The Big Day!!!!!

The wedding was a day sixteen years in the making!! What a gorgeous day for an outdoor ceremony!!!!! I can honestly say that I have never before attended a wedding quite like this!!!! The beautiful ceremony was under a canopy of shade from the trees in the backyard and the happy couple was surrounded by tons of friends and family! Isabel was an angel through the ceremony despite a few troublesome moments prior to the beginning of service. The music was fabulous.... A string quartet, a keyboard, and at least two soloists, not counting the psalmist who had the most gorgeous deep voice! I can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking (if they weren't lucky enough to be in attendance).

The reception that followed was a fantastic party under a large white tent on the front lawn. The food was delicious and the music was awesome and Isa had a fabulous time dancing... Or rather she enjoyed riding on my hip while I was dancing. I must say that the photographer might just have as many pictures of Isabel as the happy couple as every time I turned around he was snapping photos of her....I hope I get to see them!!!!!!! (this is a hint for the happy couple)


And now, as the party is winding down, I slipped away to a quiet spot where Isabel is again sleeping on the couch and I am happily blogging my entries for the past few days. The college mates are all playing "spoons" and reminiscing once again. Tonight, a special shout out to my suite mates from college who I know are religiously following my blog. Only you guys will appreciate the biologically successful le poulard that I saw at Kimball Farm yesterday....if only Lil Ricky could have seen it.


On the tv in the background is one of my favorite movies.... I won't tell you what it is but will provide you with a trivia question regarding a line from the movie.... The first comment response I receive correctly identifying the movie in Jeopardy style shall receive a prize...and those in attendance this evening at the wedding are not eligible to play...

Movie Quote: "if you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter........"

If you read all the way to the end of this entry, you might be interested in reading the two previous entries that will catch you up on our trip since "the midnight swim" where we last left off..... Scroll down for your viewing pleasure..

Friday Fun

On Friday we packed up the car and relocated to the Marriott Courtyard in Foxborough, MA.....prior to arriving at the hotel, we went to spend the day with Bela's Aunt Barb (who was Bela's piano teacher as a boy). She has recently relocated to the town of Littleton (a suburb of Boston) to be near her daughter's family. She has the cutest little apartment in a complex with buildings all named after pine trees....I never knew that there were so many types of Pines......her building is named Hawthorne.

We had lunch at the Neshoba Valley Ski Resort, which doubles as a camp for kids in the summer....super cute! The "mountain" was very tiny, but you could tell that in the winter, it is a popular spot. After lunch we went for ice cream at this neat place called Kimball Farm. Isa got to pet goats and chickens and watch some children ride a pony. No pony rides for her on this trip. All in all a fun day with Barbie!!!


After getting ready at the hotel we made our way to the rehearsal dinner in Wrentham. What a fun time...... There were about 20 of us in attendance and the highlight was Eric walking through the screen door.....(readers, you can use your imagination of how this came to be). This wedding party is a great excuse for a college reunion for my husband and his graduate school friends. From inside the house as Isa was sleeping, I could here the retelling of countless stories and much laughter being had on the deck. Friends are so very important, and my husband has some of the greatest.

Next entry....the wedding!!!!

Thwarted!!!!

Just as we were heading over to the beach for our moonlight swim, we spotted a car pull up.... We were anticipating some teenaged skinny dippers but instead narrowly escaped crossing paths with a middle aged fisherman..... Needless to say, we delayed our midnight swim to another day.....

On Golden Pond

Today at Wash Pond (the name of Robert and Eric's lake - google earth it......) I noticed something that I had not previously seen..... The water was so clear today that as I looked down I could see these tiny beautiful flecks of gold.......not really knowing for sure what this means or what the flecks really are (I prefer not to think too much while on vacation), I prefer to just enjoy them for the beautiful site they provide. Isabel got quite brave today (increasingly so with each passing day) and ventured out into the water up to her chin refusing to use her floating duck. I was never far away, and we had a good time with her throwing a stone and me retrieving it when it went too deep for her to bend over to get it without going under the water.

