Tilton Resurrected!

This past weekend was the Vt-NEA Convention, so the schools were closed both Thursday and Friday. I don't know anyone who actually goes to these conventions, and I'm certain their days are limited. But for now, I (along with thousands of other VT teachers) took this 4-day weekend to relax and rejuvenate.

Thursday, Ed went to Wheelock for the day. He wanted to shoot old musket, and also just have a day to himself. He knew that the rest of the weekend he was going to be on solo daddy duty!
Friday, I pointed the old Subaru south and headed off to my sister-in-law Lisa's house in New Boston, NH. 3 + hours of nothing but quiet thoughts, foliage and NPR. Pure bliss. Kind of like a day at the spa, maybe even better.

I got to Lisa and Dan's around 5:00PM. Joanie was just arriving and Mary & Martha had been there for about an hour.
That night, we ate Joanie's delicious spaghetti & meatballs and visited, visited visited. We caught up with Grammie and what was going on with everyone's kids-- Caitrin's having a baby, Lauren got a concussion at the North Country-Harwood game, Cole wrote a story about Halloween, Sara passed the bar exam. On and on and on! Joanie regaled us with funny stories about her new job answering telephones for a catalog company. We finally collapsed in bed after 11:00PM.

The next morning, we had breakfast and made lunch while reading an e-mail from Julie about the strikes in France and their effects on her travels for the weekend. Laura arrived around 9AM and we were off!

It's been 2 or 3 years since we've done the Tilton trip, and we decided to switch up the game plan a little by hitting LL Bean first instead of last (when we're all broke, tired and shopped-out). Was I glad we did! I ended up with 3 pairs of LL Bean cords for a total of $27! What a great start :-)

We ate our sandwiches in the car on the trip from LL Bean to Tilton. It was a fun day of shopping and everyone got some nice stuff.

Grammie treated us all to dinner at the Tilt'n Diner, which was delicious as always. We then headed back to Lisa and Dan's for the night, which included, but was not limited to, a show-and-tell, the malfunctioning Frosty the Snowman (later to be fixed by Bear the dog), some exciting teacup note cards, a broken furnace, the bucket brigade bailing water out of the basement, Lisa's midnight run to the Historical Society in her housecoat and smoke alarms at 4:00AM.

A HUGE breakfast of pancakes, bacon and sausage, and I was back heading north for a rainy drive that went by quickly thanks to Garrison Keillor and All the Traditions.

Ed and Elijah survived the weekend, and even had some fun!

70 degrees today Weird, warm weather. I had to go to PetSmart to get an aquatic plant for Biology lab and, on a whim, bought Elijah a Betta Fish. He's a beautiful little red and blue crown tail. Elijah promptly named him Zoe the Fish. I tried to talk him into a more original name, but he resisted. So now we have Zoe the Dog and Zoe the Fish. Sigh...

First Snow!

It's been cold and very rainy today...they say a Nor'Easter, even. About an hour ago, it turned to wet snowchunks falling from the sky. We're looking forward to another low-key weekend, and cheering Tyler on as he runs his first marathon on Sunday!
I've been making my "mental list" of things to buy during our shopping trip in Tilton next weekend...Can't wait!

Go Diego Go!

Who says Old Dads don't have energy? Of course, this nightly routine involving Elijah's favorite cartoon (Go Diego Go!) just about does Ed in for the night, but still...

(sorry for the blurry video. I have no idea why it loaded this way, but it took so long that I couldn't bear the thought of trying it again)

In other news, last weekend was the Leaf Peeper's race in Waterbury. Saturday night we hosted the pre-race spaghetti dinner. Sunday was a spectacular day. Sunny and cool- perfect for running!

Ed ran the 5K and I ran the Half Marathon with my two running buddies Mary (left) and Liz (center).

A couple of our friends' husbands were running their very first half marathon. Jim (white) is was running under the alias of Aimee Alexander (she sold her bib to him; this race doesn't have any type of formal bib transfer process) and the other guy is Matt, running as himself. To the far left is Meghan, a woman we know from the gym who has lost over 100 pounds!

The weather was perfect! We didn't break any records, and I certainly won't go as far as saying it was "fun," but you bet I'll be right back at it next October :-)

School has been NUTS this year. I have been so busy that finding time to update this blog has been challenging. It's been a great school year so far, but with a new course (Honors Biology) and very large regular Biology classes, I've been barely able to keep ahead of the planning and grading. Luckily, my student teacher Gabe is working out extremely well. I'm really, REALLY looking forward to getting a little break once he starts his soloing next month. Not sure what I'll do with myself!