Massachusetts Trip

Two weeks ago, the week of my birthday, we stayed on a random Thursday night in Massachusetts to use my dad's time share credits.  It was quite a long drive for one night, about four hours.  But we thoroughly enjoyed it.  The kids love a hotel, and this one was very nice, as the WorldMark timeshares usually are.  This one was technically a Wyndham Resort at Bentley Brook, alongside a ski resort called Jiminy Peak.  It would be fantastic in the winter.  The lift is just outside the hotel room.

Lydia insists that we come back sometime for two weeks.  They loved the wooded setting and the great room.  It was a whole suite with two bedrooms and a living room and kitchen.  We went to the hometown of Norman Rockwell and took the kids to the museum there.  We also happened upon a maple syrup farm where we purchased some of each darkness and saw how they extract the sap from the trees.  We also went to the Hancock Shaker Village, where we went in some old dormitories and saw a traditional dance and singing.

The location would be more fun in good weather.  There's a lake nearby, and the ski resort has fun alpine slides and stuff.  We happened to have intense rain the day we were there.

On the way back, we stopped by the Butler and enjoyed a nice visit.

Fireworks for Graduation

This was the first time we participated in any Princeton graduation related activities.  The campus is crawling with alumni (reunions) and families of graduating students.  Tonight was fireworks.  The kids really enjoyed them.  Nyle was at first very scared and hid behind Mom.  But Lydia was clever enough to cover his ears.  Once he learned that trick, he put his fingers in his ears and enjoyed the show.  He didn't even want to pull them out of his ears when the show ended.  Then he just went on talking about hot lava and fire during the walk back to the car.  He's a cutie.  The older kids told me about their favorite fireworks and that they thought they were going to land on them (as did Nyle).

Lydia and Tyler have a bad habit of complaining about things before hand that they end up really enjoying.  We told the kids that we were staying up late and going to the park tonight.  We wouldn't tell them why because Lydia in particular doesn't deal well with disappointment, and I wasn't completely sure that I got the time and day right for the fireworks.  So when the fireworks began as we were pulling in to Princeton, the kids at first thought it was cool to see them out the car window.  Then it registered with Lydia that this was the reason we were coming.  The complaining began.  "I thought we were going to a park to play in a playground."  "I would rather stay home and play video games."  Then after they had seen the firework show up close, they took it all back.  Tyler explained, "I thought it would rain on us like it did last time."  (In Boston, it pored on us while we watched fireworks over the river.)

I didn't actually watch the whole show.  I was parking and walking most of the time, carrying Emmett in the baby carrier.  Emmett didn't mind the fireworks.  He just stared the whole time.

Helicopter Lesson

Today I flew a helicopter.  What a thrill!  Lifting off was a thrill, especially since there were no doors on the helicopter.  I kept trying to hold on to something, but there's really nothing.  I also checked my seat-belt over and over.  I felt like I would fall right out without holding on to something, so I grabbed on to the edge of the windshield.  Quite the exciting ride.  They took the doors off because the weather was so hot.

Flying the helicopter is of course more difficult than you'd imagine.  Then again, I remember when driving a car seamed a bit overwhelming.  So it really just takes some getting used to.  They warned us during the ground training about how badly things can go if the chopper tips too far, so I was quite cautious.  Gusts of wind make you constantly readjust what you're trying to do, even when it's just going straight or making a smooth turn.  We flew over a prison, followed the freeway for a bit, and viewed New York City from afar.  I really just controlled the cyclic rotor (the top).  I would have liked to use the pedals which control the rotation.  The cockpit of these training helicopters make difficult to cram my long legs onto the pedals, under the horizontal bar that does the cyclic control (this is a vertical bar in normal helicopters).

This was a Christmas present from Larisa, which I finally had time to schedule.  Great idea!