Stardate 64596.41 - Thanksgiving in July

We had our annual Thanksgiving in July event this summer the last weekend of July at my Uncle Herb and Aunt Randi's place in Connecticut. As usual, there was a lot of interest in the pool.

He had recently had a massive tree come down in his back yard, hence the straw and grass seed.

Loren put on a vest so that she could go into the deep end and had a great time swimming and swimming around and keeping up with the bigger kids, like her cousin Zach.

Kate enjoyed the same red and yellow car that Loren enjoyed 3 years ago (the last time the event was in Connecticut).

Kate demonstrated her love of all things sweet and messy.

The cousins all enjoyed the play house (I have never asked why one wall is missing).

Herb and Randi's Great Dane kept a watchful eye on everyone.

When we were trying to pack up Sunday morning to return to NYC Kate just couldn't keep out of the pool.

A great big "Thank You!" to Herb and Randi for hosting it this year. I hear next year is Ginger's turn since she couldn't make it this year. :-)

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Stardate 63911.87 - Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to the beach house early Thursday morning. As we were getting ready to go, Kate started cooking her version of Thanksgiving dinner and Loren was busy working her sticker book.


Before Thanksgiving dinner Loren told me she "wanted to go for a walk". I suggested the sea wall, to look at the bay, or perhaps around town to see what houses were up for sale. She took my hand and started up the street and said, "No, Daddy. The school playground." So that is where we went.


There is a great view from the school down to the town of Highlands and Sandy Hook bay, then Sandy Hook and the Atlantic Ocean beyond that.


We apparently never got the camera out during the dinner at Elaine and Dave's place, probably because we were too busy chasing the kids around. On Friday we hung around the house, played with chalk outside on the back patio, and went to Cheryl's Grandmother's place for dinner. On Saturday we took the kids to the Monmouth Museum where they had a great time in the aquatic and space rooms.


Here Loren space walks...


Here Loren and Kate visit the Moon.


I don't want to spoil the illusion, but I see little pink fingers floating next to the space helmet.


We came back into the city early Sunday to beat the traffic, but not before snapping a few photos in the beach house at breakfast.



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Stardate 62933.12 - Last of Thanksgiving

They are the pictures that keep on giving! Here are a few more shots from Thanksgiving in Virginia.





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Stardate 62920.3 - Thanksgiving, by Mom

Here are a few photos Mom took at Ginger's place in Virginia during Thanksgiving day.




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Stardate 62917.64 - Thanksgiving, by Dad

Here are some photos my Dad (Granddad) took over Thanksgiving and e-mailed to me. Dad came down from Richmond for a few hours on Friday to visit with us. (My Mom posted pictures to Kodak Gallery and while you used to be able to download lower resolution versions from their site, they seem to have disabled that ability. I'll have to ask her to e-mail me a few of them and I can post some here.)

Here we are around the dining room table...


And here Loren and I walk with our walking sticks down to the creek.


And here Loren practices throwing things into the creek.


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Stardate 62914.12 - Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Cheryl and I decided to do things a little differently. With her due date in January, we decided we won't be traveling over Christmas. Since it was the year to visit Virginia for Christmas (we alternate between families), we decided to go down there over Thanksgiving instead. To try and avoid traffic as well as many Loren-requested stops, we left Wednesday evening at 7 PM. Loren slept in the car starting around 9:45 or so, and with only 2 stops we made it to Verona at 1:40 AM Thursday morning. It made for a tired day on Thanksgiving, but the trip was faster than if Loren had been awake and demanding a stop every couple of hours or so. Saturday night we did the same thing, leaving Virginia at 7 PM and arriving back home around 1:15 AM Sunday morning.

We did the Thanksgiving meal at Ginger's, where Aidan, Zach, and Loren played dress-up before lunch was served.




Loren got a little time in with the XBox 360.


After the meal was over we hung out for a while, catching up.


Later today or tomorrow I'll post some more pictures, but we didn't really take too many. My Mom will probably send me of hers and I'll post some of those.

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Stardate 62551.44 - Thanksgiving in July, 2008

As I've blogged about previously (in 2007 and 2006), our family does Thanksgiving (observed) in summer to avoid the traffic and headache of Thanksgiving (actual). This year, my cousin Angelique and her husband Laurence hosted at their new place in upstate New York. We took Friday off and drove up there in about 3.5 hours, arriving shortly before 1 PM. The big festivities were planned for Saturday, so getting there a day early gave us a chance to visit with Angelique and her family as well as the people who arrived early. We also could let Loren settle into a bit of a pattern before it got really crowded on Saturday.

