Wife Carrying Competition

This post will be quick.  Because I am tired!  We had a great, long and fun weekend. We were with the Gouldmans!  And we opened up Sunday River, cooked delicious food, rocked some Wife Carrying Competition watching, hiked down a mountain, and then closed up the cabin, visited Portland, and more and more.

I'm gonna call the Sunday River Columbus Day weekend thing a fair - because it really has grown.  I remember when we did the wife carrying a number of years ago, and that was it.  Now it is a huge event, with multiple days - (the finally figured out Sunday they should have stuff too! this year it was a cornhole championship).  They had music, beer tent, wine tent (next time I have to do that one!); scenic chair lift rides, kids games, climbing wall, bouncing things and more and more.

We learned our lesson and did not go out to eat once over the entire weekend (until Monday night).  The restaurants don't know what to do with being slammed we have found over these weekends, so we cooked and ate and ate and ate.  In the condo. It was relaxing and fun.  And, go me for having the place cleaned and all of the sheets done at the end of last year, it made getting into the condo this year all the more awesome.

The boys loved the games and the bouncy house, but were still getting restless, so we took the chair lift up to the Peak Lodge, and then decided to walk down.  This was eventful, as James got some sort of poop on his jacket, and then later proceeded to pee his pants a bit, while running down the mountain.  Mara took an epic picture of James' butt, peeing in the middle of Dreammaker trail with the beautiful sky and leaves in the background.  Nice.

We then went to Sebago, which was nice because Sunday River was getting crampt with no skiing and activities running dry by Sunday afternoon, however I have to say that I could have stayed at Sunday River too.  At Sebago we watched the game on the big screen, had a big fire - and this am we sat at the beach and had actual sun while the boys swam.  On Columbus Day weekend.

All in all a great weekend away on the "Williams Family Home Tour."  We will not be going to Maine now for more than 8 weeks (maybe even as many as 10!), it is probably the longest break I have had in many, many years.  Sad face!

Topsfield Fair, Year 3.

Today was Topsfield Fair day. It was pouring rain, but I thought we had to do it, They are going to school the remainder of the week and it will get busy so it was now or never.  I brought the one umbrella for the kids, and the big umbrella for the adults, and we suited up in our best rain gear and were on our way.

You would think the Monday of the fair, with lots of rain, it would be empty.  And, it probably was empty by comparison, but there were still school groups and fair people.  You know what I mean by fair people?  Large people who do not look where they are going and feel no need to move a step to the right to allow the mom trying desprately to wrangle two kids, or just keep her sanity - go by without incident.  Fair people do not care, and they will make you or your two year old move before they will.  Argh.

Despite the Fair people, we started our strong, real strong.  We went to the petting zoo first - which by the way we will go to last next time - once James pet one animal it was really hard to convince him that none of the other animals at the fair were for petting (outside the petting zoo that was, kid has no fear and tried to pet all the cows, the horse, etc.).  Not to mention, the kid loves to stick his fingers in the cages.  No mater how many times I asked, he continued to do it.  A rooster finally pecked him in the Poultry tent, and the kid just laughed and jumped up and down with glee.  Nice.

Really, I sound like it wasn't good, it was still good at this point.  We were having fun, walking around.  Joel even suggested a chicken finger and french fry snack - well, of course Joel!  We sat at a picnic table, had our snack at 10:45 (words of diet wisdom again are needed for me) - and then watched a magic show that happened a few feet away.  After we were bored with that we saw the moo-cows (Joel Andrew's favorite, moo-cows are his friends), we went into the bee-keeping hut.  We learned how to spot a Queen bee, and tried honey sticks.  James a fan, Joel Andrew not.  Mommy indifferent.  We saw the choo-choos, the pigs. It was all good and fun.  We even found a place to buy James his own umbrella (a frog) but by then the rain had gone and we were starting to sweat in our rain gear.

There was kiddie ride time, the carosuel is a big favorite with my kids.  The other rides, I think Joel Andrew is getting slightly too big for.  It was ironic that he was asking for faster and scarier rides, when the last time we went to an amusement park we had to drag him on things.  I think he is a teenage girl sometimes.

A Food Pantry organization had cute little games for the kids - pretend to be a farmer type things where they get the eggs from the stuffed chickens in their hen house, dig for potatoes (in the sand) and pick apples (plastic ones hanging by velcro from a wooden tree).  The kids loved this one.  Nice addition there, Topsfield Fair.

