Poppa Columbus

We were treated to a great visit with Orville Lee, Shawn’s dad, or, as the kids call him Poppa, over the Columbus Day weekend.
He flew in on Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon, the fun had already begun as Jake escorted him to IRP to watch Joshua playing with the North Reading High School JV soccer [...]

Read Full Post »

Marie’s 80th

Shawn’s mom’s 80th birthday was September 20th. We made a nice dinner for her and played it low key. Little did she know, we had a bit of a surprise planned for the following weekend.

Marie’s brother, Cleon, and his wife Ellie came out from New York to spend the weekend with us. We had plans [...]

Read Full Post »

Timberman 2009

As the Timberman Triathlon Festival approached, we all seemed to have some trouble generating enthusiasm. Shawn was worried about her knee, Josh was worried about the bike, Jake wanted to stay home and enjoy his birthday, and John was feeling under-trained and under motivate – all reasonable objections. Yet we’d signed up so off we [...]

Read Full Post »

Shawn Visits Webster

While the boys were away at camp this summer, Shawn got to spend a few days out in the Rochester area visiting with her Uncle Cleon and Aunt Ellie in Webster, NY!

Cleon is Shawn’s mom, Marie’s, brother.  Cleon and Ellie have spent Christmas with us the last several years and are a close part of [...]

Read Full Post »

Confirmed!

At the May 31 service of worship at the Union Congregational Church of North Reading, Joshua completed his Confirmation.

The whole family was there to watch as Josh and 14 other 8th grader candidates completed the rites. We’re all very proud of Joshua!

Read Full Post »

2009 Boston Marathon

April 20th was the 113th running of the Boston Marathon.  Though his qualifying times had expired, John was fortunate to obtain a time-waived invitation this year through our running club so he signed up for his 6th Boston and 10th overall marathon.
John got up early after a middle of the night fight with expiring batteries [...]

Read Full Post »

Easter Grampa

A lot of folks were recently visited by the Easter Bunny. But at our house this year, we were treated to a long weekend visit by the Easter Grampa!

His much anticipated visit began the Thursday preceding Easter when he showed up just in time to see Jake’s end-of-session indoor soccer tournament.  Jake promised Grampa a [...]

Read Full Post »

Playa Paraiso

Seeking a respite from the cold and snowy New England weather, we pulled the kids from school a day early for the February break and flew off to the Mayan Riviera for a week at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya resort.

It rained for about five minutes during our drive from the airport to the resort but [...]

Read Full Post »

Bretton Woods 2009

We once again participated in the annual neighborhood ski outing organized by our friends Rich and Joyce.

Again this year, about 50 folks from our neghborhood boarded a luxury coach at (or just before) the crack of dawn for the ride up to Bretton Woods. It was a gorgeous, though cold, day and the snow was [...]

Read Full Post »

Tubin’… On a Monday afternoon…

With apologies to the Young Rascals, “I can’t imagine anything that’s better“!

MLK Monday. 14″ of new snow. No school.

So we grab a couple of buddies and head for the Amesbury Sport Park for some tubing.

Just good fun.

Read Full Post »