A Drive Down the Kanc

A big ol' rewind back to mid October when my parents were here visiting.

A part of what my parents love about coming to Boston in the fall (other than the obvious reason of getting to see my family) is seeing the awesome foliage we have here. In Texas, where the seasons aren't so distinct, you just don't have the mass color change we experience in New England. One of the best leaf peeping drives is only a couple of exits north on the highway from our condo in NH. So, we took a quick trip up to the granite state to drive on the popular Kancamangus Highway.

Unfortunately, the peak time to see foliage differs every year and it's tricky to time it right. Even though Boston is only seperated from the white mountains by about 100 miles, the times the two different regions see the peak of fall colors is several weeks apart. We were driving the Kanc on the 3rd week of October and during the first half of the drive (up to the highest point on the highway), most of the trees were already bare and ready for winter. Kind of a bummer. Fortunately, the consolation prize on the route was fantastic scenic views of the white mountains.

During the 2nd half of that stretch of highway, we started to see some more leaves still attached to the trees so my parents did get to do some leaf peeping after all. We also stopped to see some great natural sights just off the road. Dylan fell asleep during our ride so Mike stayed in the car with him while my parents and I got out to stretch our legs.

Our first stop was Sabbaday Falls. The easy path is just a half mile loop to a gorgeous flume and water fall.

Base of the Falls

Sabbaday Falls

Self Portrait - Dad, Mom and Me at Sabbaday Falls

Fall Foliage!

My Parents on the Wooded Path

After our stop at the falls, the three of us hopped back in the car for just a few minutes for the drive down to the Rocky Gorge on the Swift River.

Rocky Gorge

My Dad and Me at Rocky Gorge

Then it was back in the car again to go up to the road to yet another stop, Lower Falls. Just as we stopped the car and started to get out, little Sleeping Cuteness woke up. So, we were all able to enjoy the falls. Mike, Dylan and I hopped the rocks out into the river a little ways. Mike gave me a heart attack when he slipped on a rock with Dylan and stumbled a bit. Luckily, they got nothing more than a little water on their shoes, but it still freaked me out a bit. We were VERY careful getting back to the shore.

This was by far the busiest area we visited. There were lots of folks there enjoying the trees and the river. Dylan had a fun time walking on the bank (a good, safe distance away from the water) with a stick he found. Ah, to be so easily amused!

At Lower Falls

We Scaled the Big Rock at Lower Falls!

Another 10 minutes down the road is North Conway at the end of the Kancamangus. That town is known for its outlet malls and we spent a little time shopping around them. After a quick lunch, we headed back to our home in Boston. It was a quick trip to NH but a nice one.

Back at the house, we couldn't let Mimaw and Pipaw leave without Dylan modeling his Halloween costume for them.

The Happy Giraffe

The next day, my parents left for Dallas. A week always seems like so much time for a visit and it always goes by so quickly. Dylan had a great time with his Mimaw and Pipaw and can't wait to see them again and celebrate Christmas together.

October Blur

Here it is, 9 days into November and I'm still scratching my head and wondering where October went. I sat down and started listing the things that happened during October (some that I'll quickly document now and some for posts yet to come) and I'm dumb founded how we got so much done in a matter of 4 weeks (and a couple of days).

From start to finish, here's how our month went:

Refinanced the House (well, technically I think that was the last week of September)

Bermuda Trip (seen here, here and here)

EVLT (procedure on my unsightly and uncomfortable vericose vein) - This happened the day after we returned from our trip. Part II, the AP, was done last Wednesay.

Our Anniversary - We celebrated with a date night out to a movie and dinner.

Topsfield Fair

My Parents' Visit (Zoos, NH, etc)

Birthday Party for Mike's nephews

My Birthday

A cold that none of us escaped (we all took our turns being under the weather)

Meeting with our architect (put deposit on our next house project...more on that in time)

Tom and Betsy's Anniversary Party

Birthday Party for Dylan's friends Luke and Ryan

Halloween

Well, I guess that's it. Was the hectic month enough an excuse to constantly be behind on the blog? My goal for November - catch up October events and not be busy enough to add to the pile of postings that need to go up.