Everyday at Wash Pond there are two lifeguards, provided by the town of Hampstead (as you may recall from a previous entry). The lifeguards work from 9ish to 5pm, and no sooner do the lifeguards leave, the people bring their dogs for a swim (allowed only after hours).
Usually you see labradors or some other water loving dogs, but today, at promptly 5:01pm, a lady came to the beach with three dogs - a Pug, a mutt, and an English Bulldog. The pug, named Roxie, swiftly slipped out of her collar and traipsed off into the water. The mutt, Tyson, didn't do much of anything. And the bulldog, Justice, was obviously taking the lady for a walk, as he swam right over to the buoy rope, latched on and clung for dear life for the next thirty minutes. He pulled the rope several feet inland, and required the assistance of most, but not all, of the other beach goers had to lend a hand to free Justice from the rope, all the while the lady coaxing Roxie to continue enjoying the water while Tyson stared on. We (being the witnesses only and not the Samaritans lending a hand) listened and learned while the spectacle took place.... For instance, did you know that a bulldog's lifespan is but a short eight years? Justice was only 1.5 years old, so has many swims ahead of him.

After our afternoon at the beach, we had another cookout this evening and after dinner two of Eric and Robert's neighbors stopped by to say hello. What delightful friends, Jane and Sharon. Eric (the consummate story teller) regaled us with hilarious stories of the neighborhood, often times stopping to compare Ells Road to Wisteria Lane (and believe me when I say, if the stories are true, this is almost as food as Knots Landing, too.......) those stories will remain secrets for my first best seller on Oprah's top ten.

After dinner, we took a stroll through the neighborhood. There are about five homes for sale here, two of which are cottages only (meaning that they are not meant for year round living) and the others available year round. All of the homes are darling, and with some imagination you can totally see the vision of what some of the homes could be with some TLC (just like E & R's home). Big sigh.....someday we will have our vacation home in Bavaria, and our lake house in NH........(parents.....stop panicking.....this is so far from happening........)

It's getting late and we are planning a midnight swim tonight! Eric will stay in the house with my sleeping angel........ On the travel log for tomorrow, lunch with Bela's Aunt Barb and then down to Massachusetts for the weekend.

More to come.....

Twilight Swim

Today was another stress free day here at the lake. Robert and Eric had to work and we relaxed this morning waiting for Eric to return home in time for lunch. After lunch we took Isabel to the Depot Street Park to play on the Enormous Playground.... We were there almost two hours primarily building sand castles in the sand box at the park. Many of the sliding boards were too tall for Isa (so she told me numerous times), but she had a great time playing and running and running some more. She met a little friend there named Bella....so Isabel and Isabella had fun at the park together.

Isa fell asleep in the car on the way home, so we took advantage of this and went to the grocery store to buy supplies for dinner. Bela and Eric grilled steak for dinner and it was delicious. Isabel napped through dinner....after dinner when she woke up we all went to the lake for a twilight dip..... How refreshing!! Afterwards, Isa had dinner and has went to bed early!! Hallelujah!

Not sure what is in store for tomorrow, but I suspect more beach time.

Until then............

The hills are alive...........

With the sound of music!!!! Our fourth day of vacation began with a short three hour trip to Stowe, Vermont. The ride was uneventful and the rolling mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont were breathtaking. It is no wonder that the Von Trapps settled in Vermont after leaving Austria and arriving in the states. We arrived in Stowe around noon and went straight to the Trapp Family Lodge for lunch. We were delighted when we were greeted at the lodge by a German speaking young girl named Christina (but was most likely not a descendant of the Baron). We had a lovely lunch, briefly toured the grounds,took some pictures (to prove we were there) and visited the gift shop to purchase the obligatory postcards. My husband took Isa out to the car while I shopped. I ended up buying two books (one for us and one for my Aunt Rose whose birthday is this week.....the Sound of Music is the only movie she has ever seen in the theater), several postcards (some of which will be mailed to my Uncle John who just found out the truth about the Von Trapps and quite frankly I am not sure he is a believer) and the most adorable stuffed goat who sings The Lonely Goatherd (intact with Julie Andrews voice) for Isabel. We hid the goat in the trunk so she wouldn't see it until we got home to Eric and Robert's house.

