A Summer of Firsts, and Dead Pop Icons

The first "First" worth acknowledging is our first stretch of real summer weather. And not a moment too soon1 We have had several dreary, rainy days...But finally! A 5-day stretch of reasonably nice weather! Reason enough to celebrate with Elijah's first Fudgsicle:

Looking like an inebriated sports fan...We're Number One!Enjoying an apple in the shade:

The weather's been so nice that someone in our family has been walking around with no pants on.

Another big "First" was Ed's first-ever colonoscopy, which has been a dark cloud hanging over Ed. Because of my Dad's colon cancer diagnosis, I was not about to let Ed off the hook.I was absolutely insistent that he follow through with this appointment. Honestly, it wasn't the procedure that he was dreading- it was the day of fasting/cleansing that precedes the colonoscopy...which includes NO solid food, NO coffee, and the consumption of 1 gallon of a prescription solution that is meant to...um...cleanse the colon, if you know what I mean.

I guess they administer a sedative prior to the procedure, which made Ed somewhat "loopy"- he is kind of obnoxious in a funny way to medical personnel anyway. His nurse's last name was Perron, so he made her recount her family tree so he could find possible connections (none), and he vaguely recalls telling the doctor (during the colonoscopy!) that he shot a moose.

We thought we'd celebrate the end of that ordeal by going out to dinner at the Smuggler's Notch Mountain Grille, which is located on the resort.

It was a stunning evening:
A lot goes on at Smuggs during the summer time. It's a big family vacation spot. After dinner, we went to check out some of the childrens' activities. There was a potato sack race:That guy in the crazy outfit was the M.C., and is known as the "Fun Meister"- a.k.a. Gary Loomis, who Ed believes graduated from MMU with either Lisa or Cedric.There were also pony rides! Elijah watched with interest:
And then moved in for a closer look:
The pony rides were only $5, so we asked Eli if he wanted to try it, since he is crazy about animals. He nodded emphatically. He seemed to really enjoy his first pony ride:

After that, we ran into some big furry mascot bear. Elijah surprised us by wanting to snuggle right in with the bear. I would have thought he'd be a little afraid. But obviously not!

Finally we hit the playground:

Not really designed for 35-year-old women.

Lots of Pop Icons are kicking the bucket these days- yesterday was Ed McMahon and today was Farrah Faucet and Michael Jackson. Huh.

I wondered if my sisters remember the Farrah Faucet "head" that we used to play with in Maine. Sort of a life-sized plastic head that came with makeup, so you could practice applying her makeup and styling her hair. Do you remember?

I have fond memories of Michael Jackson when he was younger and normal, before he tried to become white. I was crazy about him. I vividly recall a Christmas where my prized gift from Santa was his "Thriller" album. We actually learned of Michael Jackson's death from the aforementioned "Fun Meister," who announced it between rounds of wheelbarrow races.

It always seems so strange when a popular famous person dies...

Happy Fathers' Day

Happy Fathers' Day! We've had a nice weekend, beginning with a lunchtime visit with Wes, Darlene, Joanie and the kids yesterday.

Elijah and Heather pretend-drove the Trackster:

We had sandwiches, fruit and Joanie's brownies for lunch:

Cole shows off the very big apoon he chose to eat his very small applesauce with:

Heading off to do some froggin' at the pond:

Elijah borrowed Heather's boot for the occasion. He seemed very proud of the red cherries.

Matt spent the night with us Saturday, and Tyler and Aimee came for breakfast this morning.

An update on the "Major Award"...We decided that the best place for the Keurig coffee machine would be Shadow Lake, so we stopped in there on our way to Wes & Darlene's yesterday. Hysterically enough, when Ed took it out of the box, he discovered it had been USED! There was an expired K-cup container still in the machine! How we laughed, relieved that we hadn't tried to sell it "new in box" on Craigslist! Some major award...

Day 5

Yesterday, Ed spent much of the morning affixing the new CoPilot bike seat to his bicycle. Here's a picture of Elijah getting ready for the "big ride":

Unfortunately, we started off so late that he fell asleep almost instantly, so we turned back and went home.

Mom's Night Out at Stella's house. Great fun with some interesting friends! From left, Jobie hails from Hong Kong, Jen is from Burlington, Jen is from Austin, and our host Stella is British, although she grew up in Hong Kong......Not pictured: Chizuko, Cathleen. A very fun group of ladies to be around.

This morning, Elijah woke up in a fabulously cute mood. Here he is in his crib:

This morning, we are off to Aaron's birthday party!

Day 4 of Vacation- Sam Mazza's Petting Zoo

This morning Elijah and I went on our first playgroup outing of the summer. Some of the moms & kiddos from our group, Chittenden County Moms & Babes Meetup, were going to Sam Mazza's Farm in Colchester to hang out at the petting zoo and playground for a while. This is Zak. I was calling him a cow all morning until I was corrected by an exasperated 9-year-old boy, who informed me that Zak is a Yak, not a cow! No wonder...I thought he was one BIG cow!

Eli and A.J. (21 months old) "driving" the tractor. A.J.'s mom, Christina, is in the background. She is expecting #2 in October.Dangerously tall slide!Daredevil. This is how moms lose the baby weight- I spent the morning climbing and running to make sure I could catch Elijah if he slipped and fell off the scary high playground equipment!That's Alicia in the background- she is one of Chizuko's 3-year-old twins . Her sister Brandi wasn't feeling well and wouldn't get out of her stroller.

Scary aggressive geese. Hard to believe they were in a PETTING zoo!

This is Shannon's son Aaron- he turns 3 soon. We'll be going to his birthday party on Thursday.

Aaron is very sweet and gentle with Elijah.

Waiting for another turn to drive the tractor.

Eli's trying to climb INTO the sheep pen.

Tomorrow we're going to try out our new CoPilot bike seat. Elijah spent some time today wearing his bike helmet- he wouldn't let us near him with it last year, so I am impressed that he wore it around the yard for a half hour or so. I wore mine too, while I mulched the came up the driveway; they would have thought I'd finally gone off the deep end.

After supper, we went to the Fletcher General Store for an ice cream cone and then to the Fletcher Elementary School playground for a bit. Busy day for Elijah (and us)!