Our Week on the Lake

Let me apologize in advance. I took A LOT of pictures.

Our first day at Stuart and Emilie's camp, Cole goes straight for the floating lounge chair. Very relaxing.

Heather and Wes fishing in the canoe. Heather caught a nice perch.

Wayne is on the Lake Region All Star Baseball team. We left camp our first evening for the first game of the district tournament. During the opening ceremonies (below), Wayne is awarded the Frank J Smith Sportsmanship Award again this year, for his good job during the regular (not All Star) baseball season.  He received a certificate and an Olympia Sport gift card.

 This first game was against North Country. Lake Region won. 

As the sun went down, the lights came on. Wayne loves playing under the lights.

Wayne's idea of a relaxing vacation is to get up at the crack of dawn every day to go fishing. I like to go out with him - it's very quiet and peaceful, and the lake is like glass early in the morning. I also know that these times of spending time with him will get fewer and fewer as he gets into the teenage years.

Wayne caught quite a few fish - I think this is a rock bass.

 Heather's friend Anya came over.

They went fishing in the canoe,

at the same time that Wayne was fishing by the outlet.

They caught something. They threw this one back, even though it was a size they could keep. They wanted it to be free.

Wayne caught some too.

Another baseball game our second evening, against Northfield. Lake Region won.

Wayne got a good hit here. See the ball coming in?

And there's the ball going out. You gotta love the rapid fire feature on digital cameras.

 Third base.

The next day, a total wash out. Rain all day. What can you do? Go swimming anyway.

 Go fishing anyway.

 Joanie and Laura came over in the rainy evening. Cole taught Joanie how to make Origami Yoda.

 Wes started a fire and we roasted marshmallows.

 Wayne cooked one of his fish over the fire.

 Never let a little rain get in the way of roasting marshmallows.

 Or fish.

 Then, nothing but sun for the rest of the week.

 A bike ride for Heather.

 Wayne's friend Ben came over.

 Another late game under the lights, winning against North Country again for the district championship. Now on to the state tournament next week.

I should mention that Joanie was their biggest fan, coming to all their tournament games, no matter how late the night went. Martha also came to a couple of games. I know Wayne was tickled to have their support.

 Enjoying sun and water for the downhill side of the week.

 Dante and Fintan came over. Below is Wayne on the left and Dante on the right.

Cole and Fintan did a lot of fishing, without ever catching a thing.

Wayne and Dante canoeing.

Fintan tries out the kayak.

 On a quieter day, the friendly neighborhood duck comes over for lunch.

 Wayne and I go for a bike ride.

 We went to the swamp near the Inn.

 Stopping at the Slab City monument on the way back.

 Cooling off and relaxing on the water.

Wayne's friend, Asom, came over and caught a fish. They also swam, played ping pong and wiffle ball.

 Cole has his friend, Grant, over for the afternoon.

 A couple of loons paid us a visit on our last full day.

 It was a beautiful week and the kids made good use of the water, canoe, and kayak. Wayne also made very good use of the ping pong table, and I kept meaning to get a picture of that, but somehow, that managed to escape my camera. Not much does.

Much thanks to Stuart and Emilie. We had a fantastic time. Wayne, Cole, and Heather will have many happy memories.

Downloadable mp3 of Resonance

Wayne's mp3 audio recording of Resonance and his photo are now on the Music Comp website.

Click here to see and hear.

And click HERE if you are interested in hearing pieces from other student composers. Click "read more" to see their descriptions and see a photo. Some are from North Country.

Death Rings Over the Valley

Cole has been composing music too. This one has not been mentored. It's all on his own. It's dark and driving and suspenseful - just like the movies he likes to watch and the books he likes to read. I told him it sounds like it should be played during the opening credits of The Maze Runner.
Click on the arrow in the upper left, or click on the little square and it takes you to his page on the Noteflight site

Done.

 Another school year is done. It's a mixed feeling of relief and a little bit of sadness - a reminder that the kids are growing and time is going fast. That saying, "The days are long but the years are short," is so true. Hard to believe that my baby girl will be going into 2nd grade.

