Easter 2011-a LOT of pictures....

A long, exhausting day....but beautiful in so many ways. My day started at about 7 when I went to church to cook with some of the guys to put on the annual Easter breakfast. And we dont skimp at all....eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, homefries, you name it! Breakfast for the congregation was at 830, and then my youth group got the annual Easter Egg hunt going....this was about the most stressful 8 minutes of my life....then we went up to church where we were witness to a beautiful service and sermon--as usual. This brought us to about noon, and then we went home, tried to get the kids to nap (unsuccessfully) , and headed over to BaBa's for dinner and another egg hunt....

Maira in her dress....with her bologna arms....

Aunt Kelsey and Maira hanging out at BaBa's post dinner: a delicious crown roast of pork, stuffing, twice baked stuffed potatoes, arugula salad, applesauce, Amanda's homemade whoopie pies, and Kelsey's angel food cake pudding drippy thingy
Ahh....the happy and cooperative children, posing for a picture. Can you tell from Callum's face that I was "explaining" my impatience with him not listening?? Can you??
Easter Egg Hunt at BaBa's!!! Callum LOVED the idea of this hunt....in fact, Amanda hid some more of his eggs for him today, just so he could find them again....I will just let the pictures tell the story of his excitement and engagement in this....

(Sissy, Sasha, Caden, and Mia made these bags for all the church kids so they could put their eggs in them..)

VICTORY IS MINE!!!
At the church breakfast: Amanda and Siena (Amanda, this is my favorite outfit on you)
Callum, after the kid's egg hunt, playing with his Sunday School teacher 'Miss Thomas,' as well as her kids (and my youth groupers) Taylan and Tiana....
The pew of greatness!! We always squeeze in with the Fitzie's and yesterday was no exception. As you can see, Siena takes care of Maira, and Callum entertains himself with egg things......
Finding the first egg at BaBa's....each time he would spot an egg, he would all out SPRINT to it....and his ground-focused gaze WHILE he hunted was priceless....

I'm tired.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Callum is into jammin' lately....he particularly likes Neil Young and the song "Long May You Run." He calls it THE RUNNING SONG! We play it together. I will try to post a movie of they.

EDITOR'S NOTE, AGAIN: I just joined Twitter. Phasing out Facebook. Follow me on Twitter at JaredGoldsmith1. I will use Twitter for two things: 1) to post random, meanderingical thoughts that occur throughout the day 2) to follow bike racers, runners, Johnny Spillane, bands, and public radio things. NO farmville or poking or drama or things about tanning or people complaining about being a parent or people writing about how their kid is so cute just cuz they can lift their head or photo albums or breast cancer awareness BS or more drama or dummy dumb dumb dumbs. Follow me. You will be happy you did.

Just hanging out with the Phillies hat from Mee Mee and the green coat from nannie - Callum wants to wear these in the house ALL the time! In this picture he is practicing his sharing with Maira.

They are talking about how awesome their dad is and how hot their mom is and how pretty their Nannie is and how ungrumpy their papa is and how fun their mee mee is and how peaced out their grampy is.
This chair has a longer history than rock and roll in America. Fantastic. Notice the fire helmet. And Maira's chubby affect. During this April vacation, the two really bonded. Callum really does ADORE her. He gave her her bottle yesterday.

Old Stomping Ground

The lovely Portsmouth, NH. One of my single favorite cities on the face of the planet. So formative a place for me in my "youth." I fell in love with its buildings, its bars, and its coffeeshops. I wrote many of my favorite songs sitting in "breaking new grounds" or "Cafe Brioche." I played music, live, for the first time in the basement coffeehouse of the Unitarian Church. Some will understand this: It is a place that lends itself to romance. Longing. Solace. At its heart, it is a working waterfront--salt piles and cranes and Navy shipyard--and it makes no apologies for its disheveldness and its "rawness." It is what it is and it knows this. Isnt this how the best romances begin? At night, you'd leave a bar or a cafe, and it would be chilly as you'd walk down the road, and you'd look to one side and see "The Press Room" with its live music and packed booths--and you'd hear nothing, but you'd see it--and then you'd look out to sea and see the blinking lights warning planes not to hit bridges or cranes....you'd hear big boats make their way up the Pisquatica River. And this would be the only sound. And you'd feