The Great Northern Trek--Air BnB edition

 From Long Beach Island, the boys and I drove to Bloomingberg, NY, a small town in upstate near a friend of mine from college. As we neared the house where we were staying, we happened upon a box turtle crossing the road. We clambered out of the car to carry it across the street and to admire it. I don't think the boys had ever seen a land turtle; we've seen lots of swimming turtles in DC and environs.

The house where we were staying had quite the frat house ambience to it; I didn't like it very much, but it was quiet and nestled in the woods. The boys really liked it because it had a stand up arcade console from an actual arcade in it! That was a bit annoying. After unpacking and settling in a little, we drove up the road about 5 minutes and then hiked about 5 minutes more to get to a fire lookout tower. It was windy and foggy and pretty cool.

A panorama from the fog!

The next day was brighter and nicer, so we went back and had a much better view.

There's a Cassius down there somewhere.

After climbing, we set off to meet up with a good friend of mine from college, John Sharp. He is a professor at SUNY-New Paltz and was on our way to Amherst, MA where we were headed next. As we drove on a typical northeastern two lane highway, I saw a dark shape moving along on the road ahead of us. As we neared it, I thought it was a raccoon, but it turned out to be a small porcupine, the first I think I'd ever seen!

We met up with John in the parking lot of the Bonticou Crag trail. He took us on a craggy climb in the Shawagunk Mountains. The boys practically sprinted up the rocks while John and I were a bit slower.

Our trail guide, Mr. John Sharp.

Small fauna typical of the region.

The beginning of the ascent, and they're
already way ahead of us!

Again, I stress they are agile and fearless.

At the peak, catching their breaths before the rapid descent.

Maceo reflecting on nature's beauty for all of 23 seconds.

The Great Northern Trek--New Jersey Edition

 The boys and I left DC on Tuesday, July 29th on a great adventure. We were heading to Springfield, Vermont and a week's stay in a log cabin, but there were many side routes and stays with friends and family organized along the way. 

Tuesday, we drove up to Long Beach Island in New Jersey to spend a few nights with my friend from Peace Corps, Darren, and his son Evan. We've visited with them there several times in the last 5 years, and Darren's parents Frank and Lydia are often there, too, and they seem to find Maceo and Cassius delightful, which is lovely for me to watch. Lydia especially was concerned with feeding Cassius something/anything he would like, and Maceo was happy to wolf down the fish, chicken, and pasta dishes she placed in front of him. We played in the surf and both boys had a great time learning how to boogie board. We went to the local water park and spent several hours sliding and splashing. And we had an intense bout of miniature golf, the first of two golfing outings on the trip. 

Tanned, rested, and ready with Darren and Evan.

Darren putting despite the hoi polloi.

The boys got waaaaay into boogie boarding. Cassius was a little more adventurous than Maceo, especially at first, but they both really liked it.

Maceo's Swimming Season

Last year, both boys were on the Killer Whales Swim Team at our community pool where we are members. Both Cassius and Maceo improved quickly and amazingly over the season. This year, I signed both boys up again, but Cassius got cold feet and never did take part. Maceo, however, did a great job. By the end of the year, he was selected by his coaches to represent the team in the Divisional Meet in the butterfly and the breast stroke, and his team finished the year undefeated, meaning next year, they'll be moved up into a tougher division. Maceo is trying out for a winter team because he likes swimming competitively so much. Here are some sights and scenes from this summer's meets.

Maceo competing in the 50 meter free style race.

Maceo took bronze in both breast stroke and back stroke at this race.
His friend and teammate, Wesley, won gold!

Here's Maceo ready to go the morning of the
Divisional Meet at our pool.

Easter, Part III!

 You may remember that one of Cassius's Cadbury Easter eggs went missing before he found it at the annual Easter Egg hunt at Grandma Sue's and Grandpa's. Luckily, there is a near infinite supply of candy available to the Easter bunny, so a week or so later, Cassius walked over by himself to the grandparents' house for another search. 

Inspiration strikes!

But Cassius is still empty-handed.

The hunter and gatherer searches for his dinner.

He is nothing if not persistent.

According to the text I received, the candy is 2 feet from his left ear at this point.

SUCCESS!!!

Maceo Hits Double Digits

 Maceo and Cassius have grown accustomed to celebrations dragging out, but in a good way. Each holiday, each birthday--the boys get to have one with me, one with Kate, one with one set of grandparents, and one with another! So, Christmas, birthdays all last about a week.

So, Maceo's birthday arrived on April 12th, and he had about 4 parties.

Maceo and some of his besties!

We had a number of Maceo's buddies over for playing and chicken nuggets, snacks and cake. The boys explored the Divinity School property across the street, ran around the back yard, and chowed down on ice cream cake.

Earlier in the week, we had dinner at Mami and Maurice's house and Maceo received a new favorite NFL sweatshirt from his favorite team (for now, the Minnesota Vikings). 

