Catching Up - November 2011

The big news in November is that we were able to take the training wheels off of Everett's Bike. He asked one morning if he could try it so we just said yes and pulled them off. We started in the grass and he rode pretty well the very first time I launched him. We decided to keep trying and except for one little break for food he was riding in a matter of hours. Here is the video below.

Catching Up - October 2011

In October we remodeled the kitchen for the second time since we have been in the house. Motivated by an invasion of mice, we ordered new cabinets and a granite countertop and set about ripping apart the kitchen down to the studs.

Eat your heart out Bob Villa. The finished project came out beautifully.

I had a lot of help with the plumbing.

The boys had fun at Halloween carving pumpkins. Everett was a dragon this year and Jack was a frog. As always we had a good time trick or treating with Uncle Danny and Aunt Claudia.

Candy comas ensued.

Catching Up - September 2011

September brought the Sept. 11 memorial and our town really celebrated the lives of those that we lost. 3000+ flags were anonymously planted on the town green and then a day later anonymously removed in the middle of the night. Everett and Jack baked cookies for our police and firefighters and took them to the stations. Overall it was a very good rememberence.

Catching Up - August 2011

August brought with it Hurricane Irene, the largest storm to hit New England in close to 90 years. It came on shore as a tropical storm and brought with it quite a stom surge. We traveled inland to Uncle Danny and Aunt Claudia's house where we had a hurricane party. The next day the pictures really told the story. The town was without power for almost a week with some households not getting it back for almost 2 weeks. The water rose up and deposited flotsum all over the causeway below (usually 5-6 feet above water level) and all over our road. Boats on dry dock floated off their stands crashing into each other before being placed on the ground. We came out pretty well, our power was back in 1 day and our house suffered only a broken storm window and a little bit of lost siding (which was found in our neighbor's yard.)

Docks at the point were covered by the river.

Amy did her best Al Roker impression and luckily did not get blown away.

Summer in New England

For those of you who have lived in New England you know that summer does not last very long here but when it is here it is beautiful. A little while back we had highs in the 40s and the next day it was 80 degrees and sunny. Luckily it has stayed that way and we have been able to get out and enjoy it.

We have spent a lot of time on our bikes and exploring the places we have lived lately. We started with a trip to Newport. It was a great day trip. We brought the bikes and loaded the boys up for what we didn't know would be about 18 miles of riding. We really wanted them to experience everything though. We viewed the mansions, went to the cliff walk, flew kites at Brenton Point, toured downtown, and then surfed some waves at the beach. This is where the surfing video comes from. Here are a few more pictures. It was a great day.

On another occasion we decided we wanted to walk out to the outer lighthouse here in Old Saybrook. The lighthouse is famous and featured on the license plates of CT vehicles. After a 2.5 mile ride and a 0.5 mile walk we made it to the light. It was worth it.

One More Fishing Visdeo

Miller Boys Fishing

Jack and Everett tried their hand at fishing a few days ago. We grabbed some worms and bobbers and headed down to the lake. I was somewhat worried about whether or not we would catch anything but knew I had seen fish swimming in the lake.

Cast #1: After about 10 minutes of getting set up and getting Everett's rod rigged up he walked up and cast it right into a tree. Hook, line, and sinker...all gone. Oh well, on to the next cast:

Cast #2: After another 10 minutes of re-rigging Everett's pole the boys were starting to get restless. After all, we had been at the lake for 20 whole minutes, one cast into a tree and no fish yet. The second cast was a beauty. Everett put it right out there. I told him to wait and turned around to grab my pole. Next thing I knew he was screaming and reeling and landed his first fish.

It never slowed down. Cast after cast brought in a fish and I never did get my line wet. We caught 15 fish that morning with Jack landing the largest one. Here are a few pictures and a video.

Easy Riders

While down in Annapolis for Danielle's wedding my parents neighbor was nice enough to let us borrow an electric quad that was perfect for the boys. Here they are going for a cruise.

Danielle's Wedding

A few weekends ago the family took a trip down to Annapolis for my sister's wedding. On May 21st, 2011 she wed Ed Quach in a beautiful ceremony in a historic church in Annapolis. Speaking of beautiful, check out the bride.

The wedding went off without a hitch and everyone enjoyed themselves witnessing such a great event.

Mr. and Mrs. Quach coming out of the church and heading to the reception.

