HALLOWEEN & MORE!

It's been quite busy lately, with Halloween and so much more. So after a quick peek at these pumpkins, let's go back and look at the past few days.

Thursday, October 29, was Erik's cross country meet in Gloucester, MA. The course is lovely, set in a park overlooking the ocean. Here's Erik and his team getting ready to start the race. They were looking into a tough sun at the time.

This gives you a sense of just how many people were running in this race.

Here's Erik running along the water, early in the race.

Here's Erik later in the race, nearing the final turn and then finish. Erik slipped a bit from last year's time, which gives him something to work on in the future, but he tried hard.

Then, on Friday, October 30, Rebecca and her friend Haley were prepared for the school's Homecoming dance. Homecoming here is a rather casual thing and Rebecca went to the dance along with a bunch of her friends. Rebecca was nominated for "Homecoming Queen", but didn't end up getting the crown. We were proud of the fact that she was nominated!

Then on Halloween morning, we all got up and worked on carving our pumpkins. Everyone came up with their own designs and then the carving took place.

Here are the end results!

Later on in the day, Rebecca and Erik dressed themselves up for their evenings. Erik went out and did his "Trick or Treat" bit with a bunch of friends, while Rebecca just went to a party to hang out with friends. Rebecca called herself "Miss Miscellaneous", which I think was code for just putting on a bunch of ridiculous things at the same time. Erik went with the classic ghost look, which involved the savage destruction of sheets that Anne bought for herself many years ago.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

SNOW??? OCTOBER 16?

Look what we woke up to this morning! October 16...SNOW! Thankfully it was only a dusting...

...though you can see that it was still coming down in the morning!

So...out come the snow brushes for the car and here we go again with Winter New England Style, even if it is starting early.

21ST ANNIVERSARY!

21 years ago today, it was cold and rainy in Concord, MA where we got married. Today it was actually quite pleasant out.

To celebrate our anniversary, Anne and I went out to dinner and then we went out to L.L. Bean to pick out anniversary presents for each other.

Since we're getting a canoe for ourselves for Christmas, we got each other a PFD (Personal Flotation Device), something perhaps more commonly referred to as a "Life Jacket".

As Anne so appropriately said, "what could be more romantic than saving each other's lives?" Well in case you were wondering, now it's certain, we both float!

TP'D!

An annual tradition on the North Reading High School Cross Country team is getting your house/yard toilet papered. The girls do the boys homes and the boys do the girls homes. Tonight, the boys were in action and our yard was one of the targets.

They're not shy about it though and they are bold enough to sign their work, first in shaving cream...

...and then in toilet paper.

Since rain is in the forecast tomorrow, Rebecca is going to be outside as soon as she gets home this evening, pulling paper out of the trees!

8TH GRADE HIKE!

Thursday, October 1, was the North Reading Middle School 8th Grade Hike. Erik took part with a lot of his friends and Steve went along as a chaperone.

Everything with schools these days seems to be structure, so when you get an entire grade out of the school and on a field trip like this, getting anything to happen takes a long time. While we waited for things to get started, we took this picture of Erik's entire home room.

We finally got under way, after many delays. Here's something we ran into along the trail up Mt. Wachusett. They call this "Balanced Rock". Imagine that!

The kids all had their own pace, so we had chaperones at the front, in the middle and in the back along with the teacher. Steve was the middle chaperone, so he tried to keep track of everyone in the middle as well as keeping an eye ahead and behind.

We reached the summit and the kids celebrated by writing their names with rocks around the compass at the top of the mountain.

Though many miles in the distance, we could see the Boston skyline from the summit.

Because of the lack of organization, Erik's group had to hang around at the summit for a while. With all of the delays, we didn't have enough time to hike back down the mountain and still allow the buses to meet their schedules, so the buses drove up the mountain to pick us up. This was a little disappointing.

Once we were back down at the parking lot, everyone ate their lunches and than at about 1:00 PM, the buses headed for home. We arrived back in North Reading around 2:00 PM and after gathering together for a short time in the cafeteria, the kids were dismissed. Steve and Erik walked home.

All in all it was a nice day for hiking, around mid-50's and partly cloudy. (There was a pretty stiff breeze at the summit too!) Steve and Erik had a great time!

ERIK'S 14TH BIRTHDAY - PART 3

As a final part of his birthday celebration, Erik had some friends over for a small sleepover party. Note how different the boys are in height at this age. I guess Erik is kind of in the middle height-wise.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN!

Rebecca made the local paper in her new role as Captain on the Cross Country team!