Adirondack Vacation

The last full week of June brought us to a family reunion at Kenmore Cottages in the Adirondacks of New York, about 10 miles from the town of Old Forge. We were there for a whole week, with people we love. The title picture is from a hike we took the first day we were there, it was only a half a mile, but mostly straight up. Good thing the kids were back at the cabins with the grandparents. The view was magnificent.
Hilde and Enoch had a blast getting to spend time with their cousins. Enoch would cry when we would put him to bed each night, BUT I WANT TO PLAY WITH MY COUSINS. Hilde developed some crushes on her older cousins Forrest and Thompson, and they were so good to her. She played with Forrest in the water (above) and he even sat with her in an innertube pulled by a motorboat. She was thrilled to go with Forrest instead of mom. We sat her in the innertube with her life vest on and as soon as we started pulling her she asked to go faster. Of course we went super slow, but she LOVED it.
One morning Dave got up early and took a series of pictures of the Lake. This was one of the shots, it was such a beautiful setting for the reunion. Hilde and Enoch both wanted to see their grandma more than anyone else, and spent plenty of quality time with her. If either of them wandered off inconspicuously and we started to look for them, we would almost always find them ensconced at grandma's with crafts, snacks, coloring, or something else fun. She was pretty happy to see them too.
Enoch (and Hazel) tried to join Uncle Don's family. He sure loves his Uncle Don.

Here are some more of the pictures:

Bocce Ball anyone?
"Twin Cousins" Laurel and Hilde.
Hazel and Hilde playing in the little playground.
Hilde is growing up so fast.

Sick of Traveling

Last Saturday we spent circa 20 hours traveling to Eagle Bay, NY in the Adirondacks for the Younce Family Reunion. Today we repeated the experience. Tomorrow's post will focus on all the fun we had, but for now, I am just sick of traveling. Two 2-hour plus car rides, 2 airplane rides and 3 airports will kill just about anyone's travel bug for a good while, and doing that twice in the same week is paramount to travel torture. And don't even get us started on adjusting to the change in time zones twice in one week....

It was good to be there, and now it is good to be home. Now for a good night's sleep!

Off to the Bed Races

Today we found ourselves at the Knaresborough Bed Races. About 30 teams made "beds" that they pushed on a course around Knaresborough, a small village by us. The bed had to be able to float or at least be pushed through water as they had to ford a river right near the finish line. There are 6 pushers and one person, I think it is supposed to be an older child, sitting on the "bed". The little town was packed and so once you picked a place to watch the race, you pretty much stuck with it, so we didn't actually see any of the river crossings. We did hear the announcer telling us when teams had capsized. Dave got some great shots and all of his pictures are here. With any event in England, there was a lot of beer for those who like that sort of thing, and ever changing weather. For the majority of the time it was sunny and warm but there were unpredictable moments of wind and rain. The team above was the far and away winner, they looked like they were sprinting the whole thing.

Here is one of several all-female teams. These ladies were good, they were in the top 5 or 10 - Go Girls.
There were a few near misses as teams met on small, hilly roads. Before, after and during the race there were rides, moon bounces, food and drink stalls, and plenty to keep you spending your money. Here are some pictures of the kids loving life.

Doctor Zhivago

Last night Dave and I got up the energy to watch Dr. Zhivago. It came through Netflix and we were trying to figure out when we wanted to devote 3 1/2 hours of our lives to it. Last night seemed like a good bet. Kids were in bed early and we had lots of energy, drinks and food.

We watched the movie and suddenly it ended, only 80 minutes into it. It was a good, but we were still trying to understand everything so it seemed strange to just end there. Then we realized we watched Side B on the DVD first. After a short debate on whether or not we needed to watch Side A, we turned the DVD over and watched it. It really did help Side B make a lot more sense, and all around was a really good movie. Although it is probably better to watch it in the correct order, I'd recommend watching it our way, it was fun.

