Tour de Glover (Family Style)

Cole and I went on a little bike ride yesterday.  We started out by climbing Perron Hill. Here's a picture of Cole as we crossed over on the Young Road. He liked this big rock jutting out of the ground.

Our original plan was to just go a ways and then turn around and go home the way we came, but the Young Road was in rough condition, so I knew that it would take us just as long to go back as it would to make a loop around. So we turned onto Parker Road and went by the lake. 

Next we zipped down Bean Hill, onto Rt 16 ( which I was nervous about with Cole, but he did great, and there's a nice wide shoulder so we could get way over) and then up Perron Hill.  Cole did a great job. He never complained or ran out of energy. 

It was actually a pretty easy ride, but I joked with him that Daddy was going to call the police if we didn't get home pretty soon. Sure enough, when we walked into the house, Wayne said, "Daddy's gone looking for you." 

Heather felt a little left out, so this morning she and I went for a ride over to the barn beyond Joanie's house.

Along the way, we saw this monarch butterfly which prompted us to search the milkweeds for caterpillars. We didn't find any.

We stopped to see if Joanie was home, but she wasn't. We helped ourselves to her raspberries.

Finally we continued on to the barn.  

The boys and I used to walk up here all the time and they loved climbing on the tractors and the hay bales.  Being there again today brought back a lot of memories.

Even though it was a short little trip, there was a lot of sight-seeing to be done. I think it took nearly as long as Cole's ride. Wes didn't come out looking for us though.

And if you're wondering about Wayne, he hasn't gone for a bike ride with me lately, but he has gone running with me on a couple of mornings. He's getting ready for the Glover Day 5k this year!

Crystal

On Wednesday, we decided to ignore all responsibility and go to Crystal Lake. It was a good decision. It was a nice day, not overwhelmingly hot, and the park was not the least bit crowded.

 I should say, the park was not crowded by people, but there were lots of wildlife around.

 Apparently, the Canada Geese are becoming pests like seabulls can be. There are signs warning not to feed them, and the park keeper kept coming out to shoo them away. They do make a "mess" around the grounds, but it was pretty neat to see them up so close. 

A family of ducks also came swimming along. The babies would swim all around amongst children, much to the distress of the mother duck.

I was surprised that there were not many people around, but Heather found a friend from preschool, and Wayne and Cole got along great together, diving under water. The water was really comfortable so everyone stayed in the water a long time - even me. It was a nice relaxing day. Wes even ditched the trackster, the lawn mower, and the chain saw to come along.

Bluebird Update

Remember my post from a month ago about the bluebirds in the backyard? The Mom and Dad were working nonstop to keep the babies fed and happy. Well, they've grown incredibly and now they're fledglings.

 There are 3 of them. 

 This is the adult male.

 And I think this is the adult female. What a good mama she has been.

A Visit to the Pond

Julie took a walk to the pond with all the kids. She used my camera to take these pictures, so maybe she can chime in with some commentary.

 Whatever they have captured is VERY interesting.

 Looks like maybe a salamander, a tadpole, and some other blobby thing.

Wheeler Mountain

Wes and Joanie took the boys on a hike up Wheeler Mountain this morning. 

Beautiful view from the top.

And then these are just some extra photos from the sidelines of Wayne's game yesterday afternoon.     

I have to say, that we all enjoyed a leisurely day without having to rush around to games.

It was a sad, sad game.

Outdoor Concert

First of all, a tournament update. Lake Region was crushed by Manchester in Saturday's afternoon game. Our kids just seemed tired and couldn't rally themselves to pull it together. I'm not even sure what the final score was, but it was  painful. They played Connecticut Valley at 5:00 (the same team as Friday evening) and found the energy to battle it out it double overtime. Their coach was very loud and rude to our players, but our kids hung in for a long time, until finally losing to them. So now Lake Region is done in the tournament. Life returns to normal 

In other news, Heather, Cole and I went to Peter and Lizzy's performance in the park the other evening.  Joanie, Julie, Estelle, and Lena also were there. We all met up with Jeanne and Katie. I think Estelle and Katie share a family resemblance. Except Katie has more teeth.

It was a lovely evening of lively music, beautiful weather, and great company.

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Last Year at This Time:

First Game - Win!

Lake Region won their first game of the state tournament against the formidable Connecticut Valley, with a score of 12 - 4. It was a close game for a while - I thought Julie was going to squeeze my arm off - but LR pulled ahead in the homestretch.

Here is a series of random pictures, which may or my not include people we know. Wayne struck out a couple of times before finally finding his game and getting a good hit here.

You know you're in the USA when dinner is hot dogs at a ball game.  Quite a collection of Glover Day shirts there.

 Wayne's own personal cheering section.  Missing from this photo are Jacob and Cole.  They were sitting on the sidelines.

This is where the real fun is.

The game on the other field sounded very exciting as well. There was lots of screaming and cheering.

 LR in the dugout.

 Just some kid on Wayne's team.

 Wayne getting up from sliding into home.

 The batting order.

Thanks to everyone who came to tonight's game.  I could see that Wayne was tickled to have so many relatives on his side tonight.

And for a recap of last week's regional championship games read the Newport Daily's story here.
http://newportvermontdailyexpress.com/content/lake-region-and-north-country-10-u%E2%80%99s-heading-states

Fourth of July

A few snippets of our July 4th:

It is now a tradition for Wayne to make his red, white, and blue strawberries.

Aunt Julie lent Heather this cute patriotic outfit.

Cole and Lena are best cousins. They just seem to gravitate toward each other. After the parade we went to they playground at Barton School and Lena wanted Cole to push her on the swings. He patiently stood there, pushing her gently, the whole time we were at the playground. 

Lined up to watch the parade.

Barbie and Sophia joined-up with us (Barbie is not in the picture, but there's Sophia making herself right at home behind Heather.)

The parade.

The kids had a great time gathering candy from the parade. Then we went to Joanie's house and met up with Cedric, Peter, Jeanne, Katie, Lizzy, Ernest and Cecile.  The original plan was to go to Shadow Lake, but the weather was thundery and rainy. I didn't bring my camera, so we'll have to hope Julie caught some shots of dinner at Joanie's.

We did not go to fireworks due to the weather, but we might try to catch some later this weekend.