Sometimes you get the bear. . .

For Lynn

Mom's new "do." She finally lost the perm!

Sugar Days

Adam surprised us all this weekend with a trip to Malabar Farm for the Maple Syrup Festival. The sugar only "runs" for a few weeks every year, and we've never made it up there on the right weekend before. Here are the Littles waiting in line for the horse-drawn wagons to take us up to the sugar shack.

There were a lot of people visiting the farm this weekend, so they had 10 wagons running at a time. We didn't get to ride in one of the covered wagons, but the kids wanted me to take a picture of one anyway.

The view as we were riding in our wagon.

Passing other wagons on our way up the hill.

Heath looking in one of the buckets.

The kids liked to see how much sugar sap was in the buckets as we passed them.

Some of the presenters.

Not historically accurate, by the way. Evidently before the arrival of the Europeans, only the women and the children made the sugar. After the Europeans arrived, the native Americans taught them how to make the sugar, then traded them other goods for sugar instead of making it themselves.

The kids watching the process.

The native Americans made huge troughs out of logs. They heated the sugar syrup to boiling by constantly placing hot rocks from a nearby fire into the syrup. This presenter was pulling the cooled rocks out of the syrup, placing them back in the fire, then bringing over new hot rocks.

Sugar steam rising when a new rock is placed in the syrup. The presenters said it would smell like cotton candy, but we all thought it smelled like maple syrup.

When the Europeans came over, they brought metal pots. Now the syrup could be boiled directly over the fire.

Heath checking out another bucket.

I didn't get a picture of the modern vats, because we've been to a friend's sugar shack before.

Taking a break to eat hot dogs that were boiled in sugar sap. They were better than that sounds! There was a live folk bank playing in the other room, but it was too crowded for us to find seats in there.

In the wagon heading back down the hill.

We stayed in Bellville in the hotel with the small water park. Here the kids are ready to go.

Heath's way in the background with me, though you can't really see us. We didn't get any other pictures of Heath because he spend most of the night on the water slide and it wasn't safe to have the camera near all of the splashing. The girls loved the side with the baby pool.

Carrie is waiting for another bucket of water to douse her in the splash zone.

More splash zone shots.

Back at the room in new jammies.

10 Years

My dad died 10 years ago today, so I've been thinking about him a lot lately. I've been thinking about all of the things that have changed in the past 10 years, and what my dad would have thought about them.

I think he'd be sad that Alex is in Los Angeles, because he'd miss him and he'd be worried about him. I was older than Alex when I lived out there, but not by much, and I remember how much he worried about us then. I'm sure that I didn't call often enough to alleviate some of that worry, so I think it made him happy when I moved back to Ohio.

I also think my dad would be really proud of the direction that Ari is heading right now. He'd be glad that she's reaching for her dreams. I think he'd be more understanding than I was about her putting all of her eggs in one basket with college. He'd be happy that she made her choice early and got into the school she really wanted even if it will be challenging for me to let her go to Connecticut when she is still so young. I guarantee that even though he wouldn't be able to drive if he were alive now, he'd have her Wesleyan sticker on the back window of his car.

I think my dad would have loved Adam as a son-in-law. He'd be happy to see how he takes care of all of us and has such a focus on our family. My dad would probably putter around with Adam on his projects - and make him straighten up the work bench. He'd probably have a fit that our tools aren't organized like his were!

I know my dad would love the Littles. He'd laugh at Heath's antics and sit with the girls for hours. My dad never let his illness interfere with his relationship with any of the grandkids. (Though there were just 4 with one on the way when he died - I'm sure he'd be shocked that there are 9 now!) The week my Dad died we'd put a hospital bed in one of the front bedrooms of the house. Alex had received a basketball hoop for his tenth birthday (March 6th), and we set it up at my parents' house instead of our townhouse so that my dad could watch Alex play ball in the driveway. And every time Dad was in the hospital, he had all of the grandkids sit on the bed with him. We had some rollicking parties in those rooms, and the kids were in and out all of the time. I'm sure we drove the other patients nuts, but we were living to the end.

I think Dad would be happy that Mom lives with us, because it means that she's not alone. And even though the kids are too much for her sometimes, every day she still has purpose. She's not spending the rest of her life in mourning, though I know she still misses him all of the time.

I'm thankful that my Dad always knew who we were; he forgot a lot of things, but he held on to us to the end. And even more importantly, he held on to himself to the end; Alzheimer's didn't steal that from him either. It stole too many years, and it stole a lot of cognitive things, but my Dad was my Dad until the day he died.

And I still miss him.

Cheese Whiz!

If there is a sudden increase in the art of making homemade cheese in our area, the credit will go to Christine and Jason. They threw an incredibly fun cheese-making, pizza-baking party on Saturday.

I think we're going to order cheese-making supplies online, because Carrie has been asking to make more cheese since we got home Saturday night! We may have to ask for rush delivery because we've eaten most of our cheese already. . .

Of course, we're also going to have to purchase Rock Band at some point, because we couldn't get enough of that either. Christine and Jason have the best toys!!!!

Carrie spend most of the night with the microphone in her hand. Which was fine with us, because we did not want that thing to get into Heath's hands. His "singing" sent a few of us running from the kitchen to the movie room to see what was wrong.

This may have been the only moment of peace Jason had throughout the entire party. Heath attached himself to Jason's side at some point and talked Zelda all night long. Jason is a very good sport!

Heath rocks out.

See - real guitarists don't sit on the couch!

Christine kneads the cheese while Nancy, Carrie, and Quin watch with very serious expressions.

Jessica and Stephanie watch from the other side of the counter.

Anna fascinates Sue and Beth while Gina and Shane look on.

Chewie is taking a well-deserved break.

The girls would not leave Christine alone - they loved making the cheese.