A point for originality

Just more randomosity...

---

Our babysitter was on vacation last week, so Tony had Ari home with him every day. Wednesday, I took Ari with me when I went walking with Dawn, to give him a break. He ended up walking out the door at the same time as us, to take out trash, so he stopped by the car on his way back in to make faces at Ari and say bye to her. After he walked away, as I started backing up, Ari gave a little sigh and said, "I miss him."

When we got home that evening, as I was unlocking the door, she wrapped herself around my leg and declared, "Mommy, I'm so proud of you." She is such a goof.

---

So I think my elbow is finally completely healed. It's still a bit tender if I poke at it, but I can lean on it more normally now. And I discovered that I have a nifty little scar too. Scars are cool.

---

I found out last week that a couple in our church climbed Mt. Washington. So I adopted the "Well, if they can do it, I can do it" mentality and declared that I'm going to climb Mt. Washington too. Of course, this summer is almost over, and with everything else going on, I probably won't get to it this year, so it would be next summer at the soonest. Which gives me plenty of time to get myself in mountain-climbing shape. Or to change my mind.

---

Speaking of getting into shape, I've been slowly easing back into my exercise routine. I'm not sure why I slacked off in the first place, but I'm glad to be getting back into it, since my laziness was starting to show, if you know what I mean. I went for a walk the other night after Ari was in bed, and it was such a cool night that I was shivering a little at first. I did my usual 2 laps around the apartment complex (which is 1 mile total) and when I came back and remembered we had no milk, I headed out to do 1 more lap (there's a gas station right beside our apartment complex). So, not only did I get a bonus lap in, but I got a slight arm workout on the way home (hey, a gallon of milk gets pretty heavy after a few minutes).

---

I've been listening to the "Hairspray" soundtrack (the movie version) lately, and I've got to say... "You Can't Stop the Beat" is a hard song to sing along to. Very fast, and there aren't a lot of places to take a breath. Not that I ever need to worry about singing it anywhere other than my car, but I'm just saying.

---

Tony calls me at work the other day...

Me: Hello?

Tony: I need to know if you are afraid that aliens are going to attack us.

Me: Wha...??

Tony: (slowly repeating himself) I need to know if you are afraid that aliens are going to attack us.

Me: (confused) What in the--

Tony: Because there are not 1, not 2, but 3 different cups here on the kitchen counter, all with just a little bit of water in them...

Me: (starting to understand) Ohhh...

Tony: So I just needed to know--

Me: (laughing) Yeh, yeh, I know... like in the movie "Signs." I don't know why they're there. I guess I forgot about them. You know I do that.

Tony: How could you not notice that you already had 1 or 2 other glasses already out?

Me: Is this the only reason you called me?

Tony: Um...

Me: Oh. My. Gosh.

---

One more thing, for my fellow English nerds, from the greatest comic strip EVER...

A weekend full of family

We left on Friday morning for a whirlwind trip to visit Tony's family, for a surprise 80th birthday party for Tony's grandmother (Nan). She knew there was going to be a party, but she was told it was for her 2-year-old grandson. We did a small family party for her on Friday night, just to throw her off even more. Saturday morning, we went to breakfast with Tony's dad, and then he took us shopping to buy an outfit for Ari. Then Saturday afternoon was the real party for Nan--we had a whole pavilion to ourselves at a nearby park. She was totally surprised, and there were a ton of people there--all sorts of extended family, and a lot of people that Tony and I haven't seen in a while.

And of course I have pictures.

Ari with a few of her cousins. Anthony and Sofia (who are Tony's cousin's kids, so I guess that makes them Ari's second cousins or something--don't know how that works) and Taryn (Tony's sister Traci's daughter).



Ari and Grammy (Tony's mom)...



I love love love this picture. Look! Ari is smiling! And it's a real smile!



Nan getting ready to cut her cake...





Nan with all her great-grandkids... (Well, minus Anthony, who went home sick.)



Nan with all her grandkids (not including spouses, which is why I'm not in it)...



Tony's immediate family... Taryn, me, Michael, Traci (Taryn and Michael are both Traci's kids--her husband Mike was at work), Mom, Tony, Ari, and Chris.



Saying goodbye... first Ari gave Taryn a hug...



Then she gave Michael a hug and a kiss. I find this picture hilariously disturbing... or disturbingly hilarious. Something like that.



We left around 6:30, and luckily, our trip home was a lot better than the trip down. (We hit a lot of storms and construction on the way down, which made our drive take 3 hours longer than normal.) We got home around 1:30 AM, and of course, you know how it is--you can never just go straight to bed. We were up bright and early for church today, but we were both dragging. In the afternoon, all 3 of us napped, but before naptime, I got a few pictures of Ari. Tony's dad (Pappy) bought her this little bubble gun toy, and she was dying to open it--so we let her play with it for a few minutes before naptime.

Tony got it working first, and she had fun just dancing in the bubbles...



Then of course she wanted to do it herself...



And one last picture...



We went to my parents' house tonight, too--they were kind enough to let us borrow their car for our trip (since Tony's car is having issues, yet again), so we returned the car, had dinner, did some laundry, and just hung out for a little while.

