Boston or Bust

Every year, Michael's school sends the fifth grade classes on an annual trip to Boston. Lucky for us, Michael happens to be in fifth grade this year, and we were both able to make the trip! Our adventure began with meeting at the school at 5:40 AM. We were able to ride down on charter buses thanks to the kids great fundraising instead of school buses, which was definitely great. Off we went at 6 AM to reach our destination at 9. Our drive, both down and back, were uneventful... going to Boston, you never know if this will be the case!

Our first order of business was a Duck Tour. Amphibious vehicles are driven around the city of Boston, and the tour guide is well versed in all the great history of the city so you learn a lot. The kids had been studying Colonial America, so there were a lot of places they saw that they had studied recently. Then we drove into the Charles river, where the kids got to drive in the water for a bit before we returned to land.

After a quick lunch break, we enjoyed a movie about Antarctica at the IMAX theater. For anyone who has not had the pleasure of viewing a movie in an IMAX theater, the movie is projected on a jumbo dome shaped screen so the movie seems to surround you. The kids thought it was awesome, and I know a lot of the parents did, too!

The science museum was next. As almost every kid had at least one parent with them, Michael and I were able to go off and look at all our favorites. We watched the electricity demonstration, checked out the natural history displays, visited the animals, and made sure to pop into the butterfly garden. The butterflies really loved our orange shirts, and we had several come and check us out.

After a great adventure and a visit to the gift shop, we headed back to the school. Our stop along the way led us to discover a great "fast food" restaurant in Portsmouth that had the best Mango smoothies... we opted for real food instead of McDonald's for dinner.

Home at last, Michael was exhausted and even climbed into bed early. Me too! Nothing like a day with 60 5th graders to wear you out!

Michael made the news

On one of our trips up to Sunday River this weekend, Michael and I encountered a channel 8 news crew filming all the people enjoying the multiple feet of new snow we had over the past week. The camera man filmed Michael strapping onto his board and taking off down the mountain, which they used at the beginning of this video http://www.wmtw.com/news/22699870/detail.html

The picture with this post was from February Vacation week, where Michael taught himself to grind a rail. He also taught me to do a land 180, a land 360, an ollie, and to ride a box. I taught myself that my snowboard likes to stay comfortably resting in the snow and not flying through the air. It keeps my head from hitting the ground...

Winter Fun!

Even though we haven't had much

snow up here in northern New England, Charles, Michael, and I have been making the most of it! We have hit the slopes at Sunday River every chance we get, and Saturday was no exception. Charles worked teaching kids to ski all day, Michael had an all day class with David, and I tried to get my mojo back while riding with my glasses on- yikes!

Michael's class started off with a group of 5 or 6 experienced riders (the term used for what you do on a snowboard) that were 7-14 years old. They were evaluated for their abilities and spent the morning working on some technical skills like working on turns, turning on the snowboard on the snow (180's and 360's), and other control techniques. The afternoon was the fun part, with just Michael and one other classmate. They learned to do ollies (jumping off flat ground), buttering (like a wheelie with the front of the board), and riding the box. The box is a large, long wooden platform that you slide across on your board. The trick is that you usually ride your board with one of the edges cutting into the snow- if you do this on the box, you flip over. I got a chance to see his skills after the class and got the picture in this post. After that, we finished the run down the trail by riding across the top of the half pipe. Michael is super excited to take another class, which looks like it will be next Thursday. Wednesday, I might try to ride the box...

Presents!!!

ahhh, favorite gifts! Michael received the Tony Hawk Ride game for Wii, which he can now play where ever he's staying. That kid on the skateboard is Michael, who is going for the skater look this year in a big way. He's got the hair in his eyes, the knit hats, the skater tees, and took to the Tony Hawk game like he'd been playing all his life. I did try it- it's a bit like snowboarding, so the steering wasn't that bad for me... if you see me play games that require steering, you would know that's a major accomplishment! And how did we know this was his favorite gift? He slept with the skate board controller in bed with him... but don't worry- he had his new night vision goggles in there, too, so he could see where it was!

The other picture is of two handmade drop spindles Charles put together for me. With my silly obsession with spinning, this is a great way to throw a small project in my bag for when I'm on the go without having to pack and unpack my spinning wheel. And as you can see, they work!

Belated Birthday

Michael had almost a month of birthday parties this year. One of the few benefits of having his parents divorced and remarried, I suppose. We had Michaels friends over this year for a party he pretty much planned himself. Luck, Gem, Xavier, and Michael enjoyed the festivities that included hiking with Uncle Ricky, making pizza, lots of chocolate cake, and tye dying tshirts. Everyone left with leftovers and t shirts and had a good time. When Michaels cake came out, the boys got Michaels keyboard out and they all played and sang happy birthday... wonder if they'll start a band.

I'd like to say thank you to my mom who was kind enough to bake a cake and design the ferrari logo for the top of it out of sculptable chocolate (who knew there was such a thing???). Also thank you to Uncle Ricky and Grampa Dude for helping out at the party.

Population Explosion

Let me tell you a little story... Before my divorce, Michael has this wonderful guinea pig named Peanut Butter & Jelly. She was the most adorable cream colored abby- the ones with all the cowlicks. When she passed away, Michael missed her terribly, and now that we live in a bigger house, I thought it was time he have a pet of his own again. One of my co-workers gave me Isabella. She purchased two"female" guinea pigs from a pet shop and ended up with 8. Excited to surprise Michael, I brought her home, set up Peanuts old cage for her, and kept her a secret until Michael came over again. He was thrilled, and has been taking excellent care of her. However, a few weeks after her arrival home, I noticed that Izzy had that distinct pregnant pig belly that they get right before they have a litter... the belly that looks like the pig ate a football and it's lodged sideways in their belly. Oh boy...

Izzy did not disappoint- on July 3rd she popped out 5 very adorable babies. We unfortunately lost one (Michael named her L'il because she was so tiny), but the other 4 are thriving nicely. There is one girl, Amber, that will be able to keep Izzy company. The other three, Burton, Dakine, and Camaro, are boys and going to have a big pen of their own this week.

Sigh... me and my bright ideas...