A week ago tonight, we were eating a wonderful dinner put together by the Paula-Lur-Melodie-David-Andrew-Jeffrey team. Do you remember what it was?
If you don't, that's okay since all three days folded into one another to make for a delightful time together, with so much packed into such a short period of time.
What were your highlights? Ticket to ride, Asia? Walks around the lake? Fishing? Saving Russians? Catching up with cousins? Meeting Thomas? Swimming to the dock? Teasing each other? Seeing and fleeing from a bear in the woods? Eating non-stop? Surviving the rainstorms? Happy birthdays? I know one that was not a highlight - hitting traffic on the way home, probably for each of us.
Here are a few observations.
-- The noise level on the porch the first night surpassed the other two evenings, leaving me to conclude we were all enthusiastic about seeing one another again.
-- We did miss Matthew and Tina, and are looking forward to seeing all their family next summer. We'd also love to see Claire and Daniel out here again, and we hear that Bill and Jen have a bus/rv so maybe that would make it easier for them to come out next year.
-- Small ones, like Donald a couple of years ago, and Thomas this year, are hard work for the parents but just wonderful for the rest of us, to engage in the silliest of ways, to stare at for hours on end, to try to get the smallest reaction from, in the form of a smile, a tongue sticking out, a wave, or a "bbbbbbbbb" of a car-type sound. (That may be Thomas' first word.)
-- Mary and I weighed ourselves on Monday morning and saw numbers we had not seen since February. It will be a long haul back, and we're still not making much progress (King Cone is to blame.) I suspect we may not be the only ones who indulged these three days.
-- Mountain Springs has all the right arrangements of cabins and proximity to lake and each other that gives us, yet again, the freedom to get up and go to bed and nap when we want, to visit each other and even to hide from each other, if we need to. No names.
-- There's a bit of familiarity with the place and the area so we almost feel like its "ours." We know the drill and even know where the glasses are kept in the cupboards.
In all the chit chat, we learned about new jobs and highlights from those jobs; we learned of wedding plans; we heard about trips to France, and to Gabon; we talked a little politics, but not sure we learned anything new there; we cracked jokes and told stories.
All that said, we also signed up for another year. Mark your calendars. Thursday, July 18-Sunday July 21. We have reserved five cabins, in the event we are able to lure everyone there.
In the other stuff happens besides Mt. Springs, Annie prolonged her trip east and came back to Pittsfield with us for the week. She just left on her way to a couple of nights in NYC before she heads back to Oakland on Sunday. She did a little work here, and joined my college roommate Steve and his wife, for an evening at Tanglewood and a barbecue and more extended conversations. She even got us over to the lake a few times for swimming, reminding us how we don't take advantage of that scene enough. Also, Timmy showed up on Monday night, having decided to move back to the area, at least for the warmer months. He's looking for a place to call his home over the next few weeks.
And, this week is a new birthday week. With Mary and Donald on the 24th and Thomas on the 29th. There will be another one soon, a real birth-day, as we're awaiting news from Tina and Matthew. Happy days to all of you.
It's hard to believe it's almost the end of July. I saw a little golden rod, this week, but still no leaves turning, thankfully. We want to slow down the time and enjoy the sandals and shorts weather.
So wonderful to see all of you. The time passes so quickly on these three days together, but when we're in the middle of it, I somehow can't appreciate that it will have to come to an end.
I can't leave on that sad note, so I'll just point out he obvious how we treasure the time together. Love from up here.
And check out these two pictures; first the posed one, and then the one waiting for instructions to pose.
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