Checking back in from Philly

So yesterday was a blast!  We maximized the Philadelphia Pass already!  Yesterday's activities included rushing down to Chestnut and 6th to catch the 10am Duck Tour.   We were briefly sweating it out as the Black Lives Matters protesters gathered at Philly City Hall and caused a bit of a traffic jam.  Thankfully our driver knew all the backroad short cuts and we made it in plenty of time.  Our tour guide on the duck tour was hilarious and fantastic so if you ever take a Duck Tour in Philly ask for Andrew - See pic below.
From there we had a relaxed lunch at the Independence Beer Garden.  I know, everyone is laughing cause I don't drink, and I was with 3 underage kids.  BUT, the location was perfect and it was surrounded with greenery, great tables, and they had Jenga games on all the tables which Koen, Tessa, and Bridget played while we waited.

After lunch we boarded the Big Bus right on Arch Street near the Independence Visitor Center.  We were on the top level and it was a super sunny nice day so we really got an amazing very of the city from the top of the bus.  I included a few pix below..

The kids were dying to go over to the Adventure Aquarium after the Bus Tour which stopped in front of our hotel, so we drove over to Camden to check it out.  We all enjoyed the exhibits which included hippos, sharks, touch tanks, and lots of exotic fish.

As if that wasn't enough for the day, we ended our day over at the Spruce Street Harbor Park which also has lots of games for kids (life size checkers, chess, connect four) and most importantly, many hammocks to relax in.  Koen was determined to stay as long as possible and relax in the hammocks.

Today was back to reality for me as I had to attend my work meetings, but thankfully Bridget took the kids to see the Academy of Natural Science which had a big dinosaur exhibit with interactive segments which the kids loved.  They also made it over to the Reading Terminal Market which is similar to Quincy Market in Boston but much bigger.  I was so impressed they made it over there in a cab.  The also ventured out to see Betsy Ross' house but it was already closed for the day.  We will head back there tomorrow...

 Enjoying the Academy of Natural Science.

 Gooballs!

Our goofy Duck Tour guide Andrew!  He was the best!!!

A hippo at the Aquarium!

 Spruce Street Harbor Park.

 Relaxing in the hammock.

Taking Philly By Storm

We whizzed into the city by 12:30, took a quick ride by the hotel to check it out, then headed straight down to the historic district.  Parked right beyond Washington Square, then walked right up 6th, and through the parks to get to the Visitor Center where we needed to pick up our Philadelphia Passes.  Excited that we will be able to use them over the next few days to see a ton of attractions that are all included!  Bridget arrived safe and sound with Colleen around 4pm.  The kids swam then we headed to the Shake Shack for dinner then over to South Street for ice cream at Hagen Daz.  YUM!

Since the DNC is coming up in 2 weeks in Philadelphia there are 57 (50 states, D.C. and the 6 US Territories) painted donkeys all over the city.  We are trying to spot as many as possible while we are here.  So far, Tessa has a running list of what we have seen.  New Hampshire, Ohio, Nevada, and Kansas.  We will let you know when we find Massachusetts.

Kids are pooped and were asleep by 9:30.  Tomorrow we jump on the Duck Boats at 10am and see the city!  Yippee!

 We made it!

 Checking out the dinosaur display for The Academy of Natural Sciences which is right next to our hotel!!!

 Found the New Hampshire Donkey in the Visitor's Center.

 Checking out the Washington Square Park Fountain.

 Swimming at the pool at the hotel.

Found another DNC Donkey on our walk.

 Koen's ice cream cup.  The spoon changes color from blue to Purple with the cold!  They only offered the cool spoons to the kids, though.

 Had to go all the way over to South Street to find an Ice Cream shop that was open!  Cool neighborhood though.

Our view from the Shake Shack.

Off to Philly and Lake Anna

Waking up with an excited feeling inside as we (Me, K & T) are headed to Mormor's house this afternoon to sleep over, then drive to Philly tomorrow morning to explore!  I may have mentioned this previously but Tessa is our resident history buff and is dying to check out all the sites in Philadelphia.  

It all started out as a get together weekend with college roommates down at Colleen's lake house in VA, but then a work trip popped up in Philly.  So we modified the plan slightly and now the kids get check out two places instead of one.  YAY!

Lisa is fully engaged in a graduate program at Lesley University so she will miss the Philly part of the trip but is flying down on Friday morning so she can spend the weekend with all of us at the lake. :-)  I have to hand it to Lisa as she manages to stay so focused on her studies when there is so much going on around her and the family.

Don't worry about Levi, he will be hanging with his peeps (having a blast) in Sudbury.  The kennel provides all day "rough and tumble" play so he gets to be with his pack.  Nothing better to tire him out than all day play!

More later...

 Our sleepy pup, Levi.

