Ben's First Kite

Ben and i went over to the Lake Clear School to fly a kite this afternoon...I hadn't flown a kite in years, and this was Ben's first time, but we had a blast!


It was a beautiful day, and the wind was up and ready for us...


Ben couldn't believe that the kite would work, but was amazed once it took off...


He ran all over the place, not always in the right direction to keep the kite flying, but it was fun anyway...


We decided to come back again the next time that we have nice weather...

Another fun day in the ADKs...

Gail's Birthday and the End of Camp

Gail's Birthday was the 24th, and she celebrated by enjoying a day at camp...


Reading down by the water was a big part of her chosen activities for the day...


Ben and the dogs spent lots of time in the water...



Ben's friend Jacob came by for the day, and the boys wore themselves out running around camp, and playing/splashing in the water for hours...


Penny and D protected us from ducks and read the NYT...


Later, the boys fed and chased the ducks...mixed messages that the ducks were content to live with, as they got some nice bread for their troubles...


After supper, we headed out to the boathouse to enjoy some birthday cake (cheesecake, the best kind of cake...it's nearly pie!) and some singing and some presents...


Gail played with the mini-sparklers with glee...I ate 2.5 mini-cheesecakes with an equal amount of glee...


After we had exhausted our supplies of mini-sparklers and cheesecake, Gail and Ben and I stretched the evening out by doing some pre-bed reading (HP#4) before finally heading in...


The following morning, before 6, we lit and launched some wish candles onto the lake...Ben shared that he wished for all of us to be back at Camp Sunrise before long, and the rest of us kept our secret (I made 2 wishes...no flying car as yet, but I did have bacon for breakfast this morning)...

We had a great time at Camp Sunrise this summer, and are thankful to Muz and D for making it possible for us to live on the water during the month of July in the Adirondacks!

Kayaking with Ben

Ben and I went for a paddle this morning, he took a kayak this time, and seemed more comfortable than he had been in the little canoe the last few times...


It's a big boat, but he was able to move it pretty well...


We paddled out to Green Island, found our favorite spot taken, and moved on along the shore, looking for another place to stop and stretch, and enjoy a snack of Strawberry Newtons and Tootsie Pops and some water...one of the joys of the solo boat is being able to explore the shore close up, and Ben and I took full advantage of the opportunity...


We found a nice big erratic in the shallows, with cool logs and clean sand all around, so we designated it our picnic spot...the boats were tied to a log, bobbing nervously when motorboats went by, like horses in cheesy westerns...


Ben doesn't kid around about Tootsie Pops...


After stretching and snacking and exploring the shoreline a bit, we got back in our boats and headed back to camp and lunch...

Ketchup!

What did the Tomato Family say to the slow tomato that was slow to update their blog?


We went down last weekend to see our friends Dan and Kristi, and their children Rowan, Gemma, and Joley...it was great to see everyone, and our first chance to meet the 8 month old twin girls...we stayed in a hotel with a pool (of course), and took over the pool with our 3 families and 6 kids...the above pic shows Ben holding Joley, a sweet little girl who had fun swimming and splashing...


We went back to the house that Dan grew up in after our swim and had a massive dinner of takeout Chinese food...there was a kids' table, something that's been missing in my life for years...unfortunately, I was not slated to sit there...Ben and Rowan and Autumn and Ayla did though...


Here's a pic of Ben with Gemma...she a very serious young lady, despite the pink ballet slipper onesie...


Rowan loved playing with, and organizing, his grandfather's yo-yo collection...


It was wonderful to see how well all of the kids played together and got along, despite the age differences, and the length of time that they spend apart...


The other day, we went on a canoe trip, through Hoel and Turtle and Slang Ponds...it was a really fun paddle...


Ben loves going on paddle-trips with his grandparents, it gives him a great chance to talk with them about what they're passing, and to look around...when he's paddling, he tends to focus on a narrow corridor of water directly in front of him and his boat...


We enjoyed a super picnic on Slang Pond...had a nice talk with a forest ranger patrolling the ponds in his solo canoe (what a cool job!)...and nervously watched the big spider sunning itself on a rock nearby...


Ben climbed up into this birch tree next to our lunch spot to look around the pond after everyone was done with lunch...


Ben had a playdate at camp with his friend Hudson the other day...they mostly ran around, splashed in the water, looked for spooky beasties...6 year-old boy stuff...


If I hadn't drawn called them back in for lunch, they might have paddled out to, and around, Green Island, despite the impending storm...


Soccer has been lots of fun for Ben...good friends, running around, some organization...