16 Months

Over the weekend, Dylan officially turned 16 months old. Each time I go to do a monthly update, I re-read the previous month's b'day post so I can report on developmental progress on things I had mentioned. I'm always amazed at how much changes in one month with my little guy!

His vocabulary continues to expand and he enjoys using his words. My favorite word he's starting using in the last month is "Mama!" It's so great to finally hear him say it and actually be referring to me. If we point at a picture of our family and say "who's that?" Dylan correctly identifies Mama and Dada. Other new words he has that make a mama proud are "help" (which sounds a lot like up) and "please."

In addition to all the new words he's learning, he has really taken off with animal noises. If you ask him what an animals says\does, he will let you know....and he's learning a new one almost every day! So far (and I'm sure I've missed some), he can do:
Lion, Cat, Dog, Sheep, Monkey, Snake, Bear, Chipmunk, Kangaroo\Rabbit\Frog, Bee, Seal, Elephant, Bird, Donkey, Cow.

Dylan also enjoys pointing to body parts and we're working on expanding his knowledge of that. He's known nose and eye for a while (says them too) but can also point out ears, mouth, teeth, hair, feet, toes, and belly button. Between animal noises and pointing out facial features, we can keep him entertained for the minutes we need to finish our meals after he's done eating.

Walking is still a favorite past time of his but it's gotten so speedy he looks like he's always running. Dylan has also been trying really hard to hop. He'll bend his knees, crouch down and then stand up really fast! He hasn't quite figured out how to get his feet to leave the ground but he still thinks his hopping is pretty humorous.....we get a kick out of watching it too.

After we lost so much sleep during and after Bermuda because of cutting teeth, we haven't had issues with it recently but he did get a third molar in and the 4th will be happening any day now.

Fans and balloons have been obsessions for a while but over the last couple of weeks he's added another - airplanes. That boy's sharp hearing can detect any time one's in the sky and then he tries to spot it. He never misses one (unless the clouds deter him)!

Mike and Dylan have spent a lot of time raking over the last month and Dylan absolutely loves it. We have a small garden rake that he has claimed (gets very upset when we try and use it) and is very excited every time we go outside and he sees it in the yard. Of course, we had to get the traditional kid in the pile of leaves pictures so here they are!

The Toss In

Anyone Seen Dylan??

He wasn't really sure about it all but was a good sport none the less. Happy 16 months kiddo!

Happy Anersary

October 24th was a big day - it was my in-laws' 40th wedding anniversary! Mucho kudos to them! So, like any good children, we got my father-in-law in on the plan, louring them over to our house with the guise of Mike and I taking them to dinner to celebrate and scaring the crap out of my mother-in-law with the rest of the family waiting to yell "SURPRISE" to them. Mike, his siblings and myself are apparently great schemers (something to add to the resume) because my lovely mother-in-law, Betsy, was truly surprised.

It was a great night celebrating the monumental event with the family. There was a ridiculous amount of food (you'd think we thought our family was about 4 times the size it was with the buffet we laid out), drinks galore, old pictures to look over, good company and general merriment. Also, even though it was dark, it was the first time at our place that we let the kids go out back (ALL the kids, including Dylan who was in the care of his cousin, Emily) and play while the adults all stayed inside and chatted. Fun was had by all!

Oh, and I suppose the blog title deserves some explanation. No it's not a typo it's intentional. Hours into the event, my observant brother-in-law, Jim, noticed that the banner Mike and I hastefully hung in event preparation was missing a few letters. It read....

HAPPY ANERSARY! (Sorry, hard to see in the pic with the glare.)

