"I went on a hike wif Daddy"

Tom took Amelia on a hike Monday morning - he took her and Yoda up the same mountain he's hiked a million times, but this was the first time this year and when she was old enough to "get it." She had a BLAST. They picked blueberries and ate them on the way and has talked about it ever since. She felt very important going just "wif Daddy" and going "in his backpack." She sadly also lost her hat - but didn't seem too devastated (it wasn't a Spiderman hat, thank goodness).

Just starting out...

Eating blueberries

At the top

The view...

The view with a cuter focal point...

Caps Ridge Hike

I went up to see my friend Jim Gooch yesterday. We hiked the Caps Ridge Trail up Mr. Jefferson. The Caps Ridge is unique because the parking lot is at 3000 feet. This still leaves 2.5 miles of hard uphilll but almost all of it is above tree-line. It makes for a day of really good views.

All of the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/CapsRidgeWithGooch?authkey=Gv1sRgCJuXtdylp4itlAE#

Of course she walked up here all by herself :)

Queen of the mountain! (in her shoes that light up)

Look who found some mud...

We couldn't have staged it better...he just walked right in front of us!

I look very zen here... but really I"m just huffin' and puffin' and needing to rest :)

While we fully realize that most of these posts just fly out into the ether we also know that there are some loyal followers out there that have been patiently waiting for another post.

We left the cable for downloading at home so all I can tell you, dear readers, is this.

Saturday morning I climbed Buck Mountain with Amelia in the backpack.

• There were lots of bugs.
• It was muddy.
• At the top there were blue berries and Amelia ate them right off the bush.

Love you all.

Sunset and Hiking

This was the from the dock at Lake George last night. This is a good vacation.



Today Amelia and I hiked up a small ridge behind the house. It gives a nice view of the Lake from the very southern end where we are.
I rounded out the day by buying a shop vac and catching a one pound bass. Probably actually about 2/3 pounds but why not round up?

Hiking Weekend

We had a hiking day today. I couldn't do much to help Heidi with a sick Amelia but I could take Yoda away for the day.



We began the day early--at midnight. Grammie came in and told us that her dog Champ and Yoda had run off. She had been looking for them for an hour and had almost gotten stuck on a snowy road. I got dressed, spent 10 minutes trying to find my glasses and then went out to start my car. While this happened Edie had gone out in her car again. As I was leaving the house Heidi said why don't you just call for him.

I gave one call--a bark responded.

I gave another--another bark.

In about 30 seconds they came back.

But now we had lost Grammie. We tried calling her cell phone but there isn't great reception near her house. We finally found her and we all went back to bed.

Amelia was now screaming and continued to scream for about an hour. I told Heidi to go sleep on the couch and finally Amelia calmed down--for a while. She was up again at 4am and I sustained her screaming for about 45 minutes when I realized that I was clenching my jaw so much that it hurt. I got Heidi and we traded off.



The rest of the day went very well. The dogs ran like crazy, the views were good and we had a great lunch at Biederman's.


For all of the pictures from hiking to ice fishing later in the day--check this out.
http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/FishingDerbyWeekend2009?authkey=3KFlRGTheCY##

Some Winter Hiking

While Heidi and Amelia enjoyed swimming lessons in a 90 degree room, my friends Nesbitt, Matt and his fiance Heidi hiked Mt. Webster. Our original plan had been to hike Garfield but we realized that would be a 12 mile day. So we opted for the Webster Jackson loop which would put us in for more like a 6 mile day. This was a good move, as we wound up breaking trail for much of the hike.


The day was uncharacteristic for a NH winter day. We often have clear weather but that weather often comes with high winds in the mountains. There was a little wind at the top but for a region that can have sustained winds near 50 it was a calm day.

It was very, very cold though. We were all outfitted with warm gear, except for Col the dog, but we had some cold cheeks and some frosty eyelashes.

And at the end of the hike we went to Matt's house for some food and drink. We were all so tired that we were in bed by 9:30.

Check out all of the pictures from our hike below--its worth a look--there are some good ones.

http://picasaweb.google.com/crumlives/WebsterHikeWinter2008?authkey=Lv7nFTvD7Ys#

Mt. Major--Again

Three moderately interesting things happened today.

1. We woke up to a beautiful day and decided to hike nearby Mt. Major. We got there at just the right time, and hiked a little known trail successfully avoiding the hoards of people hiking the main trail. When we got to the bottom there at least 300 cars parked along the sides of the road.

Some photos:

2. Last night we had an awesome surprise visit from our friends Gooch and Jamie. He had played in a rugby match in Canterbury and they stopped by on their way home. Heidi was working on the computer and heard doors close. The next thing she knew she could hear footsteps approaching and then a figure emerging from the darkness. All I heard from the kitchen was her yelling "Jamie!!!" Her terror faded to excitement and she yelled to me that Gooch and Jamie were in the front yard. We both love surprise visits so we were very happy to have them stop by for a few hours. We spoke in measured tones about the presidential race and at the late, late hour of 9:30 they headed for home.

3. The best for last. We spent our first evening away from Amelia. We like her so it wasn't like we were rushing out of the house but we are told that we should occassionally do things without our kid so we gave it a try. Grammie Perkins came over to sit for Amelia and we went to Baptism class. Baptism class is a series of 3--one hour discussions with everyone who is having their kid baptized on Nov. 2 and the priest. We are fairly into it having both been raised going to church every week but we have been a little amused by the people that are there but not really there. One poor guy is clearly really sad about the hour of football that he is missing.

After baptism class we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and then ran some errands at Target. It dawned on me as I waited for Heidi to check out that we had just completed a very "adult" day. I remember my parents leaving us and doing exactly the kind of thing that we had just done.

So to prove I wasn't totally grown up yet--when we got home I dove in a pile of leaves

Special thanks to Grammie for giving us our first night alone.

Also--Heidi wanted to mention that because we are both teachers and nerds we had a participation contest during baptism class. We competed to see who could answer the most questions. She won 4-3.

Ferocious

7 April 2008

Look at this maw.

This picture also is a way of saying good bye to one of our favorite outfits. Amelia is already starting to grow out of things. Her ever expanding belly moved her out of preemie diapers and yesterday she was long enough that she could not stretch her legs in this one.

Also this weekend I went on a little hike with Matt, Heidi and their puppies. Heidi's puppy is already getting a little big to hold as you can see in this picture. The view is from nearby Mt. Major--one that we hike all the time.