After lunch, we made our way to the horse drawn carriage ride mentioned in yesterday's entry. We went to Gentle Giants (which we found on the Internet) where we met our driver, a sweet older man named Scotty (who we learned way too much about in the short time we spent with him) and our horse, Justin. Isabel was excited but a little cautious about the size of the beast (Justin, not Scotty). The ride lasted just short of thirty minutes but was money well spent. During that time we learned that horses like Justin can pull three times their weight comfortably and since Justin weighed 2400 lbs, he could pull over three tons. Justin was sixteen years old and will live to be 25-35 years old. He will probably work until his early twenties. Justin has some equine friends that we also had an opportunity to meet - Jack, Mack, and Tommy (the former two still working and the latter retired). Tommy gets to eat three times as much hay per day than the working horses. We took photos of all four horses and got to pet three of them. After the ride, we got to feed Justin a carrot. About this time, Isabel was finally interested in Justin.

In case you were curious about Scotty - he is finally living his boyhood dream (his words, not mine) and he told us that even though we thought we were in a horse drawn carriage, we were actually in a covered wagon (again, his words, not mine). Scotty was born and bred in Vermont. He spent the first thirty plus years of his career in grocery store management. After waking up for the 300th day in a row (about ten years ago) dreading then day ahead, he prayed for a change and an answer to his prayers, took an early retirement (which is a strange way to say retired early....took it where?) and got his dream job driving the carriage (or wagon pending who you ask). He did mention the financial implications of said early retirement, but insisted that the emotional burden was much improved by this change of life. And now, you also know more about Scotty than you thought you needed to know. Of note, he mentioned to us that the Gentle Giants do offer discounted rides for repeat guests and suggested we come back sometime in the fall or winter. We decided this would be a great trip to bring Isabel's Oma's on so we hope one of these days we can make that happen!

After the carriage ride, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Stowe. As we were leaving the town, we took the loop tour up to Smuggler's Notch (the highest peak on Mount Manfield which is the highest mountain in Vermont) based on the recommendation of Scotty. What a great suggestion!!!! On our carriage ride, Scotty told us the legend of the Indian face carved into the ridge of the mountain, and showed us where it was located (we later saw artwork in town showing a sculpture of this as well).

A short ride out of Stowe, we found Ben and Jerry's factory and decided to hove an ice-cream treat! isa, with her hawk like vision, immediately saw the playground so we played for awhile while Daddy got us the treats! After the snack, we visited the "Flavor Graveyard" where you can see the resting place of many of the retired ice-creams..... Perhaps Scotty has visited there, too.

My husband was tired on the way home, and against his better judgement, decided to let me drive the last two hours home to NH. Now, I am a safe driver, but never claim to be a good one. Once again on a trip of this nature, we found ourselves dangerously close to hearing the unwelcome beep informing us of the need for gasoline. Let me just tell you that Chivalry should have been a flavor in that graveyard, because my husband made me pump the gas, citing his "treat" being sitting in the back seat entertaining our daughter. During this time he also teased me with the Coca-cola he had purchased at the rest stop as I have given up soda for life (being Coke free for four months now - I will pause momentarily for the applause that you readers are no doubt participating in.......my kidneys thank you.........).

Needless to say ( but saying, rather typing it anyway) we made it safely back to the lake house.... We had a fabulous dinner on the porch with the boys and ended the evening watching Isabel delight in the joys of the singing goat.......now that was a treat!!!!!!

More to come...special thanks to Bill and Carla who are faithful followers of my story....please tell the boys that birthday gifts will be enroute once we arrive home safely!

Also of note - seriously contemplating a keyboard for my iPad as I am not so enchanted with this tiny touch keypad.


Xoxo

Hess has the cheapest gas

Day 3 of vacation has come and gone...... Today we bypassed three gas stations to get to the Hess station that Eric insisted had the cheapest gas around. The "low gas" beep had already sounded...... When we made it to the Hess we found that every single pump was closed so we had to turn around and go back to another gas station. I know what you readers are thinking.....that's it? Where's the excitement of the day? Where is the drama? Well, we then ran out of gas and had to walk fifteen miles to (7.5 ther and back) to get the gas into the tank......... Gotcha..... We actually had a very relaxing day after we bought gas.... Lunch at the Chinese restaurant (perhaps the strangest lunch ever), a trip to the yarn store (to get my supplies for my next two projects) then four hours at the lake. The wind was blowing and a young girl's raft was floating away.... The lifeguard didn't want to go after it so the mother of the girl had risk her life to go after it.....okay,no life risking but still kind of amusing to witness as just as the mom would get close to then raft, a wrong breeze would push it farther away. She got enough exercise for the week.