That banner is now safely stored and will be used at every family event in the future. Good laughs like that don't happen every day! Other fun things that happened that night:

Fun Game of Soccer (Patrick, Corwin, Jacob and Mike)

Smokey Came Out for Some Snuggles (seen here with Emily)

AND Cake went up Dylan's Nose!

In spite of Betsy still recovering from a nasty cold, I think she and Tom had a great time and we had a great time surprising them and having a fun bash.

The Whole Gang (except for Mike who took the picture)

Adults -Betsy, Maureen, Joe, Me, Tom, Jim, Kristina

Kids - Emily, Dylan, Patrick, Jacob and Corwin

Lions, Tigers and Grandparents, OH MY!

Rewind: Columbus Day Holiday Week

The Columbus Day holiday was beautiful weather so we called up Mike's parents and invited them to the zoo. We had a great day walking around the Stone Zoo and then went for dinner afterwards. I love it when a plan comes together!

Nana and Dylan Checking Out the Monkeys

Bumpa and Dylan

Dylan had a great time walking with and stamping his feet with Nana

Me, Nana, Bumpa, Dylan (and his new snow leopard from Nana)

The day after that, my parents arrived for a week long visit. While I was at work, Mike took them to the Franklin Park Zoo. (We don't mess around with getting our full value out of our yearly zoo pass!)

Pipaw and Dylan

I was able to take a couple of days off while my parents were here. In August, Mike took Dylan to the Southwick Zoo (about an hours drive away) on a week day. This one's not on our zoo pass but Mike and Dylan had such a good time, that they wanted to take Mimaw, Pipaw and me back with them.

The zoo was really interactive and fun! Not only did they have a petting zoo where we got to feed goats, pet calves, and get up close and personal with turkeys, they also had a deer enclosure where the deer came right up to you for feed. Also, the animals themselves were really into connecting with the zoo visitors...especially the monkeys! One type of monkey made faces at Mike. Mike made faces back to the monkey who then made the same, more exaggerated face, back to Mike. And then, when changing Dylan's diaper on a bench by a different monkey enclosure, one curious primate came over to check out the process.

The two tigers were very antsy and were pacing back and forth right at the fence and would look at us and "speak" to us. The black swans were very talkative and sounded like they were saying "Dy-Lan, Dy-Lan!" We also got to see the youngest of the porcupine climb all over the chain link fence, giving us a great view of the bottom of his paws and his soft looking belly. He was close enough for us to touch but his quills did their job and scared us from doing so.

That day Mike apparently possessed super powers as an animal whisperer. He treated all the animals as if they were in a petting zoo and got to pet many of them. It was really wild! He reached over the fence and pet the capybara whose nose was lifted up towards him. The giraffe used his long neck to lean over the fence and give a nuzzle to Mike's outstretched hand, the camels nuzzled him through the fence, and fed an ostrich by hand.

Pony Ride (I missed his very first pony ride when he took it on his first visit to this zoo)

Riding the Rides - His deer in the headlights look makes it look like he wasn't having a good time but his insistence on going right on the next ride proved otherwise - he loved it!

In hog heaven with TWO steering wheels!!

Mom Feeding the Goats

Dylan Feeding the Goats

(He clenched the food tightly in his hands and taunted the goats for a while...

I finally had to stop him and pry open his hands so the goats could get at the feed)

Feeding the Parakeets

Postcard Picture Perfect Lions

Mimaw, Dylan, Pipaw and Me

Giraffe On The Loose!!

What a perfect Halloween day! Mike and I are enjoying some tv time and are listening to Dylan snore away on the monitor after a long and great day of fun.

This morning started out like most Sunday mornings do.....with some Mommy-Dylan time. Mike was off coaching his soccer team and Dylan and I spent the morning playing, going for a walk, going to the park and packing up for a day of fun.

At noon, we met Mike at his parents' house to meet their adorable new kittens - Phineus and Abigail. They are super fluffy, energetic balls of cuteness. Dylan had a great time throwing toys at them and chasing them around the house. Proving that they're smart cats, they've already learned to run away from him. Sometimes, Dylan loves animals just a little too much! Then we went to watch Mike's nephew, Patrick's, hockey game. Dylan had a great time watching the action on the ice and running around the bleachers. After that, we headed home to start our Halloween evening fun.