The games have started, and they are fun to watch, but a little hard to keep track of...fun and good-sportsmanship are particularly emphasized...


Last nights games were visited by a huge mastiff named Diesel...this picture doesn't do his size justice...he's a monster, and only 11 months...his feet are the size of grapefruits and his head is as big as a pumpkin...


Ben has moved past the running around near the ball stage of playing soccer, and is actually engaging in play, maintaining a position on the field, and passing to teammates...lots of the time...

Mid-July Mid-Week

It's been a nice week...some good weather mixed in with the continuing rain and clouds and such...


We had a great time at soccer the other night, Muz and D and Auntie Ann came to cheer Ben on...they have their first game next Monday!


We went to the Adirondack Museum today with D...I always love museums with really big chairs in front, and this time was no exception...it's a great museum with new and improved exhibits each and every time that I visit...


There were some cool rehab-raptors, this hawk and a tiny owl, and we watched their handlers talk about them for awhile before exploring other parts of the museum...


Ben and D posed for this picture in the middle of the transportation exhibit...a perennial favorite...


After the museum, we stopped off at "Woods", Ben's favorite restaurant in the greater metropolitan Long Lake area...afterwards, we stopped off for ice-cream at Stewart's in town...yes, that is ice-cream on Ben's nose...


On the way out of town, we stopped off at the great playground for a bit...Ben loves this climbing wall...

Another 2-Trip Day

Ben and I went for another nice paddle on Upper Saranac Lake this morning, nice and early...


He did a great job paddling and steering...he is getting more and more confident, but still needs lots of practice...


After paddling for a while, the wind picked up and he got tired of being blown all over, so we hooked up the tow-rope again...it's a wonderful tool, and opens up lots of possibilities to us...


Later in the day, we went on a trip with Muz and D and Auntie Ann...it was a little cloudy and windy, but we had a super time on the water...


We paddled through a favorite series of ponds and rivers, chatting and watching the day change from cloudy to stormy...we didn't get rain until we were putting the boats back on the cars at the end of the trip...


We had a great picnic during a sunny window in the bad weather...Maggie tried the old Jedi mind trick on Ben...it worked...

2 Trips by Lunch

I woke up early today, aided by too many dogs on a twin bed and coffee withdrawal...Ben woke up ready to paddle, so we did...we paddled out to Tommy's Rock for breakfast!


We packed a simple breakfast of fruit and juice and uncooked toast, and headed down to the lake to get the boats in the water...


As soon as Ben's boat was in the water, he took off, and D and I had to hustle to keep up with him...


We paddled off towards the island in the distance...there was a surprising amount of wind on the lake for the early hour (we were in the water before 8am), but Ben did a great job keeping his boat oriented towards Tommy's Rock...


We enjoyed a picnic near the cliff that haunts my memories and occupies some prime real estate in Ben's imagination...oh yes, we will be leaping off of it before the end of the summer...


D and Ben talked about the camps along the shore of the lake, and how it had changed in the years since D was Ben's age...


We headed back after breakfast, but D and Ben switched boats...Ben took the kayak because on our way over there had been some whitecaps and I got scared while contemplating a mid-lake rescue...the kayak is almost untippable, not so the Hornbeck...


Another Ansel Adams-tastic over-the-shoulder picture, except that he worked almost entirely in black and white, and probably never took an over-the-shoulder picture...but really great anyway...of Ben and Tommy's Rock...it was a great morning paddle...

My Aunt Anne is up in the ADKs for a couple of days, and she came out to camp this morning as well, and despite the threat of bad weather later in the day, we all decided to channel our inner Chuck Norris's and go for another paddle...this time down from Jones Pond towards Osgood Pond, through a narrow stream filled with hippos and Nazis (well...duckees and tiny turtles, but tough ones)...


Aunt Anne paddled like a champ into the strong headwind that we faced on Jones Pond...


An industrious beaver had built a serious dam...we were able to crush our way over the dam on the way downstream only by building up to ramming-speed...on the way back up, some sucker had to be found who was dumb enough to climb out on the dam, risk getting poked/stabbed by the sticks and logs, fall off the edge into the deep (leech-filled) water (only twice), and haul the boats back up through the rupture that we had made on the way back down...no comment...


We had a great time paddling down through the river, but when we had gotten about halfway down, the sky started darkening, and the thunder began in the distance...we turned around and made our way back up to the cars, and home to lunch...

2 fun paddles before lunch, and now it is as dark as if the sun has set...the thunder is rumbling almost continuously, Cedar is snoring nearby, and I have plans to read about Jack Reacher, or nap, or both...