June 2015

Heather and Caroline took a trip to Atlanta to see Grandma Lu. Next up for Caroline's reading list: Nancy Drew.

 Meanwhile Dave took Erin to her first Scooper Bowl, an all-you-can-eat ice cream fundraiser for charity

 and Erin accomplished one of those timeless childhood milestones: riding a bike. The all-dirt softball infield was the key terrain for her breakthrough.

 On a long nature walk with Tessie and Erin we found this old gal doing her thing right next to a busy playground

 Holy squeaking fangs! Max was found cornering this bat on the living room floor. Dave donned his leather fireplace glove and threw the bat outside, but now we know that proper protocol is to subdue the bat alive and call animal control to allow for a rabies test. Since Max's rabies was up to-date, he only had to go to the vet for a booster as a precaution.

 After 19 years in Boston Dave finally reached the end of the Freedom Trail at the Bunker Hill monument

 The older girls climbed all 294 steps for a hazy view of Boston

 and after a schlep back to Faneuil Hall, they received their Boston junior ranger badges

 Erin is still quite the helper outside, even when the job is hard labor like spreading sand into walkway pavers

 Over the course of the year we have finished the first 7 King's Quest computer adventure games made in the 1980s. Since they were such a hit, we even played Mystery House, the very first graphics adventure game written in 1980 for the Apple IIe. Even with its rudimentary look, the girls liked it, as evidenced by the re-enactment below.

 

Oh no! It's Tom the Plumber, killed by a whack to the head.

 The girls finished another successful session of piano lessons and this time Erin played her first recital

Erin's writing is coming along

 The Southwick Zoo had lots of standard zoo animals, but the highlight (at least for Caroline and Erin) was the super-tame, dwarf deer enclosure

 Erin's new buddy

 More posing on the zoo statues

Selfie on the merry-go-round

Crazy hair day at Bowman Elementary

We took our summer picnic at the park next to the Museum of Science

where we could watch the railroad drawbridge and the Duck Boats enter and exit the water

Looking for the jewels from Mystery House

Choreography in the basement

More choreography

Caroline and the goats

Tessie on the phone

AZUTNVUT

Day 2 was supposed to be all about the Grand Canyon and we drove there but couldn't see a thing. Maybe it is a case of sour grapes, but we started counting up the places on our trip that were better than the Grand Canyon. Pipe Spring for sure and even Denny's Wigwam came out on top this day.

Caroline made this on the iPad and the white background was fitting

 Driving up to the Kaibab Plateau at 7,000+ feet we hit snow. There was zero traffic on the road. It felt like the opening credits scene from The Shining.

Forty-something degrees and sleeting at the North Rim Visitor Center. Get out those happy faces!

 And there it is: the majestic Grand Cloud-yon

 Tessie was not loving anything about it

Full disclosure: the path to the photo-op was slippery and a little perilous

 but we had the lookout entirely to ourselves

 Grandma Joan was patient enough to get one glimpse through the clouds

The lodge did have a lot of space to relax and soak in the view

and the Junior Ranger activity book required a good deal of time

Heather still hasn't seen the Grand Canyon, and now we can come back another time and see it together

 North of the canyon there is only one water source for miles around. So what did the Mormon pioneers do? Wall off the spring and build a fort to keep out the Indians, which is now called Pipe Spring National Monument.

 But Pipe Spring exceeded our expectations with its visitor center and grounds. Hello there Arizona longhorn!

 Grandma Joan enjoyed the movie and historical exhibits

Finally back to Kanab, UT, where Denny's Wigwam had all manner of tourist items to tempt us.

More scenes from Caroline: These are part of the famed Vermillion Cliffs National Monument

Next time we'll get out and play on the slickrock

 The next day we engaged the Nevada option and drove to the first casino town on the border, Mesquite, NV

where we found a local park to relax and run around

before reaching our final destination, the Inn at Entrada, in Snow Canyon, outside St. George, UT

 Tessie was happily reunited with Mommy and after a quick swim the girls started prepping for the wedding

 Before lipstick

 

 Tessie and Grandma Joan stayed at the room for the ceremony

Now St. George is supposedly one of the sunniest places in the US, but this afternoon some nasty-looking clouds rolled in right before the ceremony

 Heather was slated to play the cello for 30 minutes while people filed in, but her program was trimmed to 10 minutes to beat the weather

 Brides Bryn and Fatma looked great in their vintage dresses

Despite rolling thunder, the officiant calmly made it through the ceremony

The Yale crew

Midway through the reception Tessie arrived

 and the evening light was spectacular

for climbing on sandstone

 and polishing it by hand

So long Utah and the beautiful desert Southwest