Teen Age Boys

Guess what teen age boys DON'T like.

Haircuts.

Guess what teen age boys DO like.

Donuts I'm sure not all teenagers are created equal but I have figured out the trick to getting the boy to cut his hair. Of course, everyone enjoys this bribe. Fun to make, even more fun to eat. In fact, it's just about time to make some more donuts because the boy is getting shaggy again.

July Fourth Fun

Well, it's August now and I am quite behind on the blog but here is what we did for Independence Day.
On July 3rd we had our Annual BBQ and Fireworks Party. We have new boundaries for our ward at church so we not only invited our friends from Needham but also as many people as we knew email addresses from our new ward congregation. We were worried that we would be rained out but thankfully the weather held because . . .we had people outside,

we had people inside,

and we even had people down in the basement.

We had over 100 people. It was a blast. After dinner we headed over to the fireworks and sat in a big group. We're already planning for next year. I just don't know where we are going to put all of the new friends we keep making??!!

The next morning Mike ran the 5K. It was really hot that day but Mike still did great! My sprained ankle kept me from running but I'll join him next year.

Then we walked to our friends house on the other side of Needham and watched the parade with more of our friends.

This float featured the top of the town hall and some historic pictures.

I loved this one. Our very own Needham train. Every day I am grateful that the train runs through our town and right into Boston.

Since 2001 Boston has won 6 championships and this year added to it as the Boston Bruins became the winners of the Stanley Cup. This float commemorates that feat. Hmm all that winning started when we moved to town---It just can't be a coincidence.

I don't think I would like to meet him in the woods--or a dark alley. But we all stood and cheered for him and the troops both current and past that marched in the parade.

The last event we attended that day was the opening of the Time Capsule from 50 years ago. These kind of events are what makes us really love our town!

Geoffrey and the Pops

This year our town is celebrating its 300th Birthday. We have had many events to commemorate this birthday. One of the events was a combined concert at Symphony Hall with Geoffrey's High School Choir and The Boston Pops. What an opportunity for Geoffrey! Singing for the second time in Symphony Hall, but this time with The Boston Pops with Kieth Lockhart directing.
Geoffrey rented a tux for the event so of course we took lots of pictures.
They had a big screen on stage and showed historic slides of our town. This picture is showing the town hall.

Later they took the screen down and you can see the massive pipes in the concert hall. At the end of the concert they released hundreds of balloons that had been held up by a net on the ceiling.

I took a quick video of the performance. This piece was commissioned for the town's birthday. The song is called, The Song of Solomon, and is musically based on the year our town was founded-1711 (tonic, 7th, tonic, tonic). I've heard the piece several times now and it is really growing on me. I liked it the first time I heard it, but I like it more every time I hear it. Geoffrey is on the top row, third in from the right. You can see Keith Lockhart near the bottom of the video. He is a talented conductor and told some really funny jokes and stories about Needham. If you would like to hear the whole piece our friend James put it on You Tube. Just search "Needham High Boston Pops".

Above is a close up of Geoffrey and below is a picture of the three of us after the concert.

This photos is of the high school choir director and the choir members from church-Janessa, Linda and Nadia. We are so pleased that Geoffrey had this experience.

Seminary Visitor

As you probably know, for the last four years I have taught an early morning religious class to teenagers. (See http://www.mormon.org/ if you want to learn more.) This class took place in our basement. On one of the last days of class we had an uninvited and unexpected visitor. We kept seeing small movements outside the basement window but I thought that it was probably just the light was moving through the trees. But then suddenly, a small mole plastered himself against the window. One of the girls was late so we pointed out our visitor to her as she came downstairs. Her glance was followed by screaming and running. Clearly, I had now lost control of the class. The mole continued to jump at the window, run around in circles, try again to tunnel his way out, and then start over again with the window jumping. We eventually decided that we should move upstairs because nobody could pay attention.



I am not a small mammal fan. If it's furry and tiny, I pretty much despise it. We won't even talk about my fear of mice. But this poor mole had to be rescued so I reminded Mike of our prenup (he will take care of all creatures, dead or alive). He smiled at me, sat on the couch, ate his yogurt and left for work. He was clearly not going to be this mole's rescuer.

