Camping Out

Adam and Drew were reading "Just Me and My Dad" by Mercer Mayer the other night (for the 1000th time or so), and Drew got camping on the brain and wouldn't let it go. Since late November is not the best for camping outdoors, we decided to set up his tent (the one from Aunt Sue!) in his room so he could go camping in the house. I have a feeling we're going to have a really hard time taking the tent down anytime soon since Drew has decided that he's going to sleep in it from now on.

You can see that he built his little nest in here with his sleeping bag, his required blankets and various stuffed animals.

Home Safe

Today we all went to Lincoln, New Hampshire to the Hobo Railroad to ride the Santa Train. It was a beautiful ride, and Drew really enjoyed both the train and seeing Santa. He managed to spill hot chocolate all over himself and me near the end of the trip, but we were able to get this picture beforehand.

After the train ride, we had lunch at Peg's Family Restaurant in N. Woodstock and then took off for our trip to Long Island. Unfortunately, Drew had been running a slight fever, and Judy hasn't been feeling well, so we had to change our plans. We were going to spend the night in Connecticut, but by the time we got there, we decided just to push through and get home. So now we're home safe and sound (at midnight).

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, we made it up to the woods in New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. We had a fairly uneventful trip from Massachusetts to Grandma and Grandpa George's house on Wednesday morning. We did have some excitement at our hotel in Sturbridge, though. The fire alarm went off sometime after 10 (about 1/2 hour after Drew went to sleep, of course) so we had to troop down to the lobby until the fire department came and gave us the all clear. Just as we were getting to sleep around 11, the alarm went off again and off we went to the lobby again. Some people just stayed in their rooms, but I don't fool around with fire or fire alarms (lingering childhood trauma).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and we didn't get the torrential downpours that the weather people were predicting. Drew was lounging by the fire before dinner.



Adam and his step-brother, Christopher had to have their annual session of man-love (or wrestling -- whatever.)

Drew and Grandpa George went for a bear hunt (it's something Drew has been doing in school, but this time he actually got to go out in the woods). The rest of us ate too much and watched a lot of football (I read my book "The Devil Wears Prada" as an alternate activity).

Santa brought the movie "Cars" to Grandma and Grandpa George's as an early Christmas present. He's been trying to watch it non-stop ever since.

Road trip north

I figured I'd post a few pictures before our big trip north. I managed to start this post before we hit the road this morning. This picture was taken at the start of our trip to West Virginia last week.


Drew was helping me do some baking the other evening. He continues to be fascinated by the Kitchen Aid mixer. He doesn't actually want to help me, except he wants to turn the mixer on and off (and on and off ...)and lick the spatula.

Adam caught Drew reading the Examiner yesterday. No great loss that he can't read yet.

We're in Sturbridge, Massachusetts tonight. I'm actually sitting in my pajamas in the Business Center just off the lobby. There are about 10 other people in this fairly large hotel and conference center tonight so I don't really care who sees me in my penguin flannel pjs and slippers. Tomorrow, we're off to New Hampshire to see Grandma and Grandpa George!

The Best of Broadway at Worthington Elementary

Last night, Drew and I went to see Hailey perform as part of the Worthington Elementary Drama Club, The Best of Broadway production. Hailey had solos in "Magic to Do" and "I Enjoy Being a Girl" and sang in the closing "When You Wish Upon a Star". She did a great job!

Unfortunately, Drew and I were unable to stay until the end of the show. Drew didn't want to be quiet so we had to leave early. I won't get into the details of the aftermath, but it was ugly.

Hines, West Virginia

We made it back from West Virginia tonight around 11. I was really proud of my family -- they really showed up to provide support for my uncle and his family. I tried to get pictures of everyone, but not everyone would cooperate.

Here's Annette and Campbell:



Andy and Scott (It's Salmon!!!)



Uncle Jack and Uncle Gary



Drew, Campbell Halttunen, and Kyle, Connor and Mallory McCllelland



It's too bad we had to get together for this reason (I know people always say that), but it was good to see everyone (and everyone was on their best behavior!).

Raymond McClelland

I got word today that my 20 year old cousin was killed in an auto accident early this morning. Unfortunately, I don't have a recent picture of him, but I have several when he was a little boy. Raymond was my youngest cousin and was the apple of my Grandma Nina's eye. We will all miss him very much.

Drew and I will be headed to West Virginia on Saturday to stay until after the funeral. We're not sure if Adam is going to be able to go or not.

Nice Nostrils

It's been almost a week since I posted--we've all been running in different directions around here. Our floor was finally finished on Thursday, although most of the work was done by Wednesday afternoon. I've been in the process of washing everything in the kitchen, because of the dust everywhere. This is quite the undertaking since I have a LOT of things in my kitchen. (It's all about having the right tool for the job, right?) It's kind of hard to tell what it looks like from the pictures, but I like how the floor turned out. Adam isn't so thrilled, but I'm sure he'll get used to it.




School was closed today so the three of us went to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. They had free admission today, but they don't have train rides on Mondays so we just walked around and looked at all of the different trains. In my rush to leave the house this morning, I forgot the camera, so I missed many good photo ops while we were there. Unfortunately, Drew was not particularly interested in behaving well so we didn't stay long.

This afternoon, Adam put in some volunteer time dispensing Flu-Mist to kids at the Howard County Library in Savage. Drew and I went for a quick visit and to take a picture. I tried to make sure that I didn't violate anyone's HIPAA rights in the process. As you can see, no one's face (other than Adam's) can be seen in the picture. Can you tell I'm married to a health care professional? Adam's only comment about the experience was that he didn't realize that peoples noses (or, specifically, nostrils) could all look so different.