And tomorrow it's back to work as usual, so I should probably think about getting ready for bed...

Outlet shopping and the Old Man

Friday, August 7

Friday was our designated day to go outlet shopping--the whole herd of us. It was our last full day up in the mountains, so we wanted to do something a bit low-key. Turned out to be a lot low-key for the three of us. We got there in the late morning, and only shopped a little while before we all needed to break for lunch. (We scored some awesome $3.99 deals at The Children's Place outlet.) We headed to a nearby Burger King for lunch--it was really nice, too. There was a whole section in the middle that was sunken down, with cushy chairs and couches and a big fireplace in the middle. Anyway, we got a quick picture of the kids in their crowns. Matthew's pose cracks me up.



I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that Ari had herself a little attitude problem right before we left, so we skipped the rest of the outlets (which was fine, since we didn't have a lot of spare money to blow) and returned to the house so she could take a much-needed nap. And after the go-go-go pace of the week, it was nice to have an afternoon to just chill at the house.

Tony wanted me to take a picture of this rock that he and Josh scaled earlier in the week. This was in the backyard of the house, and Tony made a point of going on and on about how climbing this rock was very dangerous, because all that wood you see on the top was all rotted and such. I'm not sure where I was when they climbed it, but I think my sister got pictures. Anyway, the rock looks twice as big from the other side, so go on and be all impressed with Tony and Josh and their mad rock-scaling skillz.



Saturday, August 8

This was our last day in the White Mountains, and before we left, we got a few family shots. I'm glad we did, too--somehow I was under the impression that I'd gotten a lot of family shots already, but I guess I didn't.

Me and my favorite sister...



Mahmon Bazorg, me and my sister... (And, no, I'm really not the tallest of the bunch--I was on a step. So was Mahmon, actually. Mary is the tallest in real life.)



Mahmon Bazorg with her granddaughters and great-grandkids...



Mahmon Bazorg, Mary, Matthew, and Josh...



Mahmon Bazorg, Ari, Tony, and me... (I don't know what Ari was doing here...probably struggling to get away)



Then the cousins said goodbye. Another blurry shot, but it's still sweet.



We were all out of the house around 10. The rest of my family headed toward Boston to drop off Mahmon Bazorg and introduce Matthew to a few other relatives out there, and Tony, Ari and I lingered in the White Mountains for a little while. We weren't quite ready to say good-bye. We made a stop at the Old Man of the Mountain... well, where he used to be, anyway. The stone profile collapsed back in 2005 (which still makes me sad), but it's still a beautiful walk down to the viewing point.

Before we got started on the trail...



And here's where the Old Man used to be. You can see by the sign what the profile used to look like... then you can look at the mountain and see what it looks like now. *sniff*



Tony and Ari picked me some flowers...



And Ari got a big kick out of presenting them to me and yelling, "Surprise!"



Tony wanted one last picture of the two of us before we left. Sadly, this was the best of the bunch. Oh well. We tried. And yes, I am wearing a sweatshirt because holy cow, it was chilly that morning.



And we all piled back in the car and drove home. We stopped for lunch along the way, and got home around dinnertime, which was perfect--we had time to unload the car and chill for a bit before it got too late at night.

And if anyone's wondering, I'm still not totally unpacked. Oh, hush. I guess now that I'm done with the picture entries, I have no more excuses.

Storyland

Thursday, August 6

Thursday, we spent the entire day focused on Ari. There was an amusement park nearby named Storyland, which features rides and attractions based on nursery rhymes and fairy tales--definitely a place geared toward kids Ari's age (though they did have a bunch of stuff for older kids, too).

Inside the home of the Three Bears.



She loved this little play area...



There was a little old-fashioned schoolhouse (I think it was supposed to be the school from "Mary Had a Little Lamb"), and Ari had fun ringing the school bell.



I have no idea what this whale represented.



Ari was all excited about this rooster.



I think this merry-go-round had something to do with the story of Little Black Sambo? Yeh, I didn't pay too much attention to all that, since Ari doesn't know all these stories either. She was just excited to get to ride a merry-go-round.




Ari in the ball pit...



This was on the Mad Hatter's teacup ride. I absolutely love the look on her face.



We thought Ari would be thrilled to meet Cinderella, and she was all into it... until Cinderella actually looked at her and spoke. Check out the look on her face--she looks terrified. Really, she was just being cranky.



We even went up to Cinderella's castle, to give Ari another chance to meet Cinderella, and she still wanted nothing to do with her. She was getting kind of hot and hungry at this point, so that may have been part of the reason.



She loved the train ride...



Waiting in line to ride the antique cars...



She got to drive the car (I helped her by holding down the gas), and she just thought she was the coolest thing.



Coming up to the covered bridge...



They had this picture-frame photo-op, and luckily, Ari was in the mood to pose (although they were weird poses)...



This little water area was the cutest thing--it had a "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" theme. See that red volcano to the left of Tony? Every so often, it would shoot this giant "blob" of water way up in the air, which would then come down like rain. Very cool.



