A Season in Pictures: The Leadville Mining Hall of Fame

This is from a huge room of mini-dioramas explaining mining, starting with the Gold Rush; I loved this depiction of sluice-mining.



A canary in a coal mine, just one tiny part of just one of the amazing 'mines' you can walk through here. They really give you an idea of what miners' days were (and are) like!



A huge sculpture of a miner, mining. I also loved the elaborate stained glass windows, depicting everything from jackhammers to those huge dump trucks, one of which you can see behind the sculpture.

The pictures simply do not do this place justice. We walked in thinking, 'okay, we'll spend an hour, how exciting can a museum about mining be?' And left thinking, 'whoa.'

If you're ever in Leadville, Colorado, it is worth a stop!

Perfect Ski Soundtrack

I bet you have songs that you associate with memories. I sure do, and the one song that has come up frequently while the boys and I visit my folks in the Colorado Rockies is What's Up? by 4 Non Blondes. It's a song that has always brought me back to really good times, and for some reason I associate it especially with skiing.

Growing up, skiing in my family was more than just a pastime - it was an instition. My parents' first date was skiing in rural Quebec, my brothers and I were skiiers before we were five, and we skiied every winter, often getting up before dawn and driving five hours to our favorite ski hills in Vermont and New Hampshire. It was the only thing that I would willingly get up before noon for on a weekend, and a big reason why winter is still my favorite season.

Naturally, when my folks retired from the rat race, they didn't head to Florida; they took a hard right turn, and have spent the last dozen years poo-pooing our Eastern icy skiing conditions and grabbing fresh powder by the fistful out here in the West. It really is a most remarkable place.

So, 4 Non Blondes! Maybe What's Up? gets a lot of play at ski hills, because I already associated it with skiing before yesterday, when I heard it twice, first sitting in a base lodge and feeling absolutely high on the best day of skiing I've had since before Luke and Owen came along. For the first time ever, I got above the timberline without being dragged and/or nervous, and just was loving everything about it: the steeps, the bumps, the view, the sun on my face, the wide-open feeling of being at the top of the world.

I almost got an all is right with the world feeling (want to know what that is? Click here), sitting in the base lodge and thinking back on an incredible day of skiing with my father. Almost, but not quite - that feeling came about half an hour later when, on the three-minute drive back up to my parents' home, What's Up? started in the parking lot and finished in their driveway.

It turns out, that's like my Dad's favorite song! So he cranked up the sound and we had all the windows down, singing our heads off heading up the mountain.

To me, just at that moment, all really was right with the world.

The Month That Keeps On Giving

Since this hasn't been a year in which somebody close to us got married in September, we've had to find other ways to keep busy. And we have! So busy, in fact, that getting time to blog about it all has been hard. Here's a sampling of what us Stone Age Techies have been up to:

We visited Plimoth Plantation, practically all by our onesies because it's too early for field trips yet. And, other than getting attacked by the English Village's chickens as we attempted to eat lunch, we had a great time.



We were all fascinated with canoe-making...



And charcoal-making.

Both boys also loved the Mayflower II, docked in Plymouth Harbor.



They were totally nonplussed by Plymouth Rock, however.



"Mom, it's just... a rock." You can almost hear Luke's silent 'WTF?' ... if he knew what WTF? meant.

And then! Oh, we went on a camping trip to Cape Cod, with friends who know what there is to do on Cape Cod. What a trip!



This, and the following pics, are from Fort Hill on the Cape. The lack of houses and people astounded me, I've always thought of the Cape as a place of ice-cream shacks and little tourist cabins lined up, side by each. But no, there are entire acres pretty well undeveloped:









We were all fascinated with the view, but returned quickly to camera-hamming:



Then we went off to Skaket Beach, timed just right to hit low tide:



Notice that, to take this pic, I am standing way the heck off shore, facing the land. The rock has that orange buoy attached because, at high tide, it's totally submerged. I don't know why I think that is so cool, but I really do think it is.

Then, to top off the weekend, we had Flax Pond at Nickerson State Park all to ourselves! And Luke learned how to kayak:



He was so free out there on the water, wandering any old which way he wanted to.

Thanks, Carrie and family, for a great weekend... when we next come up for air, I will be sure to post some pics about our adventures!

Dragons, and Knitting, and Gifts from the Sea

That picture about sums up our recent trip to Myrtle Beach. It was awesome. There's really no other word for it. See how the water is the same color as the clouds? It was like that at twilight each night, it almost looked like the water was invisible except for the seafoam.

We stayed in a campground right on the ocean, took walks nearly every day, and swam. A lot. Also, there was this ever-changing waterway just down the beach, which we enjoyed immensely:







Ben took most of those pics up there. He also took several pictures of these dogs, having a blast in the waves:



Together, we took a sum total of about ten pictures on the whole trip. There was just so much else to do!

I brought all kinds of knitting books, and a couple of projects-in-progress, and got a whole afternoon to myself for yarn shopping. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd spend so much of my vacation thinking about yarn, but it worked somehow. In fact, it worked well.

And, when I wasn't knitting or frolicking by the sea, I was thinking about dragons. We all were, because Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is home to this amazing place called MagiQuest, where you get a wand, and it really works. This was extra-special since it was Owen's first time, and going on quests and adventures with him reminded me how truly magical things can be, even if they originate with an RFID chip.

Purely coincidentally, I brought the four amazing Dragons of Deltora books for Luke; we shared them back and forth over our trip. So, when I wasn't thinking about evil dragons and wizards and the runes of MagiQuest, I was thinking about the good dragons in the mythical land of Deltora.

These were the threads that ran through our vacation by the ocean. They were brought together into a lovely bright cloth by means of a book, written in the 1950's and loaned to me by a friend: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It's about being a wife, mother, and woman in modern America - it could have been written last week, it feels so relevant. Reading it at night, with the surf pounding outside, elevated a merely great visit into an amazing, meaningful holiday.

