Swimming Lessons

There a lot of swimming pools around here and Hannah & Isaac have been excited to finally get some swimming lessons. Kids under 3 have to have a grown up in the pool with them, so Ian will have to wait until September.

Hannah loves the water. She even got the courage to go down the slide in the deep end, though not quite brave enough to jump off the diving board.

Isaac was a little nervous at first, but jumped in and had a great time. At one point he called out to me that there was a frog. I thought his teacher had gotten out a toy frog for the kids to play with, until the frog started swimming away. A few minutes later another frog crashed Hannah's class.

The pool was great. It's in the middle of the woods and there are nature trails just off the parking lot.

Next stop the 2020 Olympics.

Day at the Beach

Friday we made our first excursion to Lake George. Maybe it's because we lived in dry, dry Arizona for too long, but Dan and I didn't even think to bring swimsuits. That didn't stop the kids from having a good time and getting soaking wet. We walked around for a little while checking out the shops in the area in hopes that it would help the kids dry off. They were still pretty wet by the time we got home. This humidity thing is going to take some getting used to.
It's been super hot the last few days so we went back again today and this time brought beach stuff. Even Gwen had a good time splashing and eating sand. It's a very touristy spot, but a lot of fun.

Getting Settled

So this is where we live until we sell our Flagstaff house and can find something here. The townhouse itself is pretty small and crowded (thank heavens for a basement), but the common area behind our place is great.

There's a huge hill right next to our unit that Hannah loves to ride her bike down.


This is our backyard. There's nothing behind us but a huge field of grass and grove of trees. I love grass. The kids are discovering the joys of rolling down hills and just playing in soft grass. Rocks (which is what most of our yard in Flagstaff was) are just not quite as fun.

We are getting settled. Most of the stuff we currently need is unpacked and the rest is stored in the basement until we need it. The only bad thing is that Dan's beloved piano is still on its board against a wall in the living room because there is no where to put it. Maybe he can moonlight as the piano guy at a hotel somewhere just to get some practice time.

Redwood forest

This is chronologically inaccurate, but before we left for Queensbury, we spent a few days in Crescent City, CA and the redwood national forest. Man, some of those trees are just huge. We had a fun time talking to Paul Bunyan at the Trees of Mystery, which is a big statue that the kids were naturally drawn to. There's a guy somewhere near the statue that can see what's going on, and when the kids started climbing on Paul's boot, this voice out of nowhere said, "That's okay, kids. You can climb on my boot." They looked puzzled for a bit, but then warmed to the idea of talking to Paul, who could also hear what was being said and answered questions, making other funny comments along the way. As we were leaving, Hannah exclaimed, "We have to go back!" When we asked her why, she replied, "I didn't get to ask that big man if he had any friends."

On the way back, we spent the night in Las Vegas, driving down the strip at about midnight to arrive dazed at our hotel after 16 hours of driving. We got to rest for almost a full day in Flagstaff, then the packer showed up, then the day after that the movers showed up, and we started driving for Queensbury. All in all, we drove about 5000 miles going from Flagstaff to SLC to CA to Flagstaff to NY in under 3 weeks. Now we're here, and I don't want to drive anywhere for a while.

New York

After 3 marathon days of driving we made it to Queensbury, NY. I'm not doing that again any time soon. The kids handled it remarkably well. We always knew when Ian hit his breaking point because he'd just start screaming from the back seat. That was when we'd start looking for a hotel for the night. We saw the Arch in St. Louis and the "World's Largest Bottle of Ketchup" in Illinois.

I can't believe how green it is here! The kids are freaked out about all the bugs, but other than that, they like it. We've only had a chance to drive around and see a few things. Once we get eveything unpacked and settled, we'll do some more exploring.

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