This was the one ride I refused to go on. I don't do ferris wheels.



That was the last ride of the day, too, because the park was close to closing, and Ari was so done by this point. It was a long day for her, with no nap. There was a bunch of other stuff we did that I didn't get pictures of--a "Farm Follies" show all about gardening, the Royal Hannaford Circus, a swan boat ride, etc. And there was still a lot we didn't get around to doing, since we got a late start. But I think it all worked out well--like I said, by late afternoon, Ari had had enough, so if we'd gotten an early start, I'm sure she would have melted down much earlier in the day. Our last stop before we left was the gift shop, where we let her pick out a cup, a bowl, and a plate. She insisted on using them for dinner that night.

We returned to the house and headed out for dinner with Mary and Josh. My parents had volunteered with watch the kids for us one night so that the 4 of us could go on a kid-free double date. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera, and so did my sister, so I have no pictures. But it was a great time. We went to a place called Margarita Grill, a place Josh and Mary had spotted while driving around. The food was delicious, and I could not finish my gigantic burrito. And maybe part of the reason was because I knew we were going to get ice cream afterwards. We went back to Trail's End, where I got a waffle bowl with a scoop of chocolate ice cream and a scoop of coconut. So delicious.

We came home just in time to put the kidlets to bed, and then the 4 of us headed down to the resort's game room, where we played air hockey and pool. It was fun, even though I suck at both games. Mary and I played each other in air hockey, and it was like a comedy of errors... I kept scoring in my own goal, one time even managing to do it before the game had really started. That's real talent, people.

And so ended Thursday. I'll combine Friday and Saturday into one entry, which will be the last of the vacation pictures.

To be concluded...

Loon Mountain and Sabbaday Falls

Wednesday, August 5

On Wednesday, Tony, Ari and I split up from the rest of the family to do our own thing--mainly, Loon Mountain. This was the place where Tony proposed to me 12 years ago, so it was on the top of my Things to Do list. We inadvertently picked the crappiest day of the week to do this--it was cloudy and hazy, with a small rainstorm around lunchtime--but it was still a lot of fun. And at least it wasn't pouring down rain or anything.

We rode a gondola to the top of the mountain, which Ari thought was pretty cool.



When we got to the top, we pretty much made a beeline for The Spot--well, as much as you can "make a beeline" for anything when you have a straggly toddler in tow. We were alone there for a few moments, until someone walked by and offered to take our picture.



I stepped back to get a better shot of the whole platform--didn't quite fit in the whole frame, but you get the idea.



I snapped this shot right before we left The Spot. It may just be my favorite picture of the whole day.



We walked around the summit a little more--there's a pretty lake off to one side.



There's even a little "chapel" area set up--they hold church services up here every so often. I don't think I'd be able to pay attention to the sermon with a view like that.



We took some time to explore some of the glacial caves up there. A lot of them had long ladders, and/or muddy bottoms, so we didn't do all of them, but Ari didn't seem to mind. She had fun with the ones she did.



When we were done with the caves, it started sprinkling a little, which was kind of perfect timing, since we were pretty much done up there. We rode the gondola back down, poked around the gift shop a little (found Ari a small stuffed loon on clearance for only 95 cents--score!), then went back to the car. There's a picnic area along the river at the base of the mountain, and we had packed a lunch for ourselves. The rain had picked up a little at this point, so we simply ate in the car, and again, the timing was perfect--when we were done eating, the rain had stopped. We got out to explore the river. Ari absolutely loved it. She wasn't at all fazed by the cold water, and several times, Tony had to almost literally pull her back, to keep her from getting too far away or into water that was too deep for her. The child has no fear, I swear. She spent the whole time searching for rocks and sticks to throw into the river. I think I am just going to buy her a big bundle of sticks and a bag of rocks for Christmas.



Another self-portrait...



Throwing sticks...



I love this shot...



See how Tony is holding her shirt in this one?



I love this picture (notice how Ari is sticking her foot out at me). If only that lady in the background weren't there. It's times like this I wish I knew Photoshop.



After we left Loon Mountain, we took a drive along the Kancamagus Highway--it's a beautiful stretch of road with several scenic lookout points. Our last stop of the day was Sabbaday Falls. When Tony and I were in the White Mountains in 2005, we spent most of our time hunting down various waterfalls in the area. Out of all of them, this was one of my favorites. It's a bit of a walk until you get to the falls, but it's worth it. Here's the first glimpse of the falls.



A bit closer...





Look how pretty...



This was a little upriver of the falls.



Of course Ari wanted to get right into the river... and 2 seconds later, she declared, "I have to go potty." (And yes, I asked her if she had to go back in the parking lot, before we started the hike.)



So Tony rinsed out her Crocs and we booked it back to the outhouse in the parking lot. But I managed to snap one last shot before we left. I kind of liked the way this broken tree branch frames the shot.



And that was Wednesday. I can't remember what we did the rest of the day--I'm guessing we just did dinner back at the house with the family, and had a lazy night.

The next day was all about Ari.

To be continued...