Independence and Birthday Weekend

Wow--a fabulous, fun-filled weekend to celebrate the country's 232nd birthday and my 42nd.

Friday, Independence Day, was filled with 3 parties, the first at Sherry's uncle's house in Wyndam. Highlights included frisbee and hillbilly golf with the kids. Following the early party, we headed up to Julie's in East Smithfield. After getting rerouted through the country because of the 4th of July parade, we arrived for an evening cookout--more delicious food and drink. A competitive game of Bocce ball and some horseshoes were the activities at this party. We left just after 9:00 p.m. and got home to find that our neighbors down the street were putting off some fireworks they had, so we went down to see the show, which was a delightful end to the day.

I awoke Saturday morning to the great surprise that Alex had made me breakfast in bed to kick off my birthday. The presentation of the fruit and berries around the bagel was beautiful, not to mention delicious. A short time later, I opened my present, which was a Wii that the girls had also pitched in on. We played some Wii for a bit before getting the house in order, so that 30+ people could come over for pizza and wings before walking over to the big Sayre fireworks show that night.

After the house was cleaned, the girls and I went out geocaching for the first time with some friends. A GPS unit is used to explore wooded areas and find caches that others have left. In the cache, there is a log as well as some trinkets. When you find the cache, you sign the log, take a trinket, leave a trinket, and eventually record it on the website. As the geocaching slogan goes, "it's the same planet, but a different world." We had a fantastic time caching.

We had worked up quite a sweat on our caching adventure, so we took a dip in our neighbor's pool and hot tub before getting ready for the party. People arrived at around 6 for the pre-fireworks party. Of course there was no shortage of food and Sherry had done a fabulous job planning and organizing the event. After I played some darts with Craig we got a street game of ultimate frisbee going with the girls, John, Kurt, and Aaron, which was a blast. Speaking of blast, we all walked over to the fabulous fireworks show. Each year it seems to get better. Following the fireworks, we arrived back at home to see that the neighbors had cranked up the chimnea, so we sat out by the fire until the tiredness (and reality of being 42) set in at 1:30.

Sunday was certainly not a day of rest. After sleeping in a bit and a few games on the Wii, the girls and I set out for a mountain biking adventure at Roundtop. Megan slammed her finger between her handlebars and a post, which bled and hurt alot. She also had some bike difficulty when she lost all but 4th and 5th gears. We managed to have a nice ride before returning home to yet another bbq--this time ribs, clams, and corn on the cob. Of course there were still desserts left from the previous days' parties and of course we ate them--turtle cheesecake, homemade strawberry pie, and cupcakes. Yummmm.

A second game of ultimate, this time 4x4 at the field. I used to love this game in high school and I love the fact that Alex is taking such an interest in it. While it was tremendously fun, again the reality of being 42 and getting completely gassed sunk in. Thankfully, the neighbors' pool and hot tub provided relief after the workout. The busy weekend closed out with some Wii and the final olympic trials--Dara Torres, 41 and in her 5th Olympics--wow!

Well, this is my first post to my blog that I set up years ago. Now I just need to continue it. My friends at BOCES have inspired me...