My Picture Perfect Birthday

Dave and Hilde really spoiled me this year. Hilde was so excited all week, that her enthusiasm rubbed off on to me. She woke me up this morning with a kiss and a huge smile, "It's your birthday mommy!" I got to sleep in until 8:30 and had waffles waiting for me when I came downstairs. As with all Younce birthdays, it wasn't just a one day affair.

Dave and I went out for dinner last night, birthday/anniversary/just because we want to.
We ate at a Spanish Tapas place that was surprisingly bad. Nothing like the awesome place we went to with the Crowleys in Old Town. So we probably won't go back there again, but the night was nice and we walked in and out and stopped by Betty's to pick up dessert on the way home. Here is their vanilla slice, that we can't get enough of. Unfortunately, this time they only had one left in the whole place so we gave it to our friend Amanda who had graciously watched our kids.
Today, after breakfast, I opened a couple of presents before heading for Church. Then we came home from Church, ate lunch and opened more presents. One of my presents was Guitar Hero III. We tried a couple of songs, and Hilde was completely rocking out. You can see my new asics running shoes as well - I was breaking them in so I can run in them tomorrow.
It just kept getting nicer and nicer outside so we decided to take a little picnic to Valley Gardens, a park that we had heard much about but hadn't seen yet. It was amazing, a little garden of Eden right next door to us, we can walk there from our house. They had amazing old flowering trees, a model boat pond, beautiful gardens and lots of benches. Plus a big kids park that we had to tear our kids away from when it was time to go. Below is a picture of us in the Gardens, Enoch is chasing down monkeys. Look at his tongue sticking out, super cute. The tiny stick he is carrying wouldn't scare any monkey I have seen, but does great with all the imaginery ones he encounters, and he seems to encounter A LOT.
Last but not least, the birthday cake, pictured above. I picked out something we hadn't tried before from the Cake Mix Doctor, and it was HEAVEN. Maybe my new favorite. Chocolate Praline Cake, page 33. It has everything I like, Chocolate, Caramel and nuts. It was super messy, a little more complicated to make than some of the other recipes, but delicious. What a perfect day. For more pictures, go to Dave's flickr site, there are a bunch of great ones in there for today and other trips we have done recently.

Hull: The Deep

On Saturday we took a day trip to Hull, to visit The Deep, England's largest aquarium. Since this is the only aquarium we have been to here, we can't confirm how it compares, but it was fun. We caught a bus at the base at 8:30 and arrived there a little after 10. The day was just about perfect. Plenty of sharks for Enoch and lots of jellyfish for Hilde. Plus a kids play area in the middle where they could run around and have fun. The highlight for me was riding the glass elevator up through the aquarium. Very cool.

On the way there I had the following conversation with Enoch:

E: Mommy, when is daddy going to get me MY Ipod.
Me: Why don't you ask daddy that.
E: Daddy, when do I get MY Ipod.
D: Time to teach him about consumerism.
M: Here Enoch, listen to Daddy's Ipod.
E: I want to listen to Captain Kidd (his current favorite song, an old Sea Shanty)
Proceeds to listen to song. Song ends.
E: Mom, I want quiet time now. Here.
Pulls the earbuds out of his ears and shoves the Ipod off his lap and onto mine. I think we are safe...for now.

Some more pics:

Book Reviews 2

Here are some more book reviews:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe:
This book was akin to a running stream of consciousness that passes from one character to another when they cross each others paths spatially or mentally. There are no chapter breaks. Makes for an interesting, but sometimes hard to follow read. I would put it down one night and pick it up the next and have to refresh myself as to whose thoughts/actions we were in at the time. I did like the language and the novelty, but I was hoping for a little more closure at the end.

Far from the Maddening Crowd by Thomas Hardy:
Our base library has a Classics section that I am slowly working my way through. I read Tess of the D'Ubervilles and the Mayor of Casterbridge probably 10-12 years ago and remembered liking Hardy's writings, so I picked this one up. It was fun to get more of the English and historical references this time around. There are little quips throughout that are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and sometimes completely sexist. But I enjoyed reading this story of Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors, and it made me want to read more British classical literature, which, as we all know, is more than any of us can read in a lifetime. It has been a while since I have read Dickens, so maybe he's next...