Summer 2016 - The Others

My last post highlighted my top 3 favorite times of the summer,

 but there are so many others that are worth mentioning too.  

1.  Max Restaurants "Chef to Farm" Dinner at Graywall Farms

For Father's Day,  the kids got Vance tickets to "Blues, Brews, and Barbeques", 

a dinner catered by the Max Restaurant Group at Graywall Farms in Lebanon, CT.  

It was a fabulous evening that included a reception with appetizers and beer, 

a tour of the farm, dinner, and a demonstration of how the cows are milked.

2.  Cookout at Kerry's

Kerry and Mel invited family and friend (Lucas) to a cookout on their deck.  

The food was good, and so was the company!  

3.  Alice's 85th Birthday

We celebrated my mother-in-law's 85th birthday with close family friends.

4.  We celebrated Harry Potter's birthday with a cake competition!

5.  We moved Adam into a new apartment in NYC.

Adam is still living in Harlem, but in a larger, very nice apartment 

with his new roommate, Shreyas.

6.  We moved Annie into a new apartment in Rochester.

Annie is now living in a huge 2 bedroom apartment with her roommate, Sabrina.

I've never seen such tall doors!

7.  Vance and I went to a James Taylor concert at Fenway Park!

8.  We did some painting.

Kerry repainted a flamingo lawn ornament left by the prior owner of her condo.

I repainted an old Cosco step stool that I found for free on the side of the road. 

It is now in Annie's apartment.

9.  We played pickleball.

It was the summer of pickleball.   I play a few times a week at the YMCA and I love it.  So I introduced it to family and friends, and they loved it too. 

10.  We had fun.

Taking the doggies for ice cream at Kloter's.

Pillow supplies at JoAnn's Fabrics.

Breakfast with a special friend!

Any time spent with Momo is special!

UConn Dairy Bar.

Time with the doggies! 

Kerry officially became a UConn APRN student and bought

everyone in the family something from the coop (for good luck).

A timed pepper-grinding contest.

Kerry loved the pillow I knitted for her!

End of the summer family breakfast at Kerry's (after she 

got off the night shift at the hospital).

Memories of Summer 2016 (My Top 3 Favorites)

The house is empty.  

The kids have gone back to their lives elsewhere.  

I feel the emptiness once more, repeating the pattern of so many years gone by

when the kids went off on the bus and I returned to a strangely quiet house.

The difference is - now they will not be back at the end of the day 

full of excitement and stories.

So I return to what has become my "norm" for most of the year. 

Don't get me wrong.  I love this time in my life.

It just takes a little while to get used to it again.

I had an absolutely wonderful summer with so many fun times!  

I'd like to  show you my top three best memories of the summer,

in no particular order.

1.  My niece, Mikey, and her husband, Lance visited us from Kansas.

It was especially nice that they were here to help celebrate Kerry's birthday!

2.  Our annual family vacation in Lake George.

Time to recharge.  

Time to reflect.  

Time to stop and see the beauty all around us.

Time to laugh and play and be "kids" again.

Time for siblings to reconnect.

And time to bond as a family.

3.  A spontaneous trip to NYC with Annie

The highlight of our 4 days in SoHo for Annie was discovering this adorable Corgi pup on the steps of the store Canvas Home.  Her name is Canvas.

Annie goes crazy over Corgis, and little Canvas crawled right into her lap 

and stole her heart.

We ate our breakfast each morning at Greecologies, which offers grass-fed freshly made Greek yogurt and healthy toppings.

Our hotel, the Nolitan Hotel, was perfect for us.  The rooms were modern and minimalist, and the rooftop patio was great for watching sunrises, sunsets, and rainbows!

The hotel was only a few blocks from Little Italy, where we consumed a fair amount of Italian food and gelato!

Adam and Annie went to see Phantom of the Opera one afternoon while I spent many hours at Purl Soho,  a yarn and fabric store not far from the hotel.  I gathered materials for many sewing and knitting projects for the fall!

We shopped for things we needed, such as a Senior recital dress for Annie at Bloomingdales.  We also spent an unexpected amount of time in a kitchen/bath store named Pirch with many amazing things.  Annie found an oven/stove unit for her future kitchen!

And yes,  we returned to visit Canvas a few more times too!

The weather was extremely hot and humid while we were there, and the subway platforms felt like a sauna, but we had lots of fun together.  We also visited Adam in his new apartment and spent time getting to know his new roommate, Shreyas! 

It couldn't have been a nicer trip!