Some Phone Photos from the Summer

So, Heather posted some well written, well edited and properly themed entries... instead of following her example, I've decided my theme will be "I've Finally Figured Out How to Download the Photos from My Forty-dollar Phone."  Here they are, from May to present:

 Nana and Grand Dad were very generous this summer in grandparenting the kids for several weeks while we prepared for the movers.  Heather and I shopped for clothes during our stay-cation.  It turn out, the clothes at TJ Maxx offer some solid advice.

 After things wound down at work and without kids, it was surprising work trying to figure out how to "relax."  Good thing the library keeps a community events board!

 Remember the time you figured out there was more than one kind of potato or that you could buy more than 7,500 different kinds of apples?  And here I thought bacon was bacon.

Heather's picture showed the beautiful view from atop Ampersand Mountain... here are some of the rocks I forced her to scramble over in sneakers and a skirt.  I think she just found out I was not packing a delicious picnic for the ascent.

We took the kids to a car show before packing them up for Kentucky.  Joseph smoothly incorporated meditation.

 If anyone's looking for Christmas present ideas, Holden says he'd like this car.

 Lena added some cave girl art to Central New York before departing.

 Whee!

 Apparently, filling a lawn mower engine with rain water and neglecting it for three years makes it difficult to start.  Even if three kids try at the same time...

We arrive in Alabama

We continued our travels southward and finally made it to Alabama.  Before arriving in Montgomery, we stopped in Huntsville to visit the Space and Rocket Center.  The kids thought it was pretty amazing, but they weren't used to the heat and couldn't tour all the outdoor displays just yet.  We will have to plan another trip to Huntsville while we live in Alabama.

Summer in Kentucky

The kids spent most of the summer at Nana and Grandad's house in Kentucky.  They learned how to swim, played at parks, and ate some pizza.  It was obvious that they had a good time.  After we picked them up, we headed to Lexington to visit friends for a few days.  The kids loved visiting the children's section at UK's arboretum and picking blueberries at a local orchard. 

Vacation in-route

On our way to Kentucky and then Alabama, Robert and I took advantage of the trip and made a few stops along the way.  We toured Gettysburg and were surprised at just how large of an area the battle covered.  Then, we went to Monticello and were impressed by its beauty.  Before heading to Danville for an alumni weekend at Centre, we stopped at the West Virginia state museum, which was more thorough than one would expect.  It was a nice little road trip.

Last weekend in New York

 The kids have been enjoying their time in Kentucky while we wrap things up in New York.  We took the time to visit some places that we hadn't gotten to over the last three years.  Yesterday, we went to the Adirondacks.  Robert researched some villages to stop in and areas to visit.  He found a trail that claimed to go through old growth forests like the kinds Revolutionary War era soldiers marched through (the trees were reported to be so dense that they couldn't see the sky for days, and tress were supposed to be so thick that armies could hide behind them).  We headed up to the trail to see what the trees there like. 

We imagined that the trail was an easy walk through the woods because that was what the description indicated.  It was wrong.  The trail turned out to be a nearly three mile mountain climb.  There were no dense canopies or huge trees.  There were gigantic boulders that we had to scramble up while dripping sweat.  Once we were about halfway up the mountain, we realized that the description was totally wrong, hiking boots would have been better than tennis shoes, and I shouldn't have worn a skirt.  Neither one of us wanted to be the one to say we needed to turn back at this point, though.  Also, I quietly hoped (incorrectly) that Robert's quick errand that morning before we left was to put a nice picnic lunch in his backpack.  It turned out that he only brought a few water bottles, and I left my granola bars in the car since we were expecting to return to it quickly after looking at some trees.

Anyway, we made it to the top of the mountain after a lot of encouragement from the climbers coming down who said that the view was amazing.  It was pretty.  We took it in for a few minutes before starting the three mile trek back down the mountain and towards some much needed lunch.

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Lena's Final Performance as a Pre-kindergartner

The preschool had its end of the year picnic and performance a few weeks ago.  Holden had no desire to join his class to sing a song, but Lena was happy to.  She is officially ready to attend kindergarten in the fall!

Happy Father's Day 2014!

We spent Father's Day at the Herkimer Diamond Mine.  Everyone got a hammer to smash some rocks with to look for quartz diamonds.  The kids were very excited to find some treasure.