Then it was lunch time.  But by now, all of the patience we all needed to deal with the umbrella situation (that was a lot of work trying to manage two boys and one duckie umbrella let me tell you).  The walking around, the saying for the bazillionth time, please do not put your fingers near the animals.    Everyone had had it.  The boys got glassy-eyed and loose.  They literally could not even stand up straight and were falling into each other.  They were falling off their lunch chairs.  It was as if they turned into a non-listening form of jelly.  They completely stopped even hearing any noise from my mouth.  I would be in James' eyes, yelling - please sit down and he would like wake up from a daze sleep and look at me like, "what do you want, lady?"  It was as if we all shut off after a morning of complete fun.  All while I was trying to eat my Polish Plate from the Polish food cart from Worcester.  This was to be epic.  And, it was christened with cranky and non-listening children.  Nothing makes Mommy madder than when she cannot enjoy her ethnic food.

So, on that note we left the fair.  Which was sad.  I wanted ice cream.  Next year.  We did get to walk by the bubble lady on the way out.  She walked us to our car practically which cheered us all up.  As I was driving out she made one huge giant bubble which I ran into and popped with my car.  All the adults cheered, Joel and James were sad I popped the bubble.

Party Sunday - including the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival

We had a nice little Sunday.  There was no Home Depot, there was not enough time.  But, there was lots of socialization, party, fun and chores done.  It was nice to have a full weekend at home, no driving to another place, no packing food up and cleaning another place - just being home.  Lovely. 

We started out by all waking up past 8:30, leisurely watching TV, playing with toys and eating breakfast before going to Party #1, at our neighbors house.  It was Epic!  A tailgate in their driveway before the first Patriot's game.  Everyone brought delicious food, and the King buffalo chicken dip was a huge hit.  The boys loved riding around in the neighbors John Deere truck.  Not an adult free task mind you, someone needed to run around with them at all times to ensure there was no tipping.  Joel Andrew is very good at backing up.

Once the game was on, and we had our first touchdown Joel Husband high-tailed it home to watch in the comfort of his own seats.  He does not watch the game well at other's homes.  I was tired and thought I would take a nap but then quickly realized that I was about to let another year of the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival slip by me - so I took Joel Andrew and we went, and it was awesome.  If you go next year, go on a Sunday during a Patriots game, there was no traffic, we parked right next to the entrance, and we had no line to get in.  The food tents were mobbed, but Joel and I managed well.  We got to ride the kiddie train, play in the playground, but by the time we got to the Disney sponsored "Kiddieland" it was already packing up.  Joel Andrew refused to enjoy it anyway, he was missing his dancing buddy Poppy, who is away at college now.

We shared a whoppie pie, Joel got some french fries and I had some lobster tails.  It wasn't the "gourmet" experience one may think, they should probably call it the fried food festival!  And, each tent had it's own long line, so if you wanted something from here and something from there it would be a mess and take forever.  If you wanted to drink with it, then you had to coordinate everything and go into a whole different tent.  I guess this is just the way a Festival is, I should know!

We got home, did some chores and had a late dinner before going to bed by 8:30.  It was a nice day.  And, it meant Monday we could wake up at home and have an adventure!

Topsfield Fair, Year 2

So, I thought, lets pick something ridiculous.  Something that would be horrible, terrible, stressful, and bring out the worst in me, and lets do it with the boys on Columbus Day.  This way I would be BEGGING to go back to work on Monday.  Pleading.  I would even wear close to sweatpants on our outing so that I would want to get dressed up for work.  I would even eat more crap so that I would want to eat healthy.  Well, guess what happened?  We had an awesome day.  So awesome. I am in tears that I have to go to work tomorrow, and put my adorable awesome kids in daycare.  So, so sad.

We went to the Topsfield Fair, on Columbus Day, probably just as crazy as a weekend, but we were there with Auntie Lauren - and a good time was had by all!  We managed to stay one step ahead of the crazy, crazy crowds, that is until the end and the kiddo rides.  But even then, we found a few rides without a line and although this Mommy may have thrown a tantrum while waiting, none of the kids did, a plus there!

We of course saw all the regulars, said hi to the chickens in the poultry tent (which is disappointingly not as scary for Joel Andrew this year as last year - in fact it was more scary for Mommy and Auntie Lauren as when Auntie Lauren tried to feed the goose some food, the goose immediately took the whole cup which was hysterical and very scary at the same time, Joel Andrew still talks about it).

We ate bad for us food which makes it three days in a row for me, and officially back up the 6 pounds I recently lost in anticipation of our Disney Trip...  Oops.  But, I mean come on, you are at a fair.  Can you imagine working the fair?  They must gain like 800 pounds.  It isn't like the food just seems good and really tastes bad.  Every single thing I have had at the fair has been delicious.  Down to the 80 pound whoopie pie I bought.  Yep, it was good.