We also had dinner another night with Grandpa and Grandma Sue, and for his present, Maceo got an outing to his new favorite restaurant, Dairy Queen!

Preparing for the long drive to the nearest DQ.

Cassius checking out the process.

Hamburger? Check
Fries? Check
Shake? Check
Blizzard served upside down???
Check!

Easter, Actually (And Cookies)

So, per my last post, Easter came later than expected, though right on time. The boys returned home at about 4 on Sunday, and I had their Easter baskets ready and hidden, with a trail of written clues ready for them. Within 10 minutes, they had found their stash of treats, at which point, Maceo headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Sue's house to prepare for an intense session of cookie baking for a tasting menu. Maceo chose to make chocolate chip cookies and butterscotch cookies. When his cookies were finished, Cassius and I came over for the traditional Cadbury's egg hunt. (A terrible controversy occurred--One of Cassius's eggs, hidden in the fence that borders the back alley, got taken by some passer-by!) Then Cassius stayed to bake chocolate chip and M and M cookies and Heath bar chip cookies.

No, Cassius isn't peeing. He's about to find a Cadbury egg.

While Maceo is warm here, he got warmer later
and found both his eggs.

The Loewen Easter Cadbury Egg Hunt Rules Preamble™

Maceo and Dad taking the second batch of cookies out of the oven.

Cassius mixes his chips and M and Ms into the mix.

Cassius returned home just before dinner with samples of each type of cookie. After dinner, we had a taste test. Maceo's favorite cookie Heath bar chips, Cassius the Traditionalist preferred chocolate chip, and I liked them all almost equally but if forced to choose, I choose chocolate chip and M and Ms.

Now you know what to send us!

Easter!

I haven't been entirely sure of the actual date of Easter this year, but I don't blame myself, seeing as all days blend into each other a little bit now/still due to the pandemic. So, a week ahead of schedule, the boys and I did some Easter egg coloring. 

We used crayons and dye and each boy decorated 4 eggs. Soon, it dawned on me that Easter was still a week away, so we sacrificed those eggs and brought them to Mom and Maurice's house for a spring time lunch with Aunt Helen. 

Cassius was mad about something when we first arrived and just sulked in the car, but eventually, he got happy and came to join us at lunch. Here he is showing Aunt Helen the How Things Work book we brought home from Mom and Maurice's basement along with a bunch of other books for the boys. None for me...but I did get back my Ramones t-shirt from my high school punk days. I gave it to Maceo so he can be cool.

Both boys got rambunctious, as per the usual schedule, and so we left.

"Don't squash Mamy's daffodils!!!"

This current week, I've been on spring break, but the boys have school. So, I've been working around the house and the boys have gone off to their various pods. I did host the pod on Thursday--7 boys and a cold, slightly damp day. We had some ups and downs--that's how pod works! But during their lunch time break, I took them for a tramp through the neighborhood to a house where the residents put out treats in a mailbox for the neighborhood kids. The theme is whatever recent holiday is occurring, and the woman has been doing this for months--Hallowe'en, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's, etc. As we walked , the boys played the ridiculous game of "Ladies First", so they trailed along behind me, as I know gender doesn't switch according to line order.

It was a nice walk, and we practiced our lefts and rights along the way as well as our screaming, pushing, falling, and teasing skills.

Candy hunters returning from their expedition

On the way home, the boys enjoyed the spoils, and when we got home, I thanked them all for sharing their candy with me. Maceo said, "No, we didn't" a little quizzically, and I burst into mock sobs at the lack of candy I'd received. Oliver, a second grader, said, "Mr. Nick, you an have my Hershey's because I don't like Hershey's." For the rest of the day, I thanked him profusely for giving me his favorite chocolate to which he insisted that he didn't like Hershey's, and I pretended that I knew he really loved them.

After pod, Carter and Parker, who are allowed to walk home by themselves, stayed and the boys played outside. I could hear their yelling and screaming, so I knew they were all right. But eventually, they came in and told me my neighbor, Mr. Pugh, had come out and told them they couldn't play in his yard anymore. As the story came out in drips and drabs, it turned out they were "sword fighting" with sticks and they'd hit his car. More information came out, and I learned that Cassius and Carter had thrown their sticks and hit his car twice. We went to check it out and there was a scratch on his front fender! Both boys wrote apology letters, and I told Cassius he may have to pay for the damages. "But I don't want to pay for it!" he told me. We walked over and the boys apologized. Mr. Pugh was super nice about it, although he confessed he was quite taken aback by the boys' ferocity, and he declined our offer to pay for painting over the scratch. Once we got home, the boys and I talked about the lessons we'd learned: Maceo offered, "No throwing sticks near cars" which I thought was a little too specific. Cassius offered, "We have to follow Mr. Pugh's rules":again, I told them, that's a little specific. In the end, we agreed on being conscious of consideration for people around us; thinking about the possible outcomes of our actions; and that even though taking responsibility for mistakes can be scary, it's not as bad as we fear it's going to be, most of the time.

Whew. A full day of parenting!