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.