Koen and Tessa hanging with their cousins at Mormor's house in CT.

Another Adventure! This time across the ocean

We are finally taking a trip to Sweden this summer as a family!  This will be the kids first trip overseas.  The first leg of the trip was spectacular with snowy mountains out the window.  Reykjavik, Iceland is beautiful even in the middle of the night.  Our flight to Stockholm is delayed 45 minutes so hopefully the kids will keep it together with the wait!!  I FINALLY have time to update the blog!!
Here are a few pix so far...

 Taking the Red Line to the Silver Line...

 On the Silver Line...

Unbelievable view of the snowy mountains!!!  I love it!

More to follow once we arrive in Stockholm.

Easter Sunday a bust

Not sure how this happened, but ALL 4 of us are down for the count today.  Lisa started it with body aches and a fever last Tuesday, then I got a mild case of it Wednesday, then Koen on Thursday, then Tessa today!  :-(  Between the hacking coughs, runny noses, fever, even Levi seems under the weather now.  He has it the worst though, with the cone around his neck and bonking into everything in sight.  Only 3 more nights though and he will be back to himself, we hope.

Easter Sunday is usually our chance to update our family photo, as we have a favorite one from our first year with all of us in 2008, but we will have to do it another day.  Maybe next weekend once everyone is feeling better.  These photos are the most recent I have of the 2 kids together, at least.  Happy to report almost all the snow is now gone in our yard.  Levi was in heaven with all the snow.  Such a handsome pup!

Summer vacation is almost here!

The kids last day of school is this Friday, June 27^th.  I think that is the latest anyone I know has gone to school.  Unfortunately, the return of the Ice Age impacted the length of their summer break.

Lots of good news on Koen and Tessa...  Koen is becoming an expert speller this year!  We had so much fun practicing words with him for his Friday quizzes.   Some of the tough ones…   Chrysalis, Butterfly, and Metamorphosis.  As for athletics, he participated in tennis, soccer, lacrosse, and swimming and he realized lacrosse is not for him, but the other 3 definitely fall into the “possible”  big kid sports.  In soccer he is a defensive star denying his little opponents the rush of a goal.  J  Tennis is fun too, but honestly I need to get out there with him and see if we can make a go of it.  That would be great exercise for me, for sure!  Lastly, Koen is a fantastic swimmer.  He is working on perfecting his forward crawl.  Crossing fingers he passes the swimming test at White Pond so he can swim out to the raft.  For those of you who know my younger years of NOT swimming, that is quite an accomplishment for a 7 year old.  J

Tessa, our other little star, learned how to master a 2 wheel bike on April Fool’s Day!   She is playing softball with other kindergartners and 1^st grade girls and having a blast.  Since her great grandmother Christina was a slugger, we have high expectations for this mini slugger.  So far she is doing fantastic!  Now if you remember, Tessa had a rough transition from Preschool to Kindergarden, but thankfully she figured school out and was flying smoothly by the half year mark.  She is also swimming and is absolutely following in my footsteps.  Great swimmer as long as she can keep her head above water...  Our goal for her this summer is to get her comfortable putting her face in the water.  Please send us some positive vibes on that front.  She has been struggling with that for a while, but honestly, I can completely relate.  I think I was 13 before I really swam well under water.  On another note, we got Tessa a new big girl bike that she absolutely loves.  By the time we get to P-Town for vacation at the end of July, she should be an expert. 

More to follow soon…  Enjoy this beginning of summer!!!

Pix

I am having some internet trouble at the hotel in Syracuse so I am posting a few pix of the dogs then will send a link once I get home since there are too many to put on the blog.  Thought we'd make it all the way home tonight, but it was just too far.  No need to drive at night (all night that is) with 2 kids.  We pulled over and will only have to drive 4 1/2 hours tomorrow.  Look at these beauties.

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An amazing 24 hours

We went from the beauty of Niagara Falls...  (see the photos below) to the gorgeous beauty of the dogs.  When we finally arrived at Countryview Kennel in Stanton Michigan, we could see the dogs from the driveway and they were just what we expected.  Yippee!!!  The trip confirmed our plans to adopt a Siberian Indian Dog later this year.

One leg finished - Niagara Falls

Got out of the house at 7:15am and arrived at the Hilton Fallsview (Canadian side) at 3:50pm.  Not bad!  The guy checking us in convinced us to upgrade for $20 up to the 44th floor with a jacuzzi and 2 bedrooms.  Forget the jacuzzi, the view is AMAZING!  I'll try to get a good photo from the room but the view is split by a line in the window so not sure how it will come out.  Off to wander around outside...

Easter Eve - A New Journey

Spent a delightful day at Scraggy Neck "picking up sticks" to clean up the yard.  Great exercise which we all needed and what a spectacular weather day!  So sunny and cool.  Perfect for that type of work.

