Purgatory Chasm

Yesterday we went to a state park in Massachusetts call Purgatory Chasm (here's a site with some more pictures of the chasm). We went with our friends Andy and Amy and their two kids. This is a fun place to go if you have kids like ours who love to climb. There are rocks every where, in all shapes and sizes, with some of them forming "caves" which the kids could explore or at least look into and wonder what kind of ferocious animal might live there (the most popular being bears). And the weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and mid sixties - an answer to prayer.

The chasm after which the park is named is not very long or deep but it is a lot of fun to climb down through it and then go around one of the rims to get back to the start. The kids did great listening to and obeying commands, which kept them safe and keep the parents from being worried. A lot of climbing, a picnic lunch, playing Frisbee, taking a walk, beautiful weather and sharing it with friends made it an extremely enjoyable day for us. We are still tired out from it :-). Even my almost 19 month-old Ellie had a blast - she did her best to keep up with the older kids and did an admirable job at climbing some of the smaller rocks. Below are some pictures from the day.

Update - 04/18/08

Just a quick update for tonight.

• The weather this week has been beautiful. Thank you God.
• Work has been slow. I have a project starting up on the 28th but for now I spend a lot of time staring at the monitor, trying to figure out what to do. Today I finally brought in a couple of "teach yourself" books from home that I have not picked up in a while. This will count toward the required 40 hours of training per year.
• With the weather being so nice, I've been able to get some yard work done a couple of evenings this week - raking leaves. I've also filled in some holes in the back yard that the boys have dug. It looks like we have a dog! No matter how many times I've told them to only dig in the old flower bed behind the garage, they just keep digging other places. The biggest hole that they have dug is under the gate to the back yard. I'm not sure if they were planning their great escape or not. Since they did not just pile the dirt nicely beside the hole (that would be too easy) but spread it across the yard, I had to take dirt from the old flower bed in order to fill the cavity under the gate. Now the old flower bed really won't be growing much this year.
  

The Weather Yo-Yo

One of the worst aspects of the spring weather where we live is that it will not make up it's mind. "I want to be warm and sunny. No wait, I want to be cold and dreary. No wait..."

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. The kind of day that makes you want to skip up the nearest elevated piece of ground and sing out loud, "The elevations are alive with the sound of music." Seriously, it was gorgeous. Hardly a cloud in the sky and in the low seventies. I took a walk at lunch and did not want to come back in. I had to take off my jacket because I was starting to break a sweat. I shouldn't have worn the jacket in the first place but old habits die hard.

Now today. It's been overcast and threatening to rain most of the day. It's been around fifty degrees, which would not seem bad in and of itself, but compared to yesterday, it seems quite chilly.

When will the weather yo-yo stop? When will warm weather be here to stay? Oh, to have several months of yesterday's weather, that would be grand! (I can dream can't I? )

Rain Delay

This is a delayed anecdote about rain. Last Friday it was raining. It rained steadily for a good part of the day. It was raining during the morning while I was at work, when the fire alarm went off.

Oh yes, it did. The wise ones of us had our umbrellas. Some were not so wise. One of my team mates had even teased a couple of the other guys that morning on the way in because they had umbrellas and he was not using one. He told them to "man up". Now he was getting to stand in the rain. [Satisfyingly ironic, isn't it?] Another team mate let him share his umbrella but that only protected his head and one side. His jacket was light and not water proof, not even really water resistant, so his work cloths got wet. It was quite amusing for the rest of us.

I ended up sharing my umbrella with another colleague, which meant that I had to hold the umbrella between us, which, since it is one of those single person umbrellas, not a giant golf umbrella capable of sheltering up to 20 people or three cows, meant that one side of me was exposed. My jacket was water proof, so no problem there, but my pants leg and shoe were not, a problem there.

After about twenty minutes of standing out in the rain, we allowed to go in. At least is was only cool and not cold. We still don't know if it was a drill or a real alarm. My team mate above, who had no umbrella and got wet, expressed the sentiment of many, "Something better be burning."

Bathroom Humor

For the one or two people who read my blog and not my wife's blog, I suggest that you go on over to this post to read about a funny incident while my oldest son, Will, was in the bathroom yesterday.

Update - 04/01/08

What have I been up to lately? Nothing really thrilling or extraordinary. This past Saturday we had our requisite pancake breakfast (the boys now refer to Saturday as pancake day rather than by its normal name). Then we worked in the yard. The boys started off helping me to rake leaves but that lasted all of five minutes.

After gathering a pickup load full of leaves, I hauled them off to the city recycle center. Lunch was then consumed, the children went down for naps and I proceeded to try and complete the audit of our church finances that I had been in the process of doing off and on for a few weeks now. That took me the rest of the afternoon and evening, with a break in there for supper, play time, kid's bath time and their bed time.

Sunday was church. We were doing the children's church. We were late in getting there because Will threw up a little bit and mommy's tummy was not feeling well. During nap time (after church and lunch, not during church), I put the new registration stickers on my truck for the next year.

After nap time, I played some Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. Will loves to watch me play and gets so wrapped up in it. If an enemy appears on the "radar screen" or a battle is ensuing, he'll beg me to bring it into view if I'm somewhere else on the map. It's quite comical. He also tends to lean on me as he tries to get a more head-on view of the action.

After I trounced the enemy, a victory supper was observed, some play time had and then bed time. Then I had Stephanie give me a hair cut. The big buzzer broke, so she ended up using my beard trimmer.

Moving on from what's happened to what's coming up, specifically in May. So far I've know of three movies that look very good that will be coming out in May. As you can see from my side bar, one of them is the new Indiana Jones. That's the one I'm looking forward to the most.

Another one that I would like to see is the new Narnia one, Prince Caspian.

The third one I would like to see is Iron Man. I remember watching the cartoons as a kid - not the best animation. But the trailer looks really cool.

Happy Birthday Lara!

I just want to send a great big

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

to my sister, Lara.

Hope you had a good day.

P.S. Your card's in the mail :-).