Dylan and Phin

Abby

We got Dylan dressed up in his costume - a giraffe! We bought the costume over a month ago and thought it would be perfect. At that time we had no idea that a couple of weeks prior to Halloween, he would start making animal noises.....and, well, giraffes don't really make noise. Early in the week, we tried to find a lion costume (because Dylan does a great roar) but the costumes were pretty picked over at that point so we stayed the course with the giraffe. Of course, he was so cute that he didn't need anything else to perfect the look!

As soon as it got dark around 6, we set out for the neighbors surrounding us that we know well. We presumed that Dylan wouldn't last more than a few houses. First stop was our next door neighbor whom we are very close to. While Dylan's vocabulary isn't advanced enough for "trick or treat," he understood off the bat to grab some candy from the tray\bowl being offered. Next we headed to our neighbors on the other side and a couple directly across the street. When we saw other kids approaching our house, we ran home to give them treats. That was actually Dylan's favorite part! He really enjoyed picking candy out of our bowl and dropping into other kids' bags.

After handing out a good amount of candy and hitting all the houses on the street of folks we know, we hopped in the car to hit a couple houses of good friends that live in quick driving distance.

It was really a great day. We all had fun, Dylan got really pooped out (which means bed time was without tears) and Mike and I had a great time with family, neighbors and our awesome little boy. Good times! And without further ado, pictures of my cute giraffe.....

Okay, I've made it down the stairs. Now what?

Okay, I've got this! Let's go trick or treating!

Dylan got a little more mileage out of his costume on Friday when he wore it to his Music Together class. He had a great time running down the side walk in it and Mike tried to keep up while taking some quick videos. We found them pretty humorous to watch so we're sharing the clips. Enjoy!

Giraffe From the Back

Giraffe From the Front

Fall Fun

We went from the summer weather of Bermuda to full on fall weather in Boston. Even though we were pooped and in need of a relaxing weekend at home, we had to go out and celebrate our anniversary (dinner and a movie) on Friday and we just couldn't pass up going to the Topsfield Fair on Saturday. Mike and I had been there together a couple of times together and this year we would take Dylan.

We made plans to meet up with some friends at the fair and excitedly headed out for the day's adventure. The last times we had gone to the fair were on weeknights so we were not prepared for the mass amounts of people and chaos we experienced going to the fair on a Saturday. It was extreme nuttiness! We were ok with parking way off the fair grounds and taking a shuttle in. We were ok with waiting in lines to see some of the things. What we were not ok with was the pushing and shoving we had to do to navigate the stroller through the crowds! I kept Dylan close to me in the backpack and we just dealt with the pain of dragging that stroller around with us. That is something I will not repeat. Backpack in crowds=good, strollers in crowds=very bad!

I tried to be relaxed and enjoy the sights and sounds the fair had to offer. After a while, though, I was ready to get the heck away from all those people, hit the spots we felt like we needed to hit before leaving and then took off.

One big fun development that Dylan had at the fair - making animal noises! We walked into the livestock barn and he immediately started pointing at all the cows saying "MOOO!" It was too cute. We've been working on building his animal sounds repertoire ever since and I hope to get a video of some that he's learned and post it soon.

Sand Sculpture

Wow! That's a BIG pumpkin!

The Party Boy is Tuckered Out

After the mayhem of the fair, we did have a mellow long weekend. Mike coached a soccer game, I had a nice lunch, sans children, with two of my good girl friends, took some walks, hung out at some parks and did a little work in the yard.

What says fall more than raking leaves? Mike was working on a small pile when Dylan took the big rake away from him. It was a bit unwieldy for his little self so Mike went and grabbed our mini garden rake. Just the right size!

The Boys Hard at Work

Raking is Fun!