The boys tried hoola-hooping, we saw the pigs, we saw the horse show (when they are older I am guessing we can kill some real time in one of these shows).  The littles got out and about for a little bit, and the Mommies had some good quality time, though we didn't really chat about much of substance, we had a good time!

Then, the best thing ever happened.  Last year when I came to the fair alone, with a three month old and a two year old, I could not think of me at all.  I walked by the piergoi tent ten times vowing to come back.  There was no time last year, with the feeding that need to happen in discrete places, the diapering, the everything.  This year, there was no way I was going to miss this.  Auntie Lauren was plotting her next snack move but I knew where I was going.  I B-lined it for the Piergoi tent.

Joel Andrew asked: "What is this Mommy?"  He can see the photos of the food and what was pictured was far from the red hot dogs and chicken fingers he has been used to from his recent, generous experience at fairs.  "The food of your heritage, your people" I replied, dead pan.  The people behind us in line laughed and it was on.

I remembered some Russian from my days abroad, and I looked at the vendors.  They were legit, for a few reasons.  First, it was an older couple, and the woman had short grayish hair and an apron.  Second, because the man had gray sweatpants on with the string tied in a perfect bow.  Call me terrible for stereotyping, but I could have been looking at my great-grandfather (a full 25 years before I was born - making the pierogi there).  The excitement mounted.

I quickly taught Joel Andrew to say Spa-Cee-Ba (our version of thank you in Russian) - and like an awesome child when the man handed us our food, Joel Andrew repeated.  I was so proud.  The man immediately started rattling back to us in Polish, and Joel Andrew and I were both at a loss.  Finally the man said: "don't you speak Russian?" To which I replied "Ya - Ne-Lou-blue Smet-tan-ou" - (I hate sour cream), and other gems I learned during my time in Russia.  He would laugh and the people behind me would beg for translation.  It was awesome.

Anyway, I walked over on cloud nine, I had two Polish plates stocked high with piergoi, glumpki, kielbasa, potato pancake - and I was done.  It was the best, end of birthday celebration meal I could have ever dreamed of, and it was capped off with an 8 pound whoopie pie.  I could not have asked for anything better.  I know what I am doing next year for my birthday.  (Auntie Lauren's and my's only complaint - where is the beer?)

The day got better, we rode some rides, we drove home in silence.  Baby James fell asleep in the car but then transferred to his crib for a nap that took 2-1/2 hours longer.  Joel Andrew and I watched Cinderella, and had puppet shows.  We did errands when everyone was awake, ate dinner, and had an EPIC dance party with Daddy in Baby James' room. Now I get to drink a glass of wine and watch some TV sitting on the DVR.  Do I really have to go to work tomorrow?

Fryeburg Fair

Our first expedition to the Fryeburg Fair!  Yay!  It was very successful.  Less than an hour from Sunday River, and a little more than two hours to home, it was a breeze to go there this Sunday.  We arrived and parked at literally the first spot we could see, brought the red wagon and walked the kids to the Fair, which was good - because with all the eating we did we could really have used the walking!

It was not cheap!  I mean, to get in was no big deal, but to play any of the kiddie games it was like $3 a pop.  I am not sure how much it even was to ride the rides, but it cost about 4 tickets per ride, and if a parent wanted to go on the ride with the kid they had to pay tickets too!    We did some rides right off the bat, but James was getting antsy so then we went in search of the animals.  There were stall after stall of cows.  I could not believe the children of the cows owners were showing us around and pointing to the different cows and telling us: "this one kicks" and then sitting on the cow.  Of course James also wanted to sit on the cow but we just kept walking.

The best cows were from Castonguay Farms, which is an organic farm and Ava (one of Joel's Soccer buddies) - her family runs the place!  These cows were the best because they actually smiled for the photo - see below.  I couldn't believe it that when I said to Joel Andrew to say cheese, they actually turned around too.  Joel husband quickly got sick of the livestock and wanted nothing to do with it any further.  We walked through a few cows, the sheep (Baby James LOVED the sheep), the poultry tent - which Joel Andrew was less scared of this time around, until a turkey tried to give him a nip.  And then ended in the rabbit tent where when we came out both Joel Andrew and I were saying: "Can we get a rabbit daddy?" - Daddy was done with the animals at this point.

