Christmas Parade

Sage danced in the Christmas Parade tonight. Their costumes were beautiful and the girls all looked like Santa's helpers. Unfortunately, a fuse blew in the speakers so they didn't have music and when it came time for the dance to introduce Santa, beside there being no music, the crowd wouldn't move for them to dance. Because most of their dance included kicks, it was a challenge for them to dance and not take out a kid or two... Oh well, it would have been okay if we hadn't given up our trip to Vermont for Val's cookie party. I guess there's always next year!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Had brunch at Nanny and Bampy's and this is a photo of all the cousins (sans Travis and Chad, so Adam and Chase are holding their pics). Stuffed ourselves silly on popovers, ham, eggs, biscotti, etc, etc, etc,. Then we went to Michelle and Deb's for dinner and ate all over again, turkey, stuffing, rolls, veggies, gravy, etc, etc, etc,.... But, boy was everything yummy!!! Michelle introduced us to letter boxing (kind of a lesser version of geo-caching) and had set up a hunt for the box and gave us clues and stamps. It was a blast and we looked up other sights in the area to try to find on another day. We thought it might be fun to try this when we're visiting a new place to see what that area may have set up. Missed Mom and Dad and Lis and Matt, who are all together at Lissa's today - wished we all lived closer so we could celebrate more holidays together... Oh well, at least we get great places to go on vacation when we go visit them.

Hope everyone had as a great a Thanksgiving as we did!

Ski Season Has Arrived!

Sugarloaf is open!!!!

Football Season

Chase's football season ended last week with a banquet where the teams and players were recognized and got t-shirts with their names on the back! This was Chase's first year playing football, switching from years of soccer and he had a fabulous season! He had the most tackles and according to him, the most sacks (and I think he's right).

Because of his soccer experience he became their kicker/punter as well and this is a pic I got has he kicked for an extra point, successfully!

We were told at the beginning of the season that our local team never wins in football, but luckily Chase didn't hear that and his team won all their games except for one. He loved football, but misses soccer so we'll see what he chooses next season. Though he's now focused on the upcoming ski season that actually starts Friday! Whohoo!

Field Hockey

Sage finished her field hockey season a few weeks ago on a successful note. Last year they struggled to win even one game and this year started a little shaky, but the score board was much closer than last year on each game. Her coach (our good friend Deb) decided to dangle a carrot in front of them (or more like a worm). She promised to eat a worm for every goal scored. It worked, they won the next game 3-0, tied one of the top teams 1-1, and then won their last game 3-1 (I think that was the score). Well Deb never dreamt it'd mean that many worms!!! But, boy were the girls psyched to end on a winning note! Next year it means pre-season as Sage will be starting high school, yikes!

Columbus Day Weekend

Okay, my sister says I'm lame and don't update my blogs enough, she's right. Here are a couple of photos from Columbus Day weekend. We went up to Sugarloaf for the weekend. They were running the SuperQuad and we got to ride up the mountain and then hike down. We packed a lunch and had a great day. As you can see, it was beautiful out! Now we can't wait for the snow to fly. It was too much work on foot when we know how fast we can get down on skis!

Rowe Family Reunion

I'm finally taking some time to update our page. This is our Rowe (my great-grandparents who have long sinced passed away) family reunion representing four generations. At the end of July, we all got together at my parents' house for a day of reconnecting and of course, eating good, home-cooked food.

As my Gram (Grammie Rowe's daughter) passed away just the month before this year's reunion, and her sister a couple of months before that, we spent a lot of time reminiscing. My Gram loved to dance when she was younger and she and her sister danced the Charleston at a celebration one summer when Gram was about 60 (I thought she was old then, but that was over 30 years ago!). Well, the week before Gram passed, Sage serendipitously learned the Charleston at her dance studio. Just before the reunion, she taught her cousins, Sara and Jenna, how to dance it, and they all danced, along w/my mom at the reunion (that's them resting in the photo just above on the right).