The kids enjoyed playing in the "Wolf pup Hideout" - (Koen's creation) - aka The Honeymoon suite, aka The Shed at Scraggy.  Once they got bored with that, they headed over to the playground.  Pretty phenomenal to see how tall they are all now.  For the most part, all the kids get along great, which means the adults can finally breath a sigh of relief.

So, beginning tomorrow, we (the four of us) are on a road trip to Michigan to meet the parents of a puppy we intend to adopt in August.  Lisa and the kids have been lobbying for a dog, and while I felt pretty strongly against it initially, we have found a pretty amazing breed that will work with Lisa's allergies, and be a great fit for our family.  It is a Siberian Indian Dog.  They are stunningly gorgeous

and as a family we are ready now to expand by one more.  In preparation for the pup we have been tossing around names and so far the options are Noa, Piper, & Sky.  Even having gone through what feels like hundreds of names, there are few we can all agree on.  Luckily we have another several months to help solidify a name.

First stop on the road trip is Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, then Monday morning heading straight to Stanton, MI.  Should only be seven hours on the second day.

Much more to follow, but that is all for now.  Happy Passover and Easter for those who celebrate!
We will post updates in the next few days here.

An amazing week!

This week is Family Week in Provincetown!  Our family gets to spend the whole week in a beautiful seaside town with MANY other LGBT families and attend fun events and meet adults and kids from all over the country.  Just today we met two Dad's from Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.  What a BLAST!

Since the kids are older now we decided to stay in a hotel with a pool and the beach versus a condo near downtown.  What a great change!  We loved the condo, but this week has been splendid!  No car needed to swim in the pool or enjoy the beach.  All we do is ride our bikes into town and participate in fun activities.  We had a little mishap this morning with our bike lock.  The darn thing wouldn't unlock so Koen and I rode with the Tag-a-long down to the bike store to see if they had any advice.  They had a small wire cutter but looked too small for our lock.  We ended up renting a bigger boy bike with GEARS on it for Koen since his was the only one stuck in the lock.  He didn't hesitate to try the new bike, but we had to put the seat all the way down and the brakes were very hard to reach.  Off we went back to the hotel to meet Lisa and Tessa.  As soon as we got to the first downhill, Koen turned around and said the bike was too big.  I was so proud of him for even trying it since it was much bigger than his regular bike.  We headed back to the bike shop to return it, but the guy there said he could adjust the brakes so they would be much closer for Koen's small hands.  We waited to see if it might work, preparing to just return the bike, but Low and Behold it worked and Koen could now easily reach the brakes!  He was off and running.  Don't think he will be using his other bike again now that his has a bike that can shift gears!  YAY for Koen!  What a big boy and athlete!

Tessa is still doing great on the tag-a-long behind me.  We are hoping this fall she can learn to ride her bike without training wheels too.  I think she will be ready.

Had a wonderful photo shoot with the kids this evening on the beach.  I will post a few, but the good ones I might wait for a card opportunity or something.  :-)

Between the biking and walking the Jetty (2.5 miles each way) we are all getting great exercise!  I think this is where we will be staying next year too!

Tomorrow is our second to last day here.  I really do love it here and wish I could stay forever!  But, of course, Concord calls, and school will be starting before you know it.

Summer is coming

Spent a great weekend in CT with Mormor and went to a wonderful wedding of my best friend.  Koen & Tessa are growing at such an amazing rate, I really can't keep up!  I thought Tessa would be a 2T forever, and now her legs and arms are so long she looks like a first grader.  She will start kindergarten this fall at Thoreau Elementary school where Koen is now.  The two of them will hop on the bus together and head off to school.  WOW!  

Here are a few photos from Otter Cove and from the wedding.  

Taking a walk around the river and goofing around!

 Friends!

All dressed for the wedding!!

Blizzard of 2013 - After...

Thanking God we did not lose power.  Both my Mother and sister are without power.  My Mother for the third time in what feels like about 1 year.  She lost it for 7 days during Sandy and 10 days during the other storm earlier in the summer.  Poor thing.  She is safe with the neighbor tonight, though.  Thanks, Bruce!  Not sure where my sister ended up, but crossing fingers she and her family are staying warm tonight!

Not surprisingly, the kids had a ball in the snow!  Lisa plowed us out and a few of the neighbors.  There are lots of angels on the street helping out the elderly and those without a snow blower so everyone gets out safe.  I am thankful for that too.

So, we ended up with 29 inches of snow, essentially 2 and a half feet!  The drifts are up to 5 feet and the piles of snow are up there too!  Here are a few pics from the day.  Tomorrow is supposed to be super bright and sunny so I will get out there and see if I can get some even better photos.

Almost lost the mailbox!

