Blizzard 2013

"Nemo" was forecast for several days in advance, so we had plenty of time to prepare for the "Blizzard of 2013." We always store water, extra food, batteries, flashlights, and a little extra gasoline for the snow blower and lawn mower. But I did add a back-up power pack for my phone (or anything with a mini-USB or regular USB charger) and got an extra gallon of milk on Thursday.

Nemo moved in on Friday afternoon as predicted and started to grace us with big, fluffy flakes. Every school in the state closed in anticipation of the event. So the kids and I were home to enjoy the lack of snow and watch endless weather reports. Ian went into work early and came home on the 2:10 train (the MBTA closed down at 3:30 to prepare for the weather).

By 4:30 we had a few inches of snow, so Ian and the kids headed out even though it was starting to get a little dark.





Snow baseball. If you look closely, you can see that Aiden has gotten a piece of this one!








Malcolm and I mostly stayed inside, but, in an effort to be "in the picture" and to bend to the demands of peeps on Facebook, I took Mr. M outside for just a few minutes. I don't think he was impressed.


On Saturday morning, we woke up to the power on (YAY!) and a just a little more snow.






Everyone was fascinated by the continuous weather updates!


Ian took the kids outside, but Devin was overwhelmed by the snow (of course, if you were shorter than the average snowdrift, you'd probably be a bit nervous, too). So he came inside to enjoy some fun in his "fort."






Ian and Aiden lived it up outside for close to TWO hours!




Love this picture! I might have to have it framed.


And, who needs a hill when you have stairs?


The following day, Ian got down to the business of clearing the driveway. Thank goodness we bought a snow blower when we moved in to this house!




You can see all the pictures of our fun here:
 

A little getaway...

This weekend we left the kids with G&G Zafft for a 24-hour getaway to the beautiful White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. We stayed at a lovely hotel called the Castle Hill Resort which is in the Okemo Mountain area (we stayed in the less exotic hotel at the resort but it was still very nice).

We checked into the hotel and headed for a nearby attraction: Buttermilk Falls! The Buttermilk Falls is a series of small falls on the Branch Brook river. The falls are small but very pretty and we enjoyed a very low-key hike around the winding river.

The main falls and beautiful pool below.


The rocky traverse.


Dipping our toes in the "non-designated swimming area."


After our "hike," we headed to the charming town of Ludlow and found an Irish pub for dinner. We enjoyed some good food, got a suggestion from the server for a place to have breakfast, and headed back to the hotel to take some gorgeous evening photos of the "castle."

The front of the mansion.


Our view of the mountains at dusk.


And here are some shots of the castle and grounds in the daylight after we'd had breakfast and checked out of the hotel.


The grounds are gorgeous!


We managed to capture a shot of ourselves.


We then headed for Ruggles Mine outside of Manchester, New Hampshire.




The mine produces mica, beryl, quartz, and uranium (yes, the stuff that makes you glow in the dark)!


Some pretty amazing holes and crevices to explore.




You're allowed to take anything you find out of the mines though some of the quartz I likes was a bit big to take with us.


So I left my mark instead.


We had a great time and Vermont and New Hampshire are quickly winning me over. Feels like home...

Oh, what do you do in the wintertime???

Apparently, not blog! January has brought with it a new semester of teaching (for Cherisa), lots of snow and lots of indoor activities (none of which included blogging). But we have taken a few pictures to document our exciting entertaining not-entirely-mind-numbing activities. So here's what we've been up to!

We've been practicing our "cool" poses whenever possible...


We've been making and eating homemade ice cream (yum!).




We've been practicing our number identification and counting skills.


And we've been doing lots


and lots


and LOTS of reading!


We've also given the snow blower a workout every few days. In fact, we're running out places to put snow!


And, we have to admit, we've had several PJ days where we gave the TV and Wii a workout, too!

I hope your January has been as fun-filled as our but included less snow.
Now, back to the books!

Sum-sum-summa' time!

We have been soaking up the summer around here and loving both the heat and our central air (the person who invented air conditioning should be granted a pass into heaven, no questions asked, in my book)!

While I'm not the biggest "beach person" (who needs all that sand?!?) I do like the fact that we are so close to good beaches here. At least if we're headed for a day of salt water and dirt, we don't have to drive too far. So we took off for a visit to Nantasket last Tuesday and enjoyed some fun in the sun with Ian and a few friends.

We were very close to the water because I'd misread the tide chart somehow but it didn't stop the building!


And while Devin has enjoyed previous beach outings, he couldn't quite keep his eyes open for this one so he and I enjoyed the shade of the umbrella and Devin did a lot of this:


We have also been enjoying our big backyard! We finally got some sprinklers and pulled out the sand box given to us by friends and converted it to a wading pool.

Seen below is the said sand box/wading pool and the kids headed for some sprinkler fun.


Both Devin and Aiden love this round sprinkler Ian chose. I set the water to low and Devin kept trying to drink the spray! Here he is getting a mouthful.


Aiden kept ducking underneath the streams to "hide" from the water. It was pretty funny!


Here's a short video of them running in the sprinklers. Ah... Summer!