Spring 2026

Erin was ready for a big year of outdoor track and led off the season with a PR of 5:17 in the mile


She planned to run more middle-distance events, such as the 800m and 4x400. But in late April her quad starting hurting more and more

and a high-grade stress fracture in the femur was discovered. She was immediately ordered to stay on crutches for 6 weeks, followed by another 6 weeks of light exercise, and then she'll have an MRI in July to be cleared to return to running. 

If the recovery goes well she should be able compete in cross country

The girls track and field team had a tremendous season and won the state championship for the second year in a row. Including the cross country season, this year's team ran the table by winning every single meet that they entered. They are losing 2 All-Americans from the field events, but with Erin and the distance crew coming back they will be favorites again next year.

Erin was prom-posed for Junior Prom 

She went with a group of friends

and later in May, she was inducted into the National Honor Society

Tessie spends time with her furry boyfriend

and attended her 7th grade dance

She dressed up in order to volunteer at the Boots and Bandana Shindig fundraiser at her riding barn

We spent a rainy Memorial Day weekend in New York

On the middle school track team Tessie's events are the long jump 

and the 100m (and 4x100m)

Caroline shared this photo of her research poster. The results came from many cold afternoons collecting frozen soil and then prepping them in a chemistry lab. 

Caroline's pickup from Dartmouth completely filled my RAV4

It is great to have Caroline home

Tessie's team are in dark blue and she leads off

Early Spring 2026

 

For one of the long weekends in March we split up and Heather and Erin flew to Atlanta to visit Emory. We have many memories of walking with strollers underneath the terminals at Hartsfield-Jackson airport 

Spring in the South delivered perfect weather

for Erin to meet with the track coach and then later lay out on the pool deck

Meanwhile Tessie and I drove to NY to see my parents. The weather was typical for Smarch and one of my chores was to reclaim all the stones driven off the end of the driveway by the winter snowplows

My Dad appreciated the help

Claire also came down and one of our excursions was out to Croton Point Park on the Hudson River. This is another stop on the Hudson River Art Trail, and at the previous ones I was able to find a rubbing medallion. This time we searched in vain for a couple of hours without finding one.

Also in March was Caroline's Spring Break and once again she road-tripped with the Ledyard Canoe Club

This time to Asheville NC for whitewater kayak training

Yikes!

In the middle there is a Friar Tuck pitcher that I appropriated from my parents house. It is the perfect size for warming up and serving maple syrup. In an antique shop in Asheville, Caroline found a matching big Tuck and a little Tuck, which she was instructed to acquire

A few weeks later Caroline completed her first sprint triathlon with the Dartmouth Tri Team

Heather's BPO played their final concert of the season in Symphony Hall. Afterwards their conductor Ben Zander announced that next season will be his and the orchestra's last.

For Easter we had an egg hunt and then a quest to find the chocolate hoard

As usual not all the eggs were found by people

but the other animals in the yard had no trouble sniffing them out 

Chinda visited us and joined Heather's outing to Montreal to see Lady Gaga

Caroline was added to the party

We skipped the Patriots Day festivities this year. Still, one Friday during a jog around town, I ran into a crew of patriots lugging around a cannon. Only in Lexington...  

For April break we toured a couple of colleges. Heather and Erin visited Middlebury Vermont

while Tessie and I walked around the Marsh-Billings Rockefeller NHP. It was the third week of April and it snowed

Indoors away from the cold we played a game of Scrabble on this wall-mounted board. Adding to the challenge was that some of letters wouldn't stick to some squares on the board. Perhaps to compensate there was a smaller set of tiles without annoying q and z.  

We visited Amherst College and on the way drove past the apartment complex where my parents lived in the 60s while my Dad was earning his PhD in food science at U Mass.

My parents like to tell me that these years, before they had kids, were the best times of their lives 

 Near Amherst is a giant yarn warehouse called Webs, which for Heather was a must-see. Wandering around I learned that Rowan, the name of one of my nephews, is also a glam knitting magazine