The reception was a great time with plenty of celebrating and dancing. Ev took his turn dancing with the bride. He even let the father of the bride have a chance.

Of course, the wedding was attended by a lot of family. Here is a picture of everyone that was able to make it.

Congratulations Danielle and welcome to the family Ed.

It's Potty time, and other unrelated event

It has been busy here (as usual). I would update the blog with the pictures from out trip to SC, but instead I will take this opportunity to call out my sister for not sending them yet.... So instead I will update what we have been doing. When we got home, Jack got rid of his pacifier and then went right into potty training. It took a few accidents, but dare I say he is potty trained!! He is wearing big boy underwear all the time (when awake) and doing great. Everett was really helpful in teaching him the ropes, and mommy got really good at cleaning the bathroom every few hours.

It has been getting pretty nice out, so we took our new kites (presents for the boys birthdays from Brian and Ali, Ev's Godparents) out for a try. Both boys loved it! Turns out they can do it all by themselves. Thanks Brian and Ali!

We had a nice Easter at Auntie Claudia and Uncle Danny's house. I will have to add some pics later. The boys dressed up in suits and were adorable. The Easter Bunny dropped off some baskets at our house, Aunt Claudia's and left some eggs there as well. It was a really nice day with family.

And the other day it was beautiful, so we hit the town beach. We stayed the whole morning and the boys even braved the chilly water and wadded in. We had to go home when the lips turned blue, but it looks like nice days are on their way!

And yesterday we headed out to a family fun day with Everett's friend Kendrick. They had a blast on the moon bounce, obstacle course, and pony rides!
Jack liked the ponys the most and kept yelling "Mamma, Daddy, look at me, I riding!!".

We will post some more soon.

Easy Rider

How do you get a fine specimen like this you ask? Well it's simple!

First you take two fine specimen like these...

You eat healthy and make sure to work out on a regular basis...

And get that cardio in, and you are all set!

Everett loves his new bike. We tore up the town yesterday riding all the way from home to downtown to grab some lunch and head home. After naps we were at it again. Ev probably rode about 3 miles total yesterday. And today, we rode our bikes home from school.

Here are some random pictures I found on my phone of the things we have done in the last few weeks.

Cockpit day at the Air museum. Here are all the boys in front of an old Coast Guard Helicopter. Can you believe our friends fly these things? Hysterical and scary.

And here is Everett with a wolf at our local zoo.

Its still cold up here, so we had to take a break from the zoo and warm up in the carousel.

The dogs are still kicking around too. Delilah has been dying to get some runs in. Look how stressed she is.

March Madness

It's that time again - March Madness!! March marks the coming of too too many birthdays.

Napolean - March 9th

Clint - March 10th

Clare - March 14th

Tad - March 15th

Everett - March 19th

Jack - March 27th

Pappi - March 30 and 31st (long story)

And by the end of the month, we are all tired and broke!

We started the month off with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Miller to celebrate the boys' birthdays.

After that we jetted off to South Carolina to visit with the Venns in a birthday extravaganza. Everett had a blast playing with Girl toys and hanging out with his cousins. Here is a pic of Pappa moose playing the guitar for the kids.

Here are three of the cousins zoning out in front of some toonies. Caroline is off running around or jumping on something.

Here is grammi getting in some good cuddles. Everett is off running around or jumping on something.

The trip was fantastic and we miss the girls terribly. The kids had a great time but were exhausted and took a few days to recover from the craziness. I'll post more pictures as soon as my sister sends me a copy of them....Sarah....hint

After our trip to SC, we had a great birthday party for all the March birthdays at Gammi and Pappis house. Auntie Claudia and Uncle Danny made an awesome snake cake for the boys. The boys got a sweet barbecue, some big boy bikes (Everett learned to ride on Clare's pink princess bike), and some other great stuff.

The next day was Jack's actual birthday. We started the day with a game of basketball, from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tad.

And then went off to the circus. Great Grandma and Grandpa Miller sent the boys some birthday money and they chose to use it to enjoy some rides,

see a bunch of animals, and....

ride a ginormous elephant!

We still owe them a phone call to thank them for the thoughtful gift. After that we went to have some ice cream at the rainforest cafe (which incidentally Jack actually hates - go figure).

I think the busy month tired the boys out just a little bit.

We even got to have some fun face timing Auntie Katie after dinner!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, thoughts and gifts. The boys had a wonderful month of extravaganza!