Not wanting to touch or go anywhere near this surprisingly mouse like creature I put a board in the window well so it could climb out all by himself (or herself?). No luck, he couldn't get a good enough grip. So I needed a new plan, one that still didn't involve touching him. I knew I couldn't just drop a bucket over the top of him because he would just immediately burrow underground. My genius plan was to take a pot filled with dirt and lay it on its side next to him. He immediately must have sensed fresh dirt that he hadn't tried yet so he went right into the bucket of dirt and started burrowing his way to the bottom of the pot. I just picked it up brought it over to the woods and laid it down on its side and waited for him to turn around. I kept hearing frantic scraping at the bottom of the pot so I dumped it upside down and he was free. No touching required but certainly closer than I had ever wanted to be.



On a side note, I have been released as a seminary teacher. It was a great four years and I thoroughly enjoyed both the teaching and my amazing students. I am optimistically hopeful though that this will mean at least a little extra time in my schedule.

The United Kingdom and Ireland

I just finished posting a series of blogs about our family vacation. If you want to read them sequentially, start at the post labeled "Europe" and read them backwards. We had a great trip so if you are interested in what we did--read on.

Dublin Day 11-12

Reagan started the day off tired so the best brother in the whole world, Geoffrey, carried her yet again. She said this was her favorite way of being carried.

Below is a shot of Geoffrey carrying Reagan in London. My favorite though was in the National Gallery where I couldn't take a photo. Geoffrey had put her on his shoulders and she had fallen asleep. Her head was draped on his head and her hair had fallen over Geoffrey's face so he couldn't see. Both older kids were a huge help on this trip. Lilly was also very helpful.
I chose our Dublin bed and breakfast based on proximity to the train station. It wasn't terrible but it won't win any prizes. Our rooms were up several flights of stairs and the hallway smelled of smoke. Thankfully the rooms were clean and we had plenty of room. The view out our window was not exactly picturesque. But we didn't have to go very far to hear some drunken Irishmen singing at the hotel nearby. I will say that the traditional Irish breakfast with eggs, sausage, toast, baked beans and ham was good.

Our first visit of the day was to The Book of Kells. The museum and the book were fabulous. Because we had watched a movie about The Book of Kells before we left the kids were fascinated by the exhibit.

Next we toured Christchurch Cathedral.

We tried to get through this alleyway but it was mobbed with teenage girls chanting outside of this theatre. The guy in the window is Jedward, or rather 1/2 of Jedward, a musical twins duo named John and Edward--hence, Jedward. They were on a show that seems similar to American Idol. We went around the mob after checking out what was happening.

We saw a few more street performers in Dublin.

This is The Spire of Dublin, or The Monument of Light.

It had been a long vacation so most of today was spent slowly strolling the streets, checking out the people and the sights, and doing a little bit of last minute shopping.

We also got to spend a few minutes looking for Reagan who got lost again. She was holding Rachael's hand, we all stopped to look at an old church so Rachael let go for a second and Reagan just wandered off. Again, I realized it fairly soon, I was constantly counting heads on this trip, it was really hard to keep track of eight people. I asked some folks sitting outside a pub if they'd seen her and they said they had just seen a little Blondie walking back and forth. Mike found her a half a block away trying to convince someone to help her cross the street. I guess she knew she couldn't cross the street by herself. So we had ANOTHER talk about staying with the group, staying where you are if you do get lost, and this time added a punishment to help her remember. For the rest of the trip she had to hold a grown ups hand AT ALL TIMES and she didn't get to pick which grown up. Why was she NOT traumatized by this? Why do I have such slippery kids?! I happen to know that not all kids wander like mine do.

That evening we enjoyed a very nice dinner with Kimberly and Drew Taylor, some friends of ours that used to live in the Boston area. It was great to spend some time visiting with them.

The last full day of our trip was Easter Sunday. In Dublin, this day marks the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising with the aim of ending British rule. We had decided to skip the parade and make our way over to St. Patrick's Cathedral for Easter Sunday. This proved to be a bit difficult because we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the parade.

But after several blocks of detours we found our way over to the Cathedral where we could hear the bells ringing.

Although very different than our church services, this Easter Festival Eucharist service was lovely. The choir treated us to Schubert, Handel and many other beautiful hymns. I especially enjoyed the Easter Anthems.

Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.

For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin: but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

After the service we were able to take some time and quietly walk around.

We decided that an appropriate Sunday activity would be to go to the park so we took a leisurely stroll over to Phoenix Park. It was a long walk and certainly looked a lot closer on the map. Once we got to the park we took a break, ate what was left of our snacks, and watched some cricket.

