summer vacation

My summer vacation officially started yesterday. Woo hoo! Aj and Evie have officially left day care until mid-August, we're enjoying the peace and quiet of Middlesex. The peace and quiet of our surroundings anyway; E and A themselves are nothing short of boisterous. Julie still has to work, but may be even more excited about the development as me since she no longer has to make kid's lunches and can now fully expect me to do some chores around here like laundry and cleaning the cat box once in awhile.

I'm planning on taking full advantage of the time at home. I've got a LOT of summer projects planned, and I've set myself up some goals to accomplish by the time I go back to work. I'd like to lose a bit of the love handles and be ready to run a half marathon this fall, I'm going to learn how to play bridge so that I can keep up with the in-laws, and I'm going to teach myself piano (we have imported/stored a 700 lb piano into the house for the next 1-2 years). Another goal is to be a better blogger and try to get a picture up here every day. Weekends aren't always realistic, so I'll shoot for 5/7.

And of course the kids and I will get to participate in lots of fun activities together. Montpelier Mountaineers baseball starts tomorrow, we've got our guide of VT day hikes out and ready to go, and we've bought a fishing license and all our gear. We've tried these out a couple of times already, and the kids, especially Evie, have taken to it. Here we are fishing at Wrightsville Reservoir a couple weeks ago. As you can see, the kids took an already fun activity and tried to combine it with a nap; the ultimate in relaxation.