First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Annie, my youngest and only child still in school.  I don't have the opportunity to take the traditional "first day of school" pictures anymore,  but I visited Annie last week in Rochester and we got a picture together.

Adam is not in school anymore,  but today is also the "first day of school" for him too.  Only now he's now on the other side of the desk.  He began his first career job today as an 11th grade teacher of American History in the Bronx.  The students aren't arriving until next week,  but I was excited to get a picture from Adam today.  This is his classroom!

It's so beautiful!  Love the hardwood floor!

Today also marks the beginning of a new season of blogging!  I don't write a whole lot during the summer, but I'm ready to get back to it now!

This summer has been filled with lots of fun and some heartache.

In June, I had the pleasure of going to NYC with my good friend, Linda, to take engagement photos of her daughter, Katie, and her fiance, Keith.

And just a few weeks ago, we attended their wedding!

I had these little guests in my yard for a few weeks!

Vance and I joined the crowd WAY TOO MANY evenings at Kloter's Ice Cream Barn.

I biked MANY miles around town this summer - this cheery field of sunflowers never failed to make me smile.

I brushed LOTS of fur off Sami and Halle!

I traveled to Alaska for Emily and Joe's gorgeous wedding!

We watched the fireworks on July 4th in Rochester!

Vance and I explored a few CT lakes - him with a fishing pole and me with a camera.

We said hello and good-bye to Jerome, Annie's first cat.  Her friends had this sketch made for her in his memory.  It now is framed and hanging on her wall in her apartment.

On the topic of grand-cats,  Fletcher went under the knife to have a huge polyp removed from his ear.

We are hoping this will be a permanent fix for his recurrent ear infections.

A week in Lake George with the entire family was perfect!  The full moon made for a beautiful sky at night!

Giving Annie a taste of my favorite mixed drinks of old - Sombreros and Toasted Almonds, among others.

Having Adam home for much of the summer was a treat for us, especially Sami!

Now we're empty-nesters once again.

There's no sadness in this.

  We look forward to frequent calls from the kids 

and excited to hear about their lives.  

We love when they make the time to come home for a visit.  

We also enjoy visiting them.

But we're not new to this.  We enjoy each other's company 

and spend a lot of quality time together.

It's nice.

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

When my family goes away on our summer vacation,  we like action.

We crave adventure.

We live on the edge.

This year, however,  we changed it up a bit.

Instead of thrills,  we just chilled.

We spent a week in Lake George - on the beach.

We connected with old friends.

We made new friends too.

And we took our annual family vacation pictures at the Sagamore.

We also ate a LOT, played rummy, read books, watched Masterchef,  sprayed 10 cans of sunscreen on ourselves, ate ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and also at Martha's Dandee Creme, and played mini golf at Around the World. 

This year, we added a new activity that we will repeat next year.

We went bass fishing.

I usually stay up late on vacation and sleep later in the morning.

This year, I went to bed earlier than normal, woke up

@5:00 AM, and headed out into the dark with my camera and tripod

to capture the sunrise over the lake.

The first morning was disappointing.  There were low clouds and mist.  I could barely see the mountains across the lake.

The second morning was better, but before the sun had a chance to peek over the mountains a huge dark cloud got in the way!

This is Dome Island taken from the waterfront on Cotton Point Road in Bolton Landing.

Still, it was very pretty and well worth it.

The third morning was clear.  The color in the sky reflected in the water making an incredibly beautiful scene.

On this final day,  I was happy to see the sun come up behind the mountains and sparkle across the calm early morning water.

This was our 21st family vacation at Lake George.

As the kids have grown up,  we are content to do less

and relax more.  Our little cabin with tiny bedrooms

puts us in very close quarters.  

Definitely not even close to luxury acommodations!  

But we love it.

And we'll be back again next year!