We had heard that there was a food market happening at the park, we just didn't know where in the park. This is a very large park. Twice the size of Central Park. I was ready to skip the food market and head back to town but Mike was determined to make it to the market. So on we went. Now the story that I will tell my grandkids is that Mike walked us soooo long and sooo far that we ran into deer herds in the park.

Actually, these deer are tagged and live in the park. They must be fairly used to people since they didn't run when we approached them.

I will say that it was almost worth the walk. Of course, our walk didn't end there, we continued to traverse the whole length of the park and when we got to the market at 5 pm it had just closed. Clearly it was time to go home to Boston.

After dinner at an Italian restaurant we took the train over to our friends, The Taylors where after a short little Easter Egg hunt for the kids, we crashed on extra mattresses and couches and got a few hours of sleep. By 4 am we were at the airport and headed to Paris where we switched planes and headed back home.

So, was it worth it?
Absolutely!
Would I do it again?
Well, not tomorrow or the next day, but give me a few years and I'm sure the answer will be, Yes!

Northern Ireland Day 10

Belfast was. . . interesting. It is very easy to see which neighborhood you are in by looking at the flags hung on the homes or the art and graffiti on the walls. They are at least geographically very divided based on religions and political views. Given the huge walls around each neighborhood, tall enough to keep a Molotov cocktail out, the divisions are not just geographical.

The nine seater vehicle that we had reserved had some engine trouble so Mike got to drive a 15 passenger van. The kids thought it was a blast and loved having the extra room.

It even had a logo on the side. It did mean that we were now classified as a coach and had to park the vehicle a little further away from some of the attractions. Just what we needed, a little more walking.

This is the sight we saw headed to the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.

Here's one of our first glimpses of the bridge that we are about to cross to get to the small island on the other side.

This video shows what Lilly thought of our intent to cross this bridge made of not much more than rope.

This is a close up of the bridge as I prepare to cross first. You can see right through the floor. Nothing but net and a bit of plank.

You can see by this video of Reagan crossing the bridge that it was really windy. The wind continued to increase while we were on the other side so our return trip was even windier. Plus it was blowing the other way. Lilly walked half the way back blind because her hair had blown so that it completely covered her face.

We all made it across just fine and enjoyed the scenery on the other side. Today was the most breathtaking day of the whole trip. The scenery we saw on this day was without rival.

This view really shows the power of water, strong and persistent enough to cut through stone.

When were in the early planning stages of our trip, Mike had told me that he really wanted to see Giant's Causeway. It just wasn't going to work with our current plan which was to see Wales after seeing London and Southern England and then take an overnight ferry from Swansea to Cork. Following our crossing we would have then spent most of our time seeing either The Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Peninsula before driving up to Dublin. Giant's Causeway (and the fact that both Charles and I really wanted to see Scotland) was one of the main reasons I reorganized our whole trip.



Giant's Causeway was created due to a volcanic eruption. The rock crystallized as a result of rapid cooling which in turn caused the cracking into the remarkable hexagonal basalt columns that we saw at the Causeway. Of course, many have even more sides than six.

The legend of the Causeway explains a different genesis. The giant, Finn MacCool actually built the Causeway so he could walk to Scotland and fight his enemy, Benandonner. There are several versions of this legend but the story ends with a trick played on Benandonner. Finn dressed himself as a baby and when Benandonner came over the bridge to fight Finn his wife told him that he was away and then showed him her baby (Finn) sleeping in the cradle. When he saw how large the baby was he was scared because if the baby was that huge, How big must his father be? He ran back to Scotland, tearing the Causeway up as he went.

This rock is called the Giant's Boot.

Just down the road is Dunluce Castle. This castle also has a legend, this one may have a bit of truth to it.

A wedding party gathered for a celebration at the castle. A storm raged outside the thick walls of the castle. Suddenly, part of the castle falls into the ocean, taking the kitchen and some of the wedding guests into the sea.

What is documented is that in 1639, the Dunluce castle kitchen and many of the kitchen staff plunged into the sea. I guess it is just more entertaining to think that it happened during a wedding.

We took a detour for the trip home so we could drive home the scenic route. After we stopped to get dinner to-go in a cute little town we had to really rush to get back to Belfast so we could catch our train to Dublin. It's not easy to rush while driving since they have speed cameras everywhere. But we made it, again with a few minutes (~15 minutes) to spare.

And dinner, yet again, was yummy. After I ate my spicy hot meatball sandwich I got to be romantic and feed Mike his fish and chips while he sped down the narrow roads to Belfast.