At the same time, I am so proud and grateful to have such smart, strong, and healthy kids who enjoy school and do so well. I see many kids and families struggling with the challenges of school. I really appreciate what we have here with these 3 gems.

Wayne, Cole, and Heather all did extremely well this year. Wayne made high honors again with all A's. Heather doesn't get letter grades yet, her teacher claims she's above and beyond in math and reading. Cole got all A's except for a B+ in art, of all things. Cole says that whenever his class has art, at least 12 kids get sent to the office. There's only 7 kids in his class. I loved the comments his classroom teacher wrote  on his report card:

In case you have trouble reading, "I am so going to miss Cole. He has grown so much this year, and has been a positive influence on his peers. My favorite thing about Cole is that he is not afraid to be who he is. Never lose your love for physics, Cole. I expect you to do great things for our world. Have a great summer!"

Starting the Garden

We've spent the past week putting the garden in, little by little, here and there.

Wayne has been wanting to grow watermelon. We've tried it a couple of times, but our summers are too cool and too short to grow such exotic fruit. We've never had any luck at all. This year he decided to create a little hot house to try to help them a long.

 Here he's starting the  watermelon in pots. The hot house has since blown down - it needs a few more supports. The watermelon isn't ready to go out yet, anyway.

 Meanwhile, Heather spent the afternoon carrying around a toad in an old fish tank.

 Yesterday she started her own little garden. Wes cut some cedar logs that we used as a frame for a little raised bed.  She planted a few corn, some beans, lettuce, acorn squash, and cayenne pepper.

Granby Zoo

Yesterday Heather had her end of the year field trip. Three classes traveled in a bus, over the border, into Canada, to Granby Zoo.

Heather in the middle with her two best friends, Kelby on the left and Anya on the right.

Almost every child had a parent along, so we didn't need to stay with the whole school group. It must have been "school group day" because when our bus pulled into the parking lot, we saw at least 20 other buses parked side by side. It was great that we had so many parent chaperons. I could see these other groups struggling to keep their kids together, wearing colored pinnies, making kids hold hands and walk in a line. Very difficult for them, I imagine.

Plenty of photo ops throughout the zoo. 

Granby Zoo is immense. In the 6 hours that we were there, I would say we explored roughly 1/3rd of the place. I bet you would need to spend a weekend there to see the whole thing without being rushed. 

We spent a lot of time in the area of the zoo dedicated to Africa.

Heather, Anya, and Kelby on an African tour bus.

 The lions were not very exciting.

Meerkats  are very funny.

We loved the color of these flamingos.

This fella was a big hit, although I felt kind of sorry for him. He seems so human-like and seemed to know that he was on display. He seemed to move from one spot to another in search of some privacy, but of course his habitat is set up so that we can see him wherever he goes.

Or perhaps "he" is a "her." I don't now.

Heather with classmates Harper, Trent, and Kelby.

A tortoise.

The giraffes were beautiful and graceful.

After spending a couple of hours in Africa, we met up with our group for lunch, exchanged stories, made plans, and started out again.

Heather and Kelby took a ride on a camel.

We went into the aquarium and were hypnotized by these jelly fish.

There was a tank with sharks and rays. This is a guitar ray.

This was fun. This pool is filled with rays constantly swimming around, like doing laps around and around. You can reach your hand right in and touch them. They seem so enjoy it. If you see one coming your way, you can dangle your hand in and they'll swim right over under your hand. They feel smooth and rubbery.

Heather learned to surf while we were there.

Heather desperately wanted to reserve some time to visit the water park. The water park itself is the size of 6 football fields. Heather spent all of her time in the wave pool.

It was a fun and exhausting day. It was also a little frustrating to feel like there was still so much that we didn't see, but Heather had a great time and I heard kids on the bus, on the way home saying things like, "That was a fun field trip," and "I really loved the zoo."

Thanks to those of you who bought something from the Rada Fundraiser. It helped make this possible.