We went off to play games then, because as Joel Husband put it: "you got to do everything you wanted today and now we need to do something I want to do."  This is when we realized we needed a lot more money to bring to this fair.  I am not sure how families do this anymore, playing any game cost from $3 - $5 and within seconds it is over.  Daddy is pretty good at darts, and so he did win the enormous blue walrus that you see below.  Joel Andrew has it in his bed tonight.  Favorite part of my day was telling James he needed to carry the blue walrus.  He tried!

Good times were had, and we will be back.  We probably only saw a quarter of the things, and we didn't get to see any of the shows.  Next year we will have to, and get Joel Andrew in a pig scramble too.  The red wagon was helpful, but cumbersome in the crowds.  Good thing Mainers are so nice, as we did run over a couple of toes.

Maybe next year we can go home with a chicken, or a pig... Or a bunny!

Wife-Carrying Competition

This weekend we went up to Sunday River, it is tradition that on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend there is the North American Wife Carrying competition.  This is no joke people, crazies flew in all the way from Finland to win this year.  As you may guess, we did not participate, we just watch.

It is a good time because the competition takes place right under our condo.  So, you can just sit up there with your bloody mary and watch it all take place.  It is also peak for leaves usually, so it is just a beautiful view of the mountain.  Lots of additional festivities take place, including a tent with beer and a roped off area (gotta love Maine, if you went to college in this state you would extra-appreciate this!), a craft fair, live music, a wood carving show, horse rides, scenic tours up the top of the mountain, all sorts of food and ski sales.

Of course we walked the craft fair, and I got a nice toy box for the kiddos, as well as an awesome coat rack, made out of the tips of skis.  Pretty psyched for that one.  Otherwise, the crafts were kind of bleak.  Actually, sadly a ton less than in years past...  But, it seems as though they made up for it in the entertainment and activity category.  Even Auntie Jennie made it on the stage to sing for the live event.

The gondola ride to the top was the best!  The boys were too little to walk down, but maybe we will in a few years.  At the top of the mountain there was an open bar, which Joel Husband and I gladly partook of...  We were those people, chasing after a toddler and a preschooler, while holding glasses of wine and captain and coke.  I was worried that child services might take me away, and then I spotted about 50 other parents doing the same thing.  Again, I love Maine.

We all had nice bonding time.  Mommy even got a nap, and the Joels went to the pool.  Auntie Jennie and Mommy got to go shopping too, and I now am the proud owner of a nice "I love Apres" shirt.  Sadly, while walking out with my purchase I saw someone else that was wearing a shirt that said: "First Chair. Last Call."  Damn.  I need that one.  Joel Husband said I should get one that says: "First Chair.  3 hour nap.  Last call." He is probably right.

Our annual fun in the fall weekend was a hit!  We didn't make it last year, I am guessing because of craziness with the two boys, but we will make it again next year for sure!

Fall

Fall is upon us and last weekend I took the boys for the morning (really it was only for about an hour and a half) to the Farm around the corner.  It has been a crazy busy time with work and so I am sad I have hardly seen my boys and hardly posted on my blog.  But this day did happen, and I have photos of it, so I am posting it now.

It is probably the busiest time of year for my job, next to December 31st.  We had our Annual Meeting on Thursday night, there seems to be an event of some sort each weekend, and I am sending out 1,200 letters asking for over $3 million dollars on Monday.  All customized.  But whatever.  Everyone has busy times! I am actually thankful because in years past all last weekend would have been devoted to work - we changed that and spread it out to just a few Saturday's instead.  Not sure how that will work out!  But we shall see.  Anyway, what I am learning as I went from 0 to 60 in no time flat, is any free second is the only potential second to spend with the kids, so I  better make it count.

After this morning of fun, where we pet animals, sat on pumpkins, rode a hayride, ate cider donuts - did not pick apples because the tractor line was about a mile long, but hey - we live here and 90% of our neighbors have apple trees with apples rotting on them in their backyard, so I think we are good...  But after this awesome morning, it was right back to work for Mommy.  I had an 8am on Monday in the Charles River Valley - and so I went to Auntie Jennie and Uncle Jeremy's to sleep that night.

Later in the week, Joel Husband had a retreat in Maine for two nights, then I had my Annual Meeting, so we are single alternating parents lately.  It is a mess and I am not sure if it is sustainable.  In one week I ruined a friends surprise party, threw an epic tantrum of my own, had two great work meetings, and one where I thought a lady was going to shoot me (story for another time and not the inter webs), lost a nice bracelet, thought I lost my engagement ring 9no worries, Joel Husband, all set!), and bought myself birthday boots.  I am tired and sad and accomplished and hungry.  Again, is this a good plan?