Secret Lakes and Well-Known Waterfalls

Many who know us via Facebook have already seen the pics, but there were many stories that can't be accommodated there so I thought I would repair to this lonely blog and record a few of them. Since I have the space I might as well give the back story as well.

Rachel was away from Thursday night through Saturday night so the boys and I were forced to plan our own fun. This began with me returning from a trip to Southern VT and trading tiny car (the Yaris that has replaced "Blackie" the silver Volvo, if you care) to Rachel in exchange for Beigy (the silver Volvo we kept) and the kids (who find their way home no matter what we do).

The boys decided on going to Al's for dinner, a move they knew would get no resistance from me. Check it out: http://www.alsfrenchfrys.com/ This place is a fairly famous local eatery but it is sort of low-brow so we don't often think to take visitors there. Remind us if you would like to try it when you are here next. The fries are very dark and caramelized and both boys prefer them to fast food. And, it isn't that much more expensive. The rest of the food is good, but you go for the fries.

Friday, Ellis got to go to day camp with a neighbor. He resisted and then had a blast. I reaped the benefits as well in the form of this duct tape wallet:

I will say that the cards in there aren't just for the picture. I am indeed using this crazy wallet as any other option would have broken Ellis's heart. He arrived from camp like a door-to-door duct tape wallet salesmen touting its versatility and toughness. Every time I get it out, he erupts with some comment like, "yer really lucky I found the yellow and the orange duct tape aren't you dad?" or "I was pretty smart figuring out how to put a coin area in it huh?" I just tell him it is great and don't say anything about the fact that nowhere does it have a pocket appropriate for a United States note or Euro note of any denomination. I think that its best feature may be that it is nearly unrecognizable as a wallet and therefore it is unlikely to be stolen. Well played Ellis.

While Ellis went to camp, Maddox came to work with me. I had a pretty good feeling about this idea because the kid can be hypnotized by TV, and indeed it worked, even on a day that wasn't an easy work day for me:. 

A pillow, blanket, iPad and a snack packed by Ellis resulted in a very happy camper. We called his little area there his "desk" which worked very well when I said things like, "you can eat that apple while you watch a movie at your desk." He lasted a full work day. Thank you Netflix.

Saturday they were on top of me at about 5:30 am. So I suggested we go on a hike (hoping to wear them down). A coworker had suggested a slightly hidden lake along the Long Trail as a fun hike for kids since it was sort of secret. Plus along the hike there was a fun creek the play in. So we ate, Ellis helped me pack some snacks and get his brother ready and we hit the road. We were on the Long Trail by 8 am. Here we are crossing the creek the first time:

 And here we are in the stream that kept us from reaching the lake because it was so much fun. The waterfall behind them had a double cascade.

 The stream flowed over solid rock with 10 and 12 foot drops and nowhere was there enough water to be dangerous, even for the daredevil Maddox. Ellis wanted to explore to find out just how far the solid-rock river bed went up the hills and Maddox wanted to lay on his belly peering into a 6 inch deep pool looking at tiny rocks, or, more precisely, trying to handle every rock. Surprisingly, Ellis was the one who didn't care to go find the hidden lake. So we spent about 3 hours going a grand total of 3 miles, little of it with much direction.

The best part of doing this sort of thing is the crazy things the boys say and their unique ways of enjoying it. Ellis largely roams out ahead following our well established Marco Polo rule. (If I say "Marco" he better be close enough to hear and respond with "Polo".) Maddox is usually perpetually distracted by something be it a bug or a leaf or another hikers dog, so I am always having to boot him down the trail. Maddox hiked the first 1.5 miles with his shoes on the wrong feet, usually hollering "Marco" right after me in the time window that I expected to hear "Polo" from Ellis.

Among the highlights were Maddox randomly announcing to me, "Dad, I smell green." I hope this was a metaphoric statement about the rich loamy, fungusy smell of the woods and not, perhaps more likely, another indication that the boy isn't wired quite right.

Ellis proved to have internalized quite an understanding of how the trails worked. At one point he was far ahead of me and I thought he might have followed a side trail. I hollered up to him if he was sure that was the right trail and he hollered back, "yes I checked both sides of the last blazes to make sure." And, he was right.

Ellis also reminded me of his mother when he pointed to a dead tree that had 4-5 branches sticking out of it, including one that looked like a thumb, 25-30 woodpecker holes, and a great big gash and said, "hey, that tree reminds me of your hand." (Note for those of you not following our family closely, I had a small accident where a tool cut the back of my hand and sliced an extensor tendon resulting in a many stitches and 25 shots to numb the hand over the course of the treatment.)

The winner of the silliness though had to be Maddox. Every hole he saw, be it in the ground, a rock, log or tree, had to be investigated. It usually went like this:

Me: Maddox, where are you going?
M [pointing at the hole]: I am going to get a better wook in der.
Me: Please hurry up.
M [with his face nearly in the hole]: Hewoe in der. Any body dere?
M [now shaking his head]: Nope, nobody home.

I like to imagine that in one of those trees there was a porcupine just out of site that died of heart attack from my three year old getting up in his grill and screaming at him..

try try again

Every time I manage to post a few things in a row and think I'm back in the habit of blogging something comes along and screws it up. Lots is going on...two batches of chicks have come through our dining room, we relocated the chicken house, put in two new garden beds and have almost everything planted. Meanwhile, Ellis has become quasi-obsessed with soccer and Trey is even help coach their team (fine by me because it means I rarely have to attend games- I slice up watermelon for snack and boot them out the door).