 Koen taking a 30 second break from playing.

 Snow on the roof is not too bad!  YAY!

 Mud Room Door

 Front Door

 Lisa hard at work!

 Tessa helping dig out.

Blizzard of 2013 - First Look

Well Hello!  Here we are waiting for the EPIC Blizzard to cover us in SNOW!  Since it has been snowing since 10:30am we decided to go out and check out the progress.  The kids were squealing with excitement!  (me too, for that matter)  Here are a few of the photos so far.  We wanted a before and AFTER view on the onslaught of snow.  As of 6:45pm Concord, MA had about 4 inches.  We are hoping for 30 inches by tomorrow noon!

For all those in the Northeast, stay warm and safe!  For the rest, enjoy the snow photos!  We will post more in the morning!   

Getting Ready for the Snowball battle!  Nothing better than a snowball maker.

SNOW FALLING!

If we only had a freezer for these!!

A new year

Well,  I thought 2012 would be a better year for posting but alas, having 2 kids, 2 cats, a wife and full-time job proved to be too much.  I see many folks are able to accomplish "a post a day" with 1 photo and limited commentary...  Not sure I will be able to keep up with that, but my goal is to try a once a month post.  Wish me luck!

So, as a follow up to the camping trip. last year, yes, we had a blast and kids always have fun outside! We decided to hold off on buying a camper due to, first off money, plus storage, plus with busy schedules, how many weekends would we REALLY be able to go.  I am guessing it will get worse/busier as the kids get older and have soccer, gymnastics, skiing (hopefully), dancing, track (our little runner Ko), etc, etc.  We will certainly do it again next year, though.

After our 4th of July camping trip we had a GREAT week in Provincetown with the Family Equality folks for their annual Family Week festivities.  Here is a photo of the fam that was taken by a photog at the event - Song of Myself Photography on Commercial Street.

The kids spent lots of time in Falmouth over their summer break boating & beaching with Nana & Papa.

September found Koen in Kindergarden and Tessa in her last year of preschool.  Fortunately they both enjoy school for now and we are thankful to the wonderful teachers that keep them interested!  Koen is writing up a storm and Tessa loves reading and learning.  Yes - she is still a history buff.  The other day she wanted to discuss, the French Indian War.  Not sure I know a lot of 5 year olds that have such a fascination with history.  We surmise that she will either be a history teacher or a tour guide  on the Freedom Trail or on the Lexington Concord trails, although she claims she wants to be paleontologist.  The jury is still out for Koen...  Artist, architect, runner extrordinaire, or a pilot (my wish).  It certainly will be fun to watch them continue to grow and learn about what interests them.

In October the kids had a blast preparing for Halloween.  Tessa was a Dalmation and Koen was, of course, Rudolph.  His love of Rudolph is so sweet.

The kids had fun playing on the local Concord soccer teams this fall, and we loved the physical outlet it provided.  Perfect play date!  Being outside with friends running around.  What could be better?!  Spring soccer is just around the corner.  I know Koen will be excited to start again, but Tessa will probably stick with gymnastics.  Time will tell.

In November little Miss Tessa turned 5!  I can't believe Koen will be 6 in less than 4 months!

Christmas was wonderful this year.  Although it was the 10th anniversary of my Dad's passing, we were able to spend a good amount of time with my Mom (Mormor) down in Old Saybrook which is always relaxing.  The kids had fun experimenting with decorating Christmas cookies.  Yum!!  Here is a Christmas photo of the kids.

We, like most of Massachusetts, have been battling colds, cough, pneumonia (Koen, but he has recovered) for what feels like 3 months, but I suppose it has only been 2 months.  I really hope we will all be feeling well in 2013!!

One of the wonderful joys for me is the kids love of music!  We love to listen to the radio as a family and name the songs as they come on.  Tessa has become quite the artist identifier!  She can name the latest artists, Katy Perry, Pink, Nicki Minaj, Philip Phillips and the oldie but goodies, Billy Joel, Elton John, Michael Jackson.  BUT yesterday, Lisa said said Tessie was listening to a song with her best friend Lilly in the car and said...  Isn't this Michael McJagger?  LOL  Now that is a new one to me!  What a cutie.

We will keep you posted on the adventures of Koen and Tessa and please do keep us posted on all your 2013 happenings!!

An experiment

I am bursting with excitement tonight because we are turning a planned tent camping weekend into an ADVENTURE!!!  As many of you know, I grew up camping in a pop-up all over the country and overseas.  Well...  We decided to try one out this weekend with the kids instead of using the tent like we usually do when we camp.  The kids are soooo excited and honestly it feels so luxurious compared to a small tent for 4 which comfortably sleeps 2, really.   Cross your finger all goes well!  We can't wait!  Here are a few photos from this afternoon...