Finding the Beauty - Day 5

Today, a field trip in pictures. First, we have The Book Barn. My gosh! What a place:

Next, it was off to an amazing state park in Connecticut:

We topped it all off with ice cream (Thanks Jen:-) Yum!

Soul Restoration, Part One

I've written before about my concerns for Luke, our wonderful, sensitive, fragile boy who sometimes seems a bit too sensitive and fragile. Recently, my worries resurfaced when a friend mentioned that he seemed to be having a down sort of week. My initial answer to her was, no, he's been fine - but then I thought about it. He's fine when hanging in a small group, or reading, or horsing around with Owen, but put him out on a playground, with hordes of kids, or at pick-up baseball, again with lots of kids, and he just goes to pieces. He'll pull off by himself, cry, ask to go sit in the car, anything to get away from the overwhelming noise and motion of fifty children and umpteen simultaneous games of tag.

You'd think I would have noticed, right? Well, no. I really didn't, and putting the guilt I feel about this aside, looking at the problem head-on, I think I know why: it is because Luke used to be more vocal in his displeasure. A lot more vocal. No one can miss a kid who screams bloody murder in public, right? But his new habit of going off quietly allowed me to ignore his pain. I knew where he was, but paid no attention to his state of mind.

Or more precisely, the state of Luke's soul. I am not particularly religious, and I use the word soul in the sense of spirit, of a person's true heart center. But when my friend brought up the sadness she saw at these big gatherings, I realized that I needed to do something.

The solution? Old Sturbridge Village. With friends.

The animals we came across really helped.

So did the potters.

Poor Ben, I have pestered him almost ceaselessly since we got home about how we might get ourselves a pottery wheel - or, build one maybe. (Anyone know how we might acquire one, or create one?)

And the cool thing is, our day restored more souls than just Luke's.

A beautiful fall day, when the trees are just beginning to turn, spent in the company of friends, was healing for me, too, in a way that I didn't even realize I'd needed.

I know that this can't be the whole solution for my son; one day, one small outing, can't 'fix' it all. But I'm looking at this day as a beginning. In the weeks and months ahead, we'll play, visit, go on field trips, just be, in small groups... perhaps we'll try the occasional big-group gathering and hope for the best.

Truthfully, this what we have been doing all along - it is my mindset that has changed. This visit to Old Sturbridge Village marks where I really start thinking about my children's 'socialization.' They must know themselves well, pull back when they're getting overwhelmed, dive in when it feels right. What is life for, if not this?

Mom, Is There A Special Part of Weddings Where They Do Karate?

Why yes, Owen, there is!

From A Fabulous Wedding

Some weeks ago, Owen popped that question out of nowhere and I found it so funny that I had to tell my brother and his fiancee. They thought it was so cute that they passed the story on, and when their photographer, a black belt in tae kwon do, heard about it she just had to give Owen, his brother, and his cousins a lesson. So, squeezed in between the ceremony and the reception, there actually was a special part of this wedding reserved for karate. We are still smiling about this, days later.

The wedding - the whole weekend, really - went off without a hitch. We saw lots of family, laughed, cried, got to know our new sister-in-law... here are some pics which will of course tell much more than I could in words:

From A Fabulous Wedding

The venue is this amazing castle-type building on the campus of their university, where the bride and groom met and where they both work today. It looked just like Hogwarts, as Luke and Owen pointed out any time they got the chance.

From A Fabulous Wedding

From A Fabulous Wedding

From A Fabulous Wedding

Ben took half a dozen pics of Owen that, in my completely unbiased opinion, are the cutest pics of any kid, ever (except those of Luke, of course).

From A Fabulous Wedding

The boys and their adorable cousins, getting silly with the bride. Isn't she beautiful?

From A Fabulous Wedding

I have such a thing about little boys all dressed up, they just look so darn cute!

From A Fabulous Wedding

My new sister-in-law and I.

From A Fabulous Wedding

This instrument, the theorbo, sounds like a cross between a harp and a guitar. It suited the ceremony perfectly.

From A Fabulous Wedding

Here they are, during the toast by our brother, the best man. They are totally crying, as am I. And this wasn't even 'the big speech!' That came later, at the huge party that the bride and groom threw for friends and not-so-immediate family; it was a corker, let me tell you.

From A Fabulous Wedding

I think this might be our holiday-card picture this year, I just love the silliness of it.

And, because no trip across the Canadian border is complete without a trip to Niagara Falls:

From A Fabulous Wedding

From A Fabulous Wedding

From A Fabulous Wedding

I have not really found a way to sum up this amazing weekend in a phrase or two, so much of it was so sweet, and wonderful, and profound. Luke stood up and read a blessing during the ceremony that simply blew us all away; as the groom later said, 'he nailed it.' The best man's speech deserves special mention because, well, he nailed it too - it struck exactly the right notes. At the big party, we got to meet the bride and groom's buddies, mostly people they have known since college fifteen or so years ago; they are all amazing people who clearly love my brother and his wife like family. Also, they knew all about us; as my Uncle Robert (who is called 'Bob' by most people outside of our family) put it, "everyone here knows me as Uncle Robert!" Very cool to walk into a room filled with strangers and realize that they are really not strangers at all.

Plus, there was the family factor; I don't see my extended family all that often, and this weekend was a sort of five-day family party, reminiscent of my mother's family gatherings we used to go to when I was a kid. I loved it, and so did Ben and the boys (who spent much of the weekend being entertained by my teenaged cousins, trading Yu-Gi-Oh cards and staging mock battles).

This was truly a golden weekend; it has left me feeling blessed to have such people in my life.