Isa got a new inner tube (and perhaps the above story would be more entertaining to my audience if the raft adrift was Isabel's and I was the mother risking her life in the rapids but alas this was not the case.....anyone who knows me knows that I am not really a good swimmer) and wanted desperately to swim without assistance. By the end of the afternoon she was getting quite brave and was wading out to where the water was up to her chest with Mommy beside her but not touching her. We spent quite a bit of time playing with our new sand machine that Daddy bought today after the trip to the Hess.

Tonight I started knitting my socks........ Tomorrow off to Stowe, Vermont to see where the Von Trapps live. We are planning a horse drawn carriage ride!!!!!!

Full Moon at the Lake

Here I sit at the end of day 2 of our vacation enjoying the view of the beautiful full moon from the porch. I can hear through the window my husband and Eric marveling at Isabel's gymnastic prowess. Robert and I are viewing knitting patterns on the iPad and making a list of the items I need to purchase on my shopping trip to the yarn store...... I am going to "darn" some socks and a really cool blanket. Robert is now telling me that "darn" actually means to fix the socks..... Oh well.......

Today we spent the day at the lake! What a fabulous day. We built sand castles, and went swimming and built more sand castles and took lots of pictures....unfortunately you won't be seeing the pictures yet because I don't know how to get them to my iPad. A special thank you to my sister-in-law, Carla, for reading yesterday's entry.... she has just returned from a great vacation visiting relatives in Brazil.

All in all it was a lovely, relaxing day in New Hampshire.... Until tomorrow

Hot in the City - Vacation 2010 Day 1

Today was our travel day enroute to New Hampshire for our New England vacation. We left the house this morning around 6:00am and entrusted our route planning to our Tomtom. The trip was uneventful until we realized we were headed for the Holland Tunnels outside of NYC. By the time we figured this out, it was too late..... we spent the next hour and forty-five minutes navigating our way through the traffic of the greater New York area. Although we never actually went through the tunnels, this quick tour of the city included a lovely view of the New York City skyline from the George Washington Bridge (albeit my view blocked by the pink blanket shielding Isa from the hot July sun).

Our tour of NYC also included a jaunt thru the Bronx (the birthplace of my Mother-in-law). One thing I can say for certain - New York drivers are some of the craziest I have ever witnessed. And if I haven't mentioned it yet, let me just tell you it was HOT! The temperature reading in the thermometer in the car read over 100 degrees!!!! But of course this was the outdoor temperature (not inside the car)!!!!

We stopped about five times to stretch our legs and go to the restroom - a necessary feat when traveling with a toddler in training. Isabel was an absolute angel the entire way and after watching multiple episodes of Elmo, Scooby Doo and Monsters, Inc., she finally took a brief nap the final two hours of the ride. We arrived in Hampstead, NH, at our friends' (Eric and Robert) lake house about 12 hours after our departure.

For the last two weeks Isabel has been talking about "the beach", and after a few weeks of making "sand castles" in the backyard in the dirt (more appropriately named "dirt" castles) she was very excited to see the beach. We weren't in the house five minutes (literally) when she asked to make sand castles with her new buckets and shovels so we quickly changed our shoes, grabbed our beach hats (despite the sun quickly fading) and beach toys. She had a great time entertaining herself making her own special version of sand architecture! And we are looking forward to tomorrow when we will get to go into the water!!!

Our first day of vacation concluded with a fabulous dinner prepared by Robert and a lovely view of the beach from the screened-in porch. As. The saying on the sign on the porch aptly states,"Life is good at the beach........"

Of note, I am posting our adventures this week via use of my iPad as I am getting accustomed to its features and capabilities....

Stay tuned for more fun.......

Where'd the pictures go?

Isabel turned 2.5 years old on July 1st. She is speaking so fluently now, it is just amazing..

Her most recent thing is looking at the books I am reading and asking me "Where'd the pictures go?"

So sweet!!! She is just such a perfect little person... sometimes a Devil dressed as an Angel!!

My Mom and Dad were here last week and Isa was acting up quite a bit... usually at bedtime. My mom sent me this quote today from my Gram:

"There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead...when she was good, she was very, very good. When she was bad, she was horrid"

I am sure this would apply to most going through the Terrible Two's..

until later...

karen