas” to New Orleans, LA — it’s a big province!).
We did manage to leave my suitcase behind in Canada, which, luckily, turned out to be pretty minor blip in the trip. I’ll get those clothes back at some point!
One thing we learned this summer is that our kids have become seasoned road-trippers. We initially planned on a 6:00 AM departure for the first leg of the trip, and we expected that leg to take two days. The kids took turns lobbying for an earlier departure (!), and we wound up “compromising” on 5:00 AM…and then managed to be on the road at 4:45! AND, the kids eschewed breaks to stretch their legs so much that we completed the trip in a single day. We repeated the exercise for the second leg of the trip (not leaving until 4:50 AM…we were on vacation, after all, so should be forgiven the 5-minute slippage!).
After a couple of days there, Julie drove me down to the airport in Portland, ME, to fly back to Columbus. She then stuck around with the kids for the week in Maine before driving to New York to see friends and relatives for the next weekend, and then on back to Columbus.
<whew!>
Kicking off with a few pictures from the first leg of the trip:
View from the Cabin (Carson on the Dock)
The Cabin
Trolling with Uncle Bill
Setting Unrealistic Expectations for How Many Walleye Can Be Caught in 1.5 Hours
Carson Could Hardly Wait to Eat Them!
It Wasn’t All About Fishing, Though
Aunt Elaine Got “The Look” When She Questioned the Dungeonmaster
Oh, Yeah, Did I Mention They Have Four Laying Hens?
I culled down the photos as best I could…but still wound up with a few more than are posted here. You can check the full set out (44 pictures) on Flickr.
Last week/weekend, we had a round of company culminating on Saturday night with overnight human guests from northern Virginia, Colorado, and Austin, and an overnight canine guest from Akron. Getting the kids outside as much as we could led to a recreation of the yellow brick road using chalk in our driveway. That then led to costumes and an hour or so of The Wizard of Oz (the fact that none of the kids involved had seen more than snippets of the movie left it fairly open for interpretation).
Travelling the Yellow Brick Road:
Carson switched roles a few times; his preferred role was as an apple-hurling tree:
Dorothy’s Companion fled from the tree:
The Wicked Witch of the West captured Dorothy:
Ultimately, The Wicked Witch was melted by a bucket of imaginary water:
“Toto” took it all in:
Once they were sufficiently tuckered out, the whole crew headed inside to watch the original movie.
Benton has taken up golf more formally this year, playing in a league that plays nine holes at a different local public course every Sunday afternoon. Since this runs concurrently with baseball, we’re hoping he learns to shift between swinging the two different types of sticks. Parents are welcome to tag along, which I did last weekend (the first weekend where Benton and his friend, Jack, didn’t have to cut short the round to race off to a makeup baseball game).
The full foursome (L-R: Benton, Ian, Jack, Ben):
Benton teeing off (if the video isn’t showing up below you can view it on YouTube.
Fairway iron:
Teeing off at a par 3:
Putting:
Hitching a ride to the next tee:
The hot air balloon that came over mid-round:
On the driving range before the round, Benton adhered to one of his traditions, which is to take a few swings “Happy Gilmore”-style (if you haven’t seen the Adam Sandler movie, I don’t recommend wasting your time by tracking it down). He is consistently successful, so it’s only a matter of time before he tries this on the course (again, if you don’t see the video below, you can watch it on YouTube).
If you’re a Love and feel the need to see more pictures, you can check out more in this Picasa album.
Friday evening, as I was sacked out face down on the bed after an excruciatingly long week, our front yard became the spot of a spontaneous cheerleading clinic led by The Dedie.
The Dedie Walks Annie, Alana, Gabriela, and Charlotte through Some Routines
Annie, Gabriela, and Alana Show Off What They’ve Learned
More Demonstrations by Annie, Gabriela, Alana, and Charlotte
Some “On the Ground” Moves, with Natalie Joining in the Fun
Carson and Alana are both doing swim team this year — the first time for both of them. The first meet — an intra squad affair — was held last Wednesday. Both kids swam in four events and, overall, enjoyed themselves (we’re enjoying the forced improvement of their swimming skills).
Carson
Pre-swim body art (it was an intra squad meet, so there was a “green” squad and a “white” squad):
With friend/teammate Alan:
Diving for freestyle:
Freestyle
Backstroke
Alana
Striking a pose for the camera:
“Diving”
Freestyle:
Notice that her goggles are on her forehead for backstroke:
Back in the fall of 2008, I tackled a pretty ambitious project to add built-in shelves with a window seat to our office. The woodworking and painting was finished within a month, but the accompanying accessories have dragged out for a while — the need to find the right fabric and find the time to do the work. As of a week ago, the project is finished! Cushion, pillows, and window valances all coordinated:
Last week (while I was in California), he took a tumble from a RipStick — scrapes and scratches…and now similar damage to his top two incisors:
The silver lining: he was wearing a helmet (all three of our kids are pretty well conditioned to a “wheels means helmet” habit), but he’s commented several times since the incident that it was great that he was wearing it! So, we’ll take that sort of learned reinforcement.
Within a day of the start of summer, Carson had taken up with a kid that’s one cul de sac over. They’ve ridden the same school bus, so were comfortable acquaintances, but they’ve been roaming between houses and around the ‘hood constantly for the last week. They’ve done a lot of critter-collecting, too — mainly tadpoles, but they stumbled across this turtle (undoubtedly a former pet of someone) in a nearby creek:
They returned the turtle to the creek from whence it came.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Benton was busy with baseball and various friends, Carson was really busy with new friends (more on that in the next post), and Alana…was bored. We filled the time by multiple projects in the kitchen:
We started by making gingerbread cookie dough (not really the season for that, but it’s what Alana picked out of the cookbook I gave her to leaf through). While the dough was chilling, we tackled chicken tenders — flour, egg, breadcrumbs, deep fried. Alana did both the chicken-coating and the frying:
After eating, we tackled the gingerbread cookies:
Alana did some, er, interesting decorating:
On Monday, we made tortillas (Alana had her first run at actually cooking / flipping them), refried beans (she helped with the initial sorting of the beans), and sopapillas (for which she did the measuring/mixing, cutting, and frying).
She’s on her way to becoming quite the independent little chef.
July 17, 2011 
Posted in Miscellaneous 
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