A Mid-Week Adventure...

Last week I picked Camden up at preschool, encouraged him and Micah to sleep in the car for a bit on the way home, swung into campus to pick up Scott and we took the kids on a little hiking adventure followed by a late lunch at Pizza Chef and ice cream at our favorite shop, Arctic Dreams.  Usually our weekdays are very routine - our morning activities (school 3x a week for Camden or just free play or local adventures on the other days) are always followed by lunch, naps, playing outside, dinner at the dining hall, bedtime routine.  Mixing it up with a surprise outing thrilled the kids and we were excited to spend some time as a family in the middle of this very busy life we lead.  It was a chilly, overcast day - as most of our days this spring have been - but it didn't dampen our spirits.  Here are some pictures from our hike...

 Look at these two cuties...

 I love my boys...

 Big girl didn't want to be carried!

 my heart...

 A favorite...

 He's getting SO big...

 I love how they're all holding on to Scott for support.  He's our rock (cheesy, yes....but so true)!

 Mikey got tired and wanted a ride!  This Ergo was the best purchase we ever made! 

 "Mama - take my picture by this tree!"

 Such a good daddy...

 Airplane boys!

I didn't take any pictures of the ice cream and pizza portion of our afternoon, but trust me...it was delicious!  :)

Happy Easter!

 Last year Easter was in late March - I was overdue, emotional and exhausted.  I have to say, this year was sunny and I wasn't 41 weeks pregnant...so I was in a much better state of mind.  We had so much fun with the kids during the week leading up to Easter - decorating eggs, going to the big Easter egg hunt in New London with friends, talking about Jesus' death and resurrection (not an easy one to understand for any of us, but so fun to dig into this stuff with our kids), attending a great service (and another Easter egg hunt) at our wonderful church followed by an afternoon of family at my in-law's.  I was definitely missing my sister's family, and my Dad of course, but it was a beautiful warm day and it was so good to be reminded of the joy of the resurrection and the promise of new life in Him!

Our annual Easter egg hunt in New London took place the weekend before Easter - and it was freezing!  The kids had a blast though!

 Meeting the Easter Bunny...

 Our good friend Audrey joined us! 

 An action shot...

 Sadie will enjoy this a lot more next year, but she had fun tagging along...

Decorating Easter eggs...

 We had an Easter egg hunt before church on Sunday morning...

 Eating their loot - Camden was SO excited there were honey-nut cheerios instead of just plain cheerios in his eggs!  Easy to please!

 Pretty colors...

 Our three little ones at Church on Easter morning...

 On Easter afternoon we finally got a good family picture!  Thanks Brian!

 Love how Camden is looking at Sadie in this one.  Such a good big brother!

 Co-Mother-in-Laws!

 The grandparents really wanted a photo with the kids...unfortunately, they were done with the picture taking by this point.  Oops!  (This is the only one with Camden actually smiling - he's either crying or had run out of the photo in the others!)  :)

 My Girl...

 Ami invented a fun game...

 How's this for an awkward family photo?!?!  Should I send it in to the website?!

 Cousins!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Blogging and Tapping Trees

I'm back!  As you know, I took a 2+ month hiatus from the blog.  There were many reasons for this little break.  One reason is that my camera hasn't been working properly, and taking photos is such a big passion of mine and a reason why I keep this blog in the first place.  Another reason was questioning whether or not I want to have a blog in the first place for all the world to see.  I mean, I love having an outlet for my writing and photography, but it is a little creepy to have my family displayed for all to see on the internet.  Yet another reason for my lack of blogging was that as the anniversary of my Dad's passing approached I just felt so overwhelmed with how to address it, what to write, how open and honest to be, thoughts of whether people are tired of reading about my sadness and his death etc... And so I remained silent and let the thoughts pile up and swirl around in my head and I know at some point this year I'll finally let it all spill out on these pages.

I also felt like I wanted to clarify why I blog in the first place.
I am not blogging with the hopes of gaining a following or becoming a "famous" blogger.  I have friends who have gone that direction and it's been really fun watching their readership grow and seeing their success, but I don't really want to have lots of strangers reading about my life.  My main reason for blogging is to keep a journal of our lives.  Scott and I will often sit on the couch at night and click back through old blog posts and it's amazing how many wonderful memories we have because of this blog.  I spent hours and hours creating a photobook of my blog with text and pictures and I only made it through the first nine months of the blog or so...definitely a continuing project for the next few years!  Despite the major amount of effort, I'm so thrilled to have this story of our lives for us to always remember. 

I've realized that for too long I was worrying about what my small readership of friends and family would think of me and my writing, but now I've just decided to approach this blog primarily as a family journal and personal outlet for me and if people want to read it that's fine with me, but if not...I'm not offended!  :)  So, despite the fact that certain things I write here might sound like bragging, that is not my intention at all.  I'm hoping to write a post soon about the fact that Camden is reading.  And I'm not writing this because I want all six people who read my blog to gush over my son; I'm writing it because I want to remember the details on when and how my oldest child learned to read and how proud we are of him.  Writing about the little things that make us laugh, the way Micah says, "be-cept" instead of "except", the new things Sadie is saying and doing, the ways I'm missing my Dad, the excitement of life...these are the things I want to remember and this is why I'm resurrecting this blog.  I'm not going to promise a certain number of posts a week or pressure myself to meet a certain standard, I'm just going to plug away when I have time so that we have a journal of memories!  Here's to yet another new beginning! 

We are currently enduring the longest and coldest winter I can remember.  Temperatures have been so cold that we've been cooped up inside since November - ugh.  Usually over spring break we help collect sap on campus, but since the sugaring season is a few weeks behind this year we had the opportunity to help tap the trees today!  It was such a fun experience for the kids and Dave was an amazing teacher - helping the kids search the trunk of each tree to find old tap holes from years past, teaching them how to identify a sugar maple, letting them help drill, giving them a chance to use the hammer on their own and hang the buckets.  It was a beautiful day that actually reached about 42 degrees and it was nice to be outside and feel the sunshine on our faces.  Many of our fellow faculty-family friends are vacationing in Florida right now, so it was a small crew of helpers but we had a blast!  One of the (few) perks of not traveling over spring break!

 These two are going to be in Kindergarten together next year! 

 Buddies...

 Look at that concentration...

 Love the pom-poms...

 It's easy to climb trees when the snow is 5 feet high!

 Camden and Dave on the move...

 My handsome husband!

 Daddy's work gloves!

 Team work!

Most of the trees didn't have any sap running when we tapped them, but the squeals of joy were pretty amazing when we saw one tree start dripping right away.  Everyone, even the adults, got a taste of that fresh sap.  I guess spring is coming after all...