Hemlock Gorge with the Other Wilsons

On Saturday, hours before Hurricane Irene hit New England, we kept our long-standing plans with our good friends the Other Wilsons, Kim and Boris and their kids. We all once attended the same ward for years. We like getting outside, as do they, and I'm on a kick to explore places around the area that we haven't been to yet, so we agreed to hit up Hemlock Gorge in Needham.

Here we are, all 11 of us, trekking across Hemlock Gorge in a light drizzle. It has stunning views. I made a mental note to return to the Gorge in the fall. About a minute after I snapped this photo, the rain picked up in intensity. We huddled under three different columns under the Gorge's overpass and discovered that each one gives off impressive echos, particularly those emitted by a gaggle of little girls!

This was the best count we could get of everyone in our group. Kim volunteered to take the photo. There wasn't anyone else around to turn a camera over to. By this point, the rain was cold and driving. Boris and I re-traversed the top of the Gorge's walk with his oldest daughter to get our mini-vans, while everyone else waited under these columns for the rescue team to return.

We also found Echo Bridge, on the banks of the Mighty Charles. Hooray for not consulting on-line maps or posted notices at Hemlock Gorge! This was a surprise treat. We "found" Echo Bridge by accident, which added more delight to our quick visit. Once again, all of the kids had a blast shouting random phrases across the Charles. Kim, Boris, Becky, and I all also noticed that, for some reason, the little kids' voices seemed to echo in longer waves than adult voices did. Such a cool place, and so fun to visit it for the first time with friends.

  

Blue-eyed Boy

Check out Our Mighty Moose's baby blues! We hope that his eye color stays exactly as it is right now:

Moose turned 3 months old yesterday! He is more alert, sleeping long stretches at night, routinely only wakes up once during the night to nurse, and is more engaging by the week. He giggles at random times, and for random people (for example, my co-workers), and somehow doesn't feel the need to giggle or laugh at any-thing his dear old dad does or says. I'm still waiting.

Moose is super-attentive to Becky and lights up when she gets him in the morning. We're in love with this cute little 3-month-old.

These shots were all from our Saturday adventure to the far western reaches of Massachusetts, for Tanglewood's free kids concert. We had a fun time on a picture-perfect summer day. I hoped for a late summer thunderstorm to roll in over the Berkshires while we sat on a blanket waiting for the concert to begin, but to no avail. Instead, we just chilled out and our girls ran around and we sat back to watch it all.

Fish "is yucky"

This was Mouse, at the Discovery Museum at the beginning of summer. She was just starting to talk up a storm at this time--a trend that she has heartily embraced all summer long now! Anyhow, here she is on the phone with an imaginary friend, asking if fish for dinner sounds good.

Hate to break it to ya, kiddo, but since we're living on the East Coast, you will get to taste a wide range of fish and other stuff from the sea in your lifetime! Daddy had a dynamite lobster salad roll at a hole-in-the-wall joint with some co-workers today at Alive and Kicking in Central Square, for example. We're a New England family, and I'm sure you'll grow to like lobster and fish. So what if it took your dear old dad almost 25 years to like it himself?!

Cousins

We're very fortunate to live close to at least of our families. This summer, we have taken more advantage of that proximity (and my parents' time!) by having our girls visit Nana and Bumpa at their home. The few days' stay a couple times this summer has been great for them and for us--it's amazing how different our house is when there's just Baby Moose around!

And it's been great for Goose and Mouse too, because they get to run wild in my parents' backyard with their cousins (Savanna was taking a much-needed cousin-break nap when we took these photos):

These visits include a tremendous amount of goofing off, of course! All the kids run rampant over my parents' lawn. There's also a red cottage, a swingset, a sandbox, an inflattable swimming pool, and my old basketball court, which the kids have converted into a bike-riding speedway. It's so cool to have a big backyard and lots of playground stuff all to themselves. 

Later this summer, I might use my parents' yard as a test for our first family camping experience. We haven't camped as a family yet, but we've wanted to with several of our friends. I'd just like to see how it goes locally before committing to somewhere further away like the White Mountains, one of the Boston Harbor islands, Vermont, or Acadia.    

Mouse's whiskers

We here at TimBeck5 always enjoy everyone's comments. In acknowledgement of one particular loyal comment-leaver, and as proof that she was spot-on in her last comment, we wish to tip our hats to Grandma Mary Ann! She gets this blog's award for most frequent commentator. In a further sign of her devotion to our family, despite the distance, not a month goes by without a package from Utah arriving on our doorstep, with a thoughtful gift for our girls inside and a nice note that we read and re-read 30 times that first night.

She also was 100% accurate in her last comment, that our nickname for our second girl is Mouse. Grandma Mary Ann wrote, "And she is so aptly named...put whiskers on that first shot and she IS the mouse!" Well, Grandma, here is even more proof that you are right:

"The Crinkly-Nosed Joker Mouse!" 

Ice cream truck

I get a kick out of this picture: From right to left, it's the Mouse, the Goose, Ellie, and Hank. Not seen (or named) is the ice cream truck driver, who tried to convince three families to fork over money for ice cream on a soggy day. There was an intense stand-off between our kids and the driver to see who would budge first. Would our kids somehow convince us parents to break and get ice cream? Or would we (and Mother Nature) win out?

It's a good thing there was a fence separating our kids from the truck. Otherwise, they would have rushed it, even on this cold, rainy afternoon. In the end, the truck driver shrugged his shoulder, started the truck, and rumbled on. Now, this isn't to suggest that our kids have been deprived of ice cream. No, not in the least! 

