Wow! What a summer! We had a lot of fun and wanted to share some of it with you!
Shawn celebrated Mother’s Day by leaving the boys with John and taking of for a hike in the white mountains with the usual suspects - kind of a late celebration of Toni’s birthday. It was a gorgeous day! And, after a few wrong turns, they eventually made it out of the woods and celebrated! There’s are many more pictures on Nancy and Kjartan’s site!
On May 18, Shawn made her second annual appearance on the Sudbury Spring Sprint Triathlon! Though she didn’t quite achieve the goal she had set for herself, she improved her time from the year before and had a lot of fun to boot!
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Memorial day weekend was a bit of a washout around our place. We did get into Fenway park before the washout and had fun watching the Red Sox. We had fun playing baseball too and we got to go see “Holes” at the movies - great flick, highly recommended!! We also got to spend some time at the car dealer - and brought home a new toy!
June was a rainy month filled with baseball. Jacob’s team moved from hitting the ball from the T to hitting pitches thrown by the coach. Jacob hit and fielded well and had tons of energy on the field! Joshua’s team made it to the Farm League Championship game! Played under the lights with an announcer introducing each and every batter, the Pirates were trounced by their opponents but had a hoot of a time!
John attended his 25th high school reunion in June. He a great time catching up with old friends!
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John Continued running through the summer. He set a new Personal Record for the 5k at 20:03 - four seconds off the goal of 19:59 he’d set for the “invitational” race that his running club put on at the end of the training session. THAT close!
The Cubs went camping at the end of June. Joshua and Jacob both participated - Jacob cant wait to be a Tiger Cub this fall! We had awesome weather and a great crowd!! S’mores, fishing, scout craft events, bugs, songs, skits… All the good stuff!
We “officially” kicked off the summer at the start of July with some summer haircuts!
The fourth of July was a family running event! We all attended the North Andover 4th of July races where the boys ran the kids’ 2k race, Shawn ran the 5k, and John the 10k. Both kids finished in under ten minutes (that’s eight minute miles!), Shawn enjoyed a comfortable three miles, and John started slow but picked it up for a respectable 10k finish.
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We spent the fifth at the home of our friends the Beckers enjoying their fine cooking, beautiful home, and fine hospitality.
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The following day, we loaded up the family van and headed down East for a week. We rented a cottage on Brandy Pond in Maine where we enjoyed lake swims daily. We played in our canoe, the boys each caught their first fish ever, we did tourist things, ate a lot of ice cream, hiked, boated, biked, played… had a wonderful vacation! We even attended the Harrison Old Home Days festival where John ran the 5k race, finished fourth overall, first old guy, and won a whoopie pie for his efforts! Top that for vacation fun!
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Joshua attended cub daycamp for a week in July and had a blast!
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We got back into the groove at home later in July. John ran the local “Showcase 5” road race in North reading where he and friends from the local Ipswich River Road Runners club brought home a heap of medals. Our pals Toni and Joe hosted a great backyard picnic up their way and we had a blast there! And we took in a Lowell Spinners game with a couple of the boys’ pals!
Shawn ran her second Danskin Women’s Triathlon, finishing the 2k swim in, and 20k bike and 5k run around, Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in a great time of 1:44!!
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John closed the month with a run at the Yankee Homecoming 10 mile race. He ran a gentle first half and pushed the second, resulting in a fun time and a reasonable finish just under an hour and a quarter.
On August 10, we returned to the Saco River for the 22nd annual floating happy hour! The traditional beer-laden float was once again a wild and wacky time!
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Mid-August, we undertook our big hike for the summer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After stashing our car near the base of the Mount Washington Cog Railway, John took a bike ride to rejoin the family at the Crawford Notch visitor’s center. From there, it was into the woods and up the mountain to the AMC’s Mizpah Springs Hut. We had a fun night here that included a tour of the spring and some adventures in toadstool hunting! Early, the next morning, warned of deteriorating weather conditions, we were off early on our hike up the ridge. We bagged our first 4000-footer of the trip as we crested Mt.
Pierce. We could see into the valleys at this point but the high peaks were already obscured by clouds. We pressed on East along the ridge, caught a glimpse or two of the Mount Washington Hotel through the clouds, and soon scrambled up Mt. Eisenhower in some pretty ferocious winds and some pretty low visibility. We snapped a quick picture and scampered on. The clouds were thickening as we made the choice to go over the summit of 5,384′ Mt. Munroe and by the time we’d picked our way up the rocks the winds were daunting, the rain was coming, and we were having less fun! After a quick hunkering down in the peak’s rocks, we scrambled down the North side trying to beat the rain to the Lakes of the Clouds hut. We were still about five minutes out when the rains became torrential and gave us a good soaking for our arrival! We watched the later thunderstorms and hail from the protective hut before playing games, enjoying warm drinks and good food, and settling down for a night in the clouds. We woke to clearer skies and valley fog for our decent down the steep Ammonoosuc Ravine and our return to civilization! A challenging walk but a great time!
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We celebrated Shawn’s birthday with the traditional birthday salad!
We were off again the following weekend to the wedding of Shawn’s cousin, David, in Syracuse, NY. We made the drive out on Saturday morning for the wedding and reception Saturday night. Always a hoot to get together with Shawn’s family - we got to see aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews and had a grand time!
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Labor day weekend was a busy one! On Friday evening, we were treated to a lobster dinner at the home of friends Brian and Cheryl. We even topped it off with a game of Taboo! Saturday was errands and business and preparation for Shawn’s big Sunday race - the Monster Triathlon! Shocked a bit by the cold water, Shawn was disappointed by her performance in the swim but beat her overall goal and had a fun time!
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Sunday was John’s day to participate in the Around Cape Ann 25k - he ran it as a training run with some chums and had a fun time on the scenic course. Oh yah, and we squeezed in driveway sealing, grocery shopping, school shopping….
The first day of school was a hoot! Jacob (1st Grade) and Josh (3rd Grade) ride the same bus this year and are both having a blast in school!
On September 6, we had the formal celebration of Jacob’s birthday at Strike One. A grand game of wiffleball and cake and snacks made for a fun afternoon!
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And as summer wound down, we were settling into the routine of school, soccer, cool dry weekends, and family fun! Hope you’re having a blast too! Drop us a line if you’re in town - we’ll leave the light on for ya!