Loren had a lot of fun playing with the Nerf rocket-launcher in the front yard. Of course, with the bigger kids playing also two of the three rockets ended up on the roof but one had made it back down to the yard by the time we left.


Here her cousin Zach helps her to drive down the driveway in the "little red car".


Loren also tried out the roller skates, but didn't enjoy them too much.


On the first day she spent a lot of time in the pool, kicking around in a small inflatable boat for over an hour. On Saturday, however, she didn't want to get back into the water and preferred to play in the yard.


Here Nana, Kracker, Aunt Ginger, and Dave chat at the pool.


Loren spent a lot of time pulling toy after toy out of the garage to play with. I'm not even sure what that thing is by my feet, but the bouncy ball was great fun for about 15 minutes until something else caught her eye.


We had a great time, drank a lot of great beer and wine, and enjoyed visiting with the extended family--some of whom we hadn't seen in a year. We had an uneventful trip back on Sunday, stopping briefly at Target in Harriman to pick up some more Disney Pixar cars for Loren (yes, Denise, we thought about calling you since we were so close to your house but Loren kept insisting on getting home and didn't even want us stopping for lunch!).

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Stardate 61898.19 - Thanksgiving

I know I'm a little late, but for Thanksgiving Day we drove in NJ with yet another load of stuff to put into the attic at Cheryl's parents' house for storage. We then went to Aunt Elaine and Uncle Dave's place for Thanksgiving dinner. Loren didn't take her normal nap since we got to NJ right at nap time and she was too excited and spun up about seeing "Grandma" and "Grandpop" to take a nap. So she fell asleep in the car on the way to Elaine and Dave's, and didn't want to wake up for dinner. Cheryl carried her into the house and put her on the couch where she proceeded to sleep through dinner. We finally had to wake her up after 2 hours of nap or we'd never have gotten her to sleep once we got home. And speaking of home, we had one of our quickest trips back through the Lincoln Tunnel Thursday night!

Friday we put Loren into daycare and spent all day going through closets, putting items into the throw away or donation or storage piles. We made excellent progress and will be ready for the packers on Monday!

For all our non-NJ relatives and visitors, the picture at the top of the post was taken as I climbed the stairs up to the main level of Elaine and Dave's house, looking out towards the river.

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Stardate 61605.25 - Last Shot from Saturday

Here are the last couple of pictures I'm going to post from the Saturday event in Connecticut (these were taken by my cousin Justin). The top one I like because my Uncle Herb is in it and also because I'm in it - I usually seem to take the photos or for some other reason I don't think I post a lot with me in them. In the photo below Cheryl and Loren hang out with Zach at the (literal) kid's table.

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Stardate 61599.31 - More Pictures from Saturday

Here is a picture my Mom took of me and Alex (my second cousin? first cousin once removed? I forget which - she is the child of my cousin). And the photo below is on me and Cheryl talking to my cousin Angelique, who is due in a couple of months.


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Stardate 61592.68 - Thanksgiving in August

As I have mentioned before in a post from 2006, we decided that Thanksgiving in November is too cold, that the roads are too crowded, and that people hate traveling. So we decided to move our family's Thanksgiving celebration to the summer when the weather is nice, the roads are not too bad, and people don't mind the travel.

This year the event was in Connecticut (state motto, "He who transplanted still sustains"), at my Uncle Herb and Aunt Randi's place. Loren really enjoyed the pool and riding in or on the different inflatable boats in the pool.

Cousin Justin supervises the kids, water pistol at the ready.


I keep a close eye on Loren, but she has pretty good balance and never fell off. (No comments on my farmer's tan, my body hair, how out-of-shape I am, or my white chest).


Loren, Cheryl, and our nephew Zach get ready to eat the Thanksgiving meal.


The hot tub made a perfect buffet table.


We tried to get a picture of all the kids, but as anyone with kids knows, that was nearly impossible.


Here my mom, grandmother (Ma-Maw), my sister Tracy, and her son Zach pose with me an Loren for a "four-generation" picture.


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