In Maddox-related news, over the winter and continuing through the spring, we got in the habit of baking on the couple of days a week when just the two of us are home together. I can't believe how much he loves it. He'll even crack the eggs for me- which is something Ellis still won't do (he doesn't like that gooey stuff getting on his hands I guess). And we've finally reached the point, where I rarely have to pick strips of butter wrapper or bits of shell out of the batter. With the help of his trusty Kitchen Aid, he's even mastered the creaming method; one day when I was distracted, he turned off the mixer-full of brown sugar and butter, looked and me and said "Now eggs!". His only downfall is constantly sticking his fingers into the bowl; he snags and eats a pinch of baking soda and declares it "spicy!" every time.  But between the machinery operation and the constant taste-testing, I shouldn't be surprised he loves it so much.

I think I've probably mentioned previously my deep hatred of doing school projects, so I'm very relieved that we've put yet another one behind us. Ellis's whole school did a unit on Greece, then they brainstormed specific research topics, and each completed a writing project and a "display" (that last part had to be completed at home). Because I recognize the attention span of a 6 year old, we tried to break up completion of the project into several small chunks over several nights. But each session had to begin with 20 minutes of haranguing Ellis to get to work. This drives me crazy because there's no logical consequence for his failure to cooperate; if he refuses to work on it, we end up doing it all the night before (i.e., I end up doing it all the night before). And seriously, I already know how to look things up on the internet and use rubber cement, so there's no real point in ME completing the project. Sigh! How do all the other parents handle this? 

Anyway, here is Ellis working with the principle to make a video for his teacher (unfortunately sick with pneumonia and unable to attend the project display day).

Whose the booby now?

Ellis and Maddox sharing a room and bunk-bed has created a few problems, mostly for Ellis who finds himself being pestered when he wants to sleep and can no longer hide his treasures in his bed, because while Maddox is "napping" he likes to climb up to Ellis's bunk and rummage through his treasures. 

Yesterday, he ended up going to sleep in our bed to avoid pestering, and when I moved him over to his upper bunk, he discovered that Maddox had been at it again, having thrown a number of "squinkies" (a toy of zero utility, yet treasured more than the cardboard box that gets 10-15 play-hours per week) all over the room.

So this morning he comes in to see me and we have the following conversation:

Ellis: Dad, um, today can we think about and work on some ways to keep Maddox from going up the ladder to my bunk?

Dad: I guess, but keeping Maddox out while making it so you can get in could be kinda tough. Do you have something in mind?

Ellis: I just want to keep him from getting up there and messing with my stuff. 

Dad: Well maybe a different place for your stuff is what is needed? Or are we talking about stuff that you like to play with while you are going to sleep?

Ellis [a bit exasperated]: My shelf for treasure is full and my basement shelf for my lego creations is already full so where else?

(I do have some sympathy for him. There aren't many places that Maddox can't get to and he has no concept of careful or fragile.)

Dad: Ok. What do you have in mind? Is there someway to keep Maddox out but let you in?

Ellis: Well, I can go up one-handed, but Maddox needs to use two hands so maybe we can use that to help.

(I was pretty proud of him for coming up with this, even though it may not be entirely true.)

Dad: So you want me to grease up one of the side rails of the ladder? That would get pretty messy and Maddox would learn to go up one-handed pretty quickly.

(This had not occurred to him and made him smile.)

Ellis: Oh wait. I know, I know. I only need to protect my stuff when I am not there. So maybe I could hang a blanket over the ladder then place heavy objects that I had collected throughout the day on the top of the blanket where it comes up to my bed. Then when Maddox wanted to go up he would pull the blanket out of his way and the heavy objects would come down on his head.

Me: Well that does have he advantage that you might only need to do it once. 

continued purge of the photo backlog

Here are some of Ellis's school pictures from the fall. I love that they did them outside, but I cannot believe how much he looks like Trey in these. And there's also their similarity in being unable to smile in any semi-natural way for a photograph. At one point in the year, our school carpool worked out in such a way that Ellis was tagging along with a neighbor to her dance class. They had a play area there so he would just hang out with some other kids during the 45 minutes of class. The other parents knew Ellis, but had never met Trey. One week, rather than letting him ride home in the carpool, Trey stopped in to pick Ellis up. All the other parents commented how they didn't need to wonder who that was or whether Ellis was allowed to go home with him because Ellis was basically his clone. Crazy. 

research, all in the name of research

Maddox is finally old enough to play along in Ellis's more imaginative games. As the big brother, Ellis invents the games and all the rules. Maddox usually gets the crappier "jobs". For instance, Ellis will shout, "I'll go explore the magical underground cave! Maddox, you stay here and watch the jeep."

Last night's game was astronauts on the space shuttle. They kept running out to the kitchen and asking for "missions". My efforts to convince them that taking a stack of important supplies and arranging them on the table was a critical mission basically failed. "Mom, that is just setting the table. We need a real mission." So I spent the next half hour sending them on expeditions that were basically modified Dr. Who plots. This basically means that all those hours spent watching the Time Lord were, you know, job training for me.

no time like the middle of january to post thanksgiving pics, right?

We were so lucky to get a visit from Lucy, Josh, and their boys. Here are they are at the kids table.

Despite they're just completing a 16 hour drive, we headed across the state to visit King Arthur's new store and bakery. Here they are enjoying chocolate baked into various forms.

Aaaaand more sugar at the Ben and Jerry's factory.

Vaughn and Ellis created a thankfulness tree. I turned them loose in the dining room, where we were planning to paint and replace the carpet. Good thing, because the two took a lot of artistic liberties.

Ellis and Maddox were also thrilled to meet their newest little cousin.

And Thanksgiving was topped off with a visit from the Liggetts, who were also spending the holiday in New England.