River, Round 2

This weekend, we got rained out of camping with The Chickens so we convinced them to go river tubing instead.  Remember everything I wrote about "tube therapy" and relaxation...well, I now realize that true relaxation only comes with the correct equipment.  I guess I did not properly inform Kristen and Chicken because they came with some pretty silly gear.  Kristen started by pulling the girls along with her teeth (see above) and Chicken had to work hard to stay afloat (see below).  But, we all laughed and laughed which may be better therapy than relaxation anyway.

The kids had a blast and were ready for the fishing and swimming hole activities of the next day. 

To celebrate the fun night, we lit some sparklers but my camera stopped working so I only could capture the picture below.

 

Poppy's Last Stand

For Poppy's last night, we took him to the Inn at Shelburne Farms for dinner.  We had drinks out on the front lawn before the meal.  Pretty nice night.  We miss you Poppy!

Froggy

Chase is absolutely obsessed with frog-hunting.  It is incredible how fearless and curious he is.  As soon as we catch a frog, he scoops it up and keeps it for a while in his bug-catching tent.  I had no clue how hysterical frog-catching is.  As I watched my boys hopping, laughing, and enjoying nature, I thought about how lucky I am to spend time with two little men....thankfully, no ballet recitals or beauty pageants in my future....just muddy, wet, sloppy FUN!

Good-bye, Swimming Lessons

To celebrate the end of Chase's swimming lessons, we bought a dozen little cupcakes and brought some friends to the pool to watch his last lesson.  

 

Chase did a great job with Jeffrey (as long as I was not within whining-ear-shot).

And, everyone enjoyed the cupcakes.  Yay Chase!

Tractors, Stewart-Style

We are lucky to have good friends.  Two days after we visited Ed's trains, Chris invited us over to ride on his tractor.  Before our visit, I let Chase try out a tractor from 1957 (at Shelburne Farms) so he would appreciate the power of a modern John Deere.

Trains, Bianchi-Styl

When my friend, Ed, invited me over to see his amazing train collection, I knew that the boys would get a real thrill.  Ed has been collecting model trains since he was Max's age.  It was so cool to watch them run and to see what all the little men and buildings could do.  We thanked Ed with a lunch at Al's French Fries.  Nothing can beat Al's on a summer day.

Circus-palooza

We came home from the Octagon for Circus-palooza at Shelburne Museum.  The fake clown noses were the highlights.  After such a great weekend, I was super grumpy to be at a too-crowded-too-hot-kid-centric-overly-protective-parented event.  But, it seemed to be just my problem because the boys had fun!

Happy Hour

We hung out with a friend from Dave's work for cocktails.  Poppy was happy to have new people to whom he could tell all his old stories.

Chase was happy because they have a pond for Frog Hunting.

"Tube Therapy"

Dave and I decided to take the boys tubing this weekend and it surely was "tube therapy".  We had such a nice family time....and it was great for the boys  to do something that we love for once rather than us always pretending to love their pastimes (like Frog Hunting or Truck Spotting).  We blew up the tubes and launched from the "armpit".

We made a few stops, to eat lunch and to observe a frog, but basically we just floated along.  The trip took about two hours.

We finished up at Longley Bridge - home in time for nap for the boys and a little tennis for me and Dave.  Good day all around!