Look at the size of those kid's ice cream cones! This is at Davidian's ice cream in Northboro.

And this is the after shot. Here are two of my three little wonders, trying to choke me after I kindly funded their ice cream kick that afternoon. That's the thanks I get?

We have also been trying to put a serious dent in Boston.com's list of great New England ice cream stands. I'm a complete homer for such lists, and have painstakingly added those suggestions to my master "New England Must-See and Must-Do" database. I'll share it on here sometime. It's been a good summer!    

The Poser

Our Little Mouse has an arsenal of cute poses. I have no idea where she gets the inspiration for these. She simply cuts it up once our camera comes out.

Oh, and that camera? Yeah, it's broken. It's our third broken digital camera since last summer. Thank goodness for warranties. Mouse broke #1, I dropped the second, and Goose and I had a 50-50 share in the most recent camera breaking.

On to the posing:

 I call this one "The Crinkly-Nosed Joker"

"The Patriot"

"The Disregarder of House Rules"

"The Petulant Ponderer"

"The Get-that-camera-out-of-my-face/How-did-only-my-upper-cheeks-get sunburned?"

And last but certainly not least (and the inspiration behind this post):

"The Real Poser"

Where does she get her inspiration for these pose strikes? It's not like we're screening "Project Runway" for Family Home Evening or something!

Soloist, "My Life is a Gift"

So glad we caught Goose singing the Primary song "My Life is Gift" while Grandma and Grandpa visited us at the beginning of June. Enjoy!

$16

...got us this awesome sight after both Goose (on the left) and Mouse (on the right) got their facepaint on at Story Land last week. Might be the best investment we've made since we bought Apple stock years ago!

And yes, this was our fourth trip to the [much smaller] [northern] Magic Kingdom in three years. We all had a blast, and Mouse took in more of the rides than the last 3 trips, so it was double the fun for us. We also were glad to have Nana join us this time, and to see our friends the Cammacks, though it would have been even better if our visits overlapped more. Hopefully next time!

What can we say about Our Mighty Moose? He is just 2 months old and still not a champion nighttime sleeper, so we (okay, mostly me) were nervous about his first overnighter, particularly with our two girls, Nana, Becky, and I all sharing a loft room at this cute BandB.

However, he instantly earned major points in our book for having his best night of sleep in his short two months! No joke. He slept from about 7:30 that night until almost 3:30, when he woke up to nurse, and went right back to sleep (not a usual occurence) and slept again until 7 a.m. It was stupendous. Little man, you rocked it. And he rocked his stroller doing this below most of the time at Story Land: 

Have you ever seen a Moose smile?

Well, now you have! This little guy is now 10 weeks old, and he started smiling at about week 8. He was even smiling ahead of his 2-month check-up one late morning, but I can assure you that there were no smiles about 5 minutes after the second photo above was taken!

There have been a few mornings when we'll bring Moose into our girls' bedroom at wake-up time. He will be his normal blank-staring self until he hears Goose and Mouse whooping it up in their bunk beds, and then he'll often flash a smile and follow them with his eyes. It's a lot of fun to see him come alive like this.

Oh, and at that doctor's visit, Moose clocked in at 97th percentile in weight and was off the charts for height. The dude is a little eating-and-growing machine!

August and Everything After

This post's title came to me as I sit outside right now on our back porch, with Moose asleep in our double stroller, Becky taking a well-deserved nap upstairs, me enjoying a day off, and our girls having what I'm sure is a wicked awesome playdate with friends.  It's a great Tuesday afternoon, to reference a classic Moody Blues song. 

This is the first time I've ever blogged outside.  A cool wind is blowing on this hot day.  Birds chirp and squirrels bark (or whatever sound they make) in the trees along our property, and the serenity of this day is cool.  I should do this more often.

You might recognize the title, too.  I lifted it from the Counting Crows' album, which basically was the soundtrack for my freshman year of college.  I've spent the last 5 minutes before writing another word in this post reflecting on that time of my life--all of the newness, the anticipation of meeting new friends and learning new things, the ticking clock inching ever closer to real adulthood, the first time really being on my own--and smiling at the memories.  It was a great experience, and over far too soon.   

And I've also thought a lot about where I am right now in life, and it's really good.  There's the newness of a new child, the anticipation of our oldest one starting pre-school in a month and learning new things on her own, and the ticking clock inching ever closer to the time when all of our kids will be in school.

Our girls have had a lot of fun outings this summer.  We're just hoping to find more one-on-one time to spend with Goose and Mouse; Becky and I last night both expressed a desire to spend a few hours on a Saturday with just one of our girls, while me or Becky would take the other girl and Moose.      

I suppose I'll always feel these nostalgic and anticipatory moods each August.  School will always be just around the corner, baseball games will (hopefully) always have meaning for the Red Sox (unless they are atrocious), friends will move away (and just as surely, new ones will move in), and Becky and I will try to cram in that one last day trip or that one last cool family outing with our little brood before we surrender their weekdays to teachers and school friends.

Because there's August for all of the fun stuff, and the everything after will be days and nights often structured by school and church activities.  Most of those will be fun and important experiences.  It's impossible for me to regret what I haven't yet experienced, so I can't begrudge the fact that soon we will be those parents with kids heading off to a new school year, and bidding another carefree summer adios.  And I am really excited to see how we go through the next couple years with all of the transitions.

I just wish we could hold onto the Augusts of our lives a little bit longer.