And Chase enjoyed playing croquet with the boys, cousins Nicholas, Dominic, and Matthew. I think they just hit the balls and not each other with the mallets....

The other two photos are cousins, Jenna, Sara, Jackson, Peg, Diane and my mom and then a photo of my Mom, Dad, my mom's sister, Aunt Carolyn, and my mom's brother and wife, Uncle Leon and Aunt Betty. They realized they are now the older generation at the reunion, something I don't think they liked very much... Of course, that moved Mike and I up to the middle-aged generation, which I know I don't like at all!

Colorado Trip

Spent last week in Colorado visiting with my family on my Dad's side. My goddaughter, Vicki (obviously also my namesake...) got married with the foothills of the beautiful Rockies as a backdrop. The pic of us dressed up was taken at her wedding. We then spent the week visiting with 50 or so cousins and relatives, including my parents, my sister and her family from Idaho and my brother from Nevada. We went to see the Colorado Rockies play (no wonder the Red Sox had a sweep in the World Series last year...), drove through torrential rains in Rocky Mountain National Park where it was probably a godsend we couldn't see the drop offs at over 11,000 feet, spent a day in Vail spending way too much for Vail logo stuff, and eating our way through the week with countless brunches, BBQ's, and dinners together. We also celebrated my Uncle Will's 80th b-day! It was a great week and I hated to say good-bye to everyone at the end.

Summer Camp

Sage finished field hockey camp today and learned a lot over the week. I could see her improve daily (there were games each night that we could go and watch). Ok, I'm going to be a proud mom and brag a little... the all-star team was announced this morning and Sage made the team and played in the exhibition game right before camp ended. I'm not sure who was more happy, Sage or her Dad (we sent him a text to let him know and he got it in the middle of a meeting). She's exhausted this evening and has spent most of it reading and resting.

Chase has one more day of baseball camp and just loves Coach J. Chase said there's sometimes too much talking, so I asked him if he listened and he said "I don't know". Then he proceeded to give me in detail how to hold a baseball when you play catcher, he stopped talking, looked at me and then said, "I guess I was listening!" I couldn't stop chuckling at his look of amazement when he realized he had listened.

Duguay Family Reunion

Two weeks ago we got the whole Duguay family together (minus Chad...). There were 4 generations in attendance starting with Al and Toni Duguay, then the next generation (which I'm part of, how old am I....) Vickie (not me, my sister-in-law), Patti, Laurie, Leslie, Mel, and Mike with spouses (me and the rest of the "outlaws"), followed by the next generation with included my kids, Sage and Chase, plus all their cousins, and there is now another generation. Vickie, Patti, Leslie, and Mel are all grandmothers and have between them, 9 grandchildren plus one on the way. The day was beautiful and we spent it in the pool at Laurie's house.

July 08

The kids are at summer camp this week. Sage is at her field hockey camp and Chase has been attending baseball camp with Coach J. As of tonight, Sage's team has won 3 of 4 games and Sage scored twice in those games (I got to see one of the goals!!!). Chase came home from baseball camp and was excited about a play he made at home plate. He was playing catcher and tagged a guy out who trying to slide into home plate! Coach J. is an awesome coach and I wish all teams could have him!
Mike and Chase went to the Sea Dogs game tonight because Big Papi from the Red Sox was making a rare appearance. For those non-Red Sox fans, he is the Babe Ruth of our time. I spent all last week trying to score those tix and gave up our anniversary (which is today) for that game. But seeing Chase's face made it all worth it.

It's Gone!!!

Sage very generously donated 11 inches of her hair this June to Locks for Love. Although it has been painful for her not to have a ponytail, I am so proud of her. The part I struggle with now is her new haircut has made her look much older (something she keeps telling me doesn't matter, she just can't wait for it to grow back).

Pinewood Derby

Chase (and Mike...) spent hours making the car for the Pinewood Derby held in June. Although it wasn't the fastest car, it was voted Best in Show! Chase was so proud of his car (and his dad!).