out with the old

So we had a good year and a great Christmas.  There was some sickness in the house on Christmas day but everyone had a good time. 

Our year was full of changes.  A finished degree here, a new job there, kids starting new grades and learning new things. So with a great year under wraps, we are looking forward to an awesome 2015!

we ski (in connecticut)

And by "we" I mean everyone in the family except me.   I am not really a skier and I don't feel bad about it; but, I lounge in a ski hut like a champ. 

Last weekend, we wandered over to New Hartford, Connecticut to Ski Sundown.  Papa and the boys hadn't yet skied the snows of our own state, so we thought it might be worth the try. 

It was good fun.  Everyone skied at least one blue trail, and I drank a lot of coffee.

We were meant to try another Connecticut mountain (Mohawk) this weekend; but, everyone was sick, so we just celebrated Papa's birthday in our usual low-key way. 

Which is not a bad thing at all.

2014, it's going to be magnificent!

Happy New Year!  Since it's still, technically, the first week of the New Year, I don't feel like this is late getting out.  Having thought about all the fun we had in 2013, we figured that we would try to make 2014 even better.  The Pups and I originally thought it would be an awesome new year; but, upon further reflection (and honestly, the need to come up with another adjective), we decided that we would make it MAGNIFICENT!  We are going to do a bunch of MAGNIFICENT things this year, we are going to record it (photograph it), and we are actually going to blog about it, so we can actually remember it next year.  Funny how that works, huh?

I used the excuse of having clients to photograph to take a few fun shots of the pups for new year's. These hams will never be shy in front of a camera, no sir.

Happy New Year!  And stay tuned for magnificence!

christmas, this year (2013)

Did y"all have an enjoyable Christmas? Ours was enjoyable.  We saw a pretty hilarious Christmas pageant at church (it was no Best Christmas Pageant Ever, but still...).  There were serious philosophical discussions about Santa's ability to consume so many cookies (still unresolved, ahem).

The pups got too many gifts and ate a lot of candy.

Business as usual around here, I suppose.

Santa brought gifts that were musically themed this here (appropriately sized keyboard for Seal Pup 2.0 and an appropriate sized guitar for Seal Pup, the Elder--I forsee some family jam sessions in our future).  The gifts seemed to be a hit (and arrived on time!).

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

Obviously, given that Christmas is tomorrow...  And, given that Christmas is tomorrow, how about I tell you about our Christmas preparations?

Sure, why not?! You wouldn't be reading this if you weren't interest, right?

We celebrated Seal Pup 2.0's birthday.  Because, he just happened to be born in December; and, it's us!

We celebrate birthdays like it's our job!

Grammy came to visit.  It was awesome.

We picked a tree and cut it down.

There were some shenanigans with a snow man.

We did our annual Christmas card photo shoot, here is an outtake, because I think it's cute, even if it didn't make the cut.

We are going to the Christmas Eve service at church this afternoon, there may even be bow ties....

oh, did i mention the florida thing?

A bit late to the party here; but, it's never to late for fun, right?  So anyways, we spent Thanksgiving week in Florida.  We drove down in 22 or so hours, spent 5 days there and then drove back in 24 hours.

The trip is, quite possibly, the most insane thing we have ever done.  Or, actually, it's pretty much business as usual around here.

We tried to leave the Nutmeg State on Friday night; but, we ended up turning around an hour out, somewhere outside of New Haven because we got a nail in our tire--it was the opposite of awesome.  We drove back home, slept in our own beds, got the tire fixed the next morning and then headed out again.

We got to Orlando, checked out the hotel, the Liki Tiki (no, I am totally not kidding) and then crashed.

The next day, Monday, and the three days thereafter were spent at one Disney park or another.

We rode the people mover ride 5 or 6 times.  Because, well, it moves people, I guess?

The kids had fun, but honestly, the parents were thinking harikari by the middle of the second day.

Also, the whole family rode the Tower of Terror.  It has that name for a reason, I think.  The Pups LOVED it though.  Not wanting to be a killjoy, I just said that "it [was] nice [they] enjoyed it so much."

And since we had already committed ourselves, we opted to go to Legoland Florida on Friday, you know, before driving back home...on Black Friday.  Yep, that's how we roll.  Literally.

I know there was doubt, but yes, I do believe that Parents of the Year trophy can be sent our way for 2013...yes, indeed...

We are getting a book made of our Florida adventures, because apparently that's what you do now.  If you come visit us, you can take a look at it and live vicariously through our adventures...

coming home, 2013

 It's that time of year again, homecoming or reunion weekend at our alma mater.

We started the day with a Papa and Pup 1.0 running in the annual fun run.  Apparently, I didn't run it fast enough last year (odd considering the finish time this year was pretty much the same as last year...picture above is all the runners participating in the fun run...picture below is final dash towards finish line).

Papa celebrated a big anniversary, and got to see some classmates that he hasn't seen in quite some time.

It was a good day of catching up with old friends, and watching the Bears smash Maine Maritime Academy.

Go Bears!

memorial day 2012

Normally, we don't do terribly much for Memorial Day.  This year we went to our local/town parade, mostly because SP 1.0 was marching in it.  His little league baseball team was one of many that marched their little hearts out.

There were other people marching, too.

More pictures in flickr.

just another birthday...

I celebrated another birthday today.  We did it with style and panache (and presents!!), and a fair amount of nerdification, because that, my friends, it how we roll.

After gifts and singing, we went to a library book sale in New London, Connecticut.  I am not going to lie, finding a pickling book for $1 pretty much made it worth the trip there for me, it was like the New London Public Library gave me a birthday gift (with a minimal service charge).

And then we went to the circus.  This wasn't necessarily my original plan, it just happened to be when we were all available to go.  And Papa figured if he had to suffer through it, I should have the privilege as well.  The Pups loved it though, so there's that.

And then Papa and the pups gave me the gift of time.  I dyed a bunch of wool and took a bunch of pictures, effectively knocking out requirements for two classes.  While I was being productive and academic they made me a birthday cake.

It was a great day.

there's no party like a 6 year old's party

So Seal Pup the elder turned 6 last week.  It was a big deal.

As is our way, we celebrated for a week with daily gifts.

There were special dinners with fantastic desserts.

This year he requested a "vanilla cake frosted half-vanilla and half chocolate"--because I am, apparently, made of time--NTS: cake from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Cakes book--vanilla butter cream frosting and milk chocolate ganache with additional heavy cream for extra whip to match butter cream volume).

There were special mom and son birthday breakfasts at The Shack.

And there was a party was a party...with games.