Catching Up - Erik's Extended Birthday

With the business of September as back to school time, we can't forget Erik's birthday. This year Erik turned 15 and seeing how he's grown and listening to his voice get lower and lower, it's easy to believe that he's 15. Here Erik's is blowing out the candles on his cake. (We had to go to instant replay to determine whether or not he got the last candle with the first breath. Upon further review, we'll give it to him!) The horses on Erik's cake represented our horseback riding adventure on vacation, the first time that Anne, Rebecca and Erik had ever been on a real horseback ride. (Not counting supervised pony rides as kids!)

One of Erik's gifts was a metal detector. Now all he needs is a pair of bermuda shorts and a bucket hat and he'd fit right in at any beach!

Then a couple of weeks after his actual birthday, Erik and a couple of friends celebrated by visiting the Davis Mega Maze in Sterling, MA. This enormous maze is made up almost entirely of a carved out corn field, with some wooden platforms added in for fun. It's an incredible engineering feat to put this thing together.

Erik and his friends wandered the maze for two hours, playing games inside for clues to where they needed to go. After those two hours, they came out smiling.

So for one last time...HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY ERIK!

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Tuesday, September 7, was the first day of school for North Reading schools, which means that it was also the first day of Erik's Freshman year in high school. Erik has a full load of honors level courses, so he's going to be kept busy, but we're confident that he's going to do a good job. In case you can't tell from the picture, Erik has been doing a lot of growing lately. He's up to 5'6" in height, so he's blown by his Mom and Rebecca. He's excited about high school and among other things, plans to get involved in the school's drama program. (We always knew he was a ham!)

After moving in to her new dorm on Thursday, September 2, Rebecca finally started classes on Wednesday, September 8. She was very ready for classes to begin by the time they actually did start. To celebrate the first day of school, Rebecca and a number of other Northeastern students attended the Red Sox game that night, where they got to see the Red Sox beat up on the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 11-5, including 5 homers for the Red Sox.

Don't forget to keep those cards, letters, etc. coming to Rebecca. Her address is:

Rebecca Hansen

#8382

1155 Tremont St.

Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120

NICE DAY FOR A HIKE!

It was a beautiful late-summer New England day, so we decided to get out for a hike. The three of us, minus our college student, ventured out to Mt. Wachusett, where Steve & Erik had gone on a school-related hike last fall.

We watched our trail map closely and managed to avoid getting lost on our way to the summit. The trails were also well marked.

Once at the top, Steve & Erik pointed out the way to Boston, which was visible in the distance.

Then, before departing the summit, we took a moment to call Rebecca and say "Hi!" She was with us the whole day though, because Steve was wearing his Northeastern Huskies hat.

If anyone would like to send Rebecca a little mail, here's her school address. (Make sure you address it exactly as you see here, as their mail service can be a little odd, so we're told.)

Rebecca Hansen

#8382

1155 Tremont St.

Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120

NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY MOVING IN DAY

Today was the big day...moving in day at Northeastern University. Our daughter is now officially a college freshman. Gulp!

Rebecca did a nice job of shopping and keep her essentials to a respectable amount. We easily fit everything into the minivan in one trip.

We arrived, parked in the designated area and were loaned this big yellow hopper. It really came in handy and we were able to get most of Rebecca's stuff into it, leaving only a little extra to carry. The four of us got it all in one trip!

After going through the time-consuming process of registering, signing in and all, we finally made our way to Rebecca's new dorm room.

The room isn't huge, but there's enough room for her and her new roommate (Marissa) to fit their things in and have some space. The chests of drawers under the beds are a nice touch. Each of them also has a desk and a closet.

Rebecca and Marissa also have their own sink in their room, but they share a bathroom (toilet and shower) with the two girls in the next room. The bathroom is between their two rooms, accessible from within their room. Four girls and one bathroom? We'll see how this goes! The sink in each room will certainly help.

In a fairly short time, Anne and Rebecca had everything unloaded and put away. Marissa showed up a little after us and she and her family also got her squared away very quickly.

After we got Rebecca all squared away in her room, we walked to the campus bookstore to pick up a couple of little things that Rebecca wanted/needed for the room. After that, we said our goodbyes and headed out into Boston rush hour traffic.

Today is a big day and a big first step for Rebecca, but we already miss her! We're thankful that Northeastern is only about 30-45 minutes from home (depending on traffic) so that she won't be too far away to visit...OFTEN! We're very proud!

Griswold 2010 - HOME!

Yes...a few minutes after 6:00 PM EDT, we made it HOME!

We found that the heat that New England has been having, along with watering bans and such, had left our lawn brown, but we found this critter and another one that looked just like him in the back yard, enjoying some of the vegetation in the woods.

Even though we celebrated Rebecca's birthday on the real day...yesterday...we had a cake for her once we returned home. For the record, she got all of the candles out at one time, even though they were pretty well spaced.

Anyway, we can't believe it, but we're home. In the end, Griswold 2010 saw us venture through at least parts of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Of those, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia were new to the family as a whole, so now the family has made it to 47 states. (We're missing Alaska, Hawaii and California.) It took us over 5,000 miles and about 18-1/2 days to add these seven new states, but we had a great time!

Griswold 2010 - Day 18 - Part Two

We began our last full day of vacation by taking turns wishing Rebecca a very happy 18th birthday! (Wow...that was a fast 18 years!) Then we made about an hour drive to Cumberland Gap National Park. We began the day taking a 2.4 mile hike to a place where three states come together.

Here are three of us...each signaling the state they're in. Anne in Tennessee, Erik in Virginia and Rebecca in Kentucky. (That's a "K" Rebecca??)

Once we finished our hike, we went to an overlook where we were able to look out on a lot of the park, including the place we'd hiked. Then we went to the Visitor Center to see films on the park and on Daniel Boone. Once we were done with the films, we hit the road towards Roanoke, VA, where we're spending the night. On the way, we stopped at a convenience store, so that Rebecca could take advantage of her new age and purchase a lottery scratch ticket. She went to the counter and when she tried to purchase the ticket, she was carded. She finally got out to the car and scratched the ticket. (It wasn't a winner.)

We made our way to Roanoke, checked in to our hotel and then went out for a birthday dinner. After dinner, we picked up an ice cream cake and headed up a Roanoke hillside to the Roanoke Star, which we also visited two years ago when coming through this area.

In front of the star and overlooking Roanoke, we all had cake. Some young children even came over to us to give their own rendition of "Happy Birthday", which was incredibly precious!

Though it was a bit windy, we finally managed to get the candles lit and Rebecca blew them out.

It was a wonderful ending to another terrific day. We've been very lucky on this vacation with most things working out as planned and with the exception of some difficult heat in some places, even the weather mostly cooperated.

Tomorrow morning, Sunday, we'll leave Roanoke early to head home. If all goes well, we should be home in the evening. Thanks for sharing our travels with us and once again, HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY REBECCA!

Griswold 2010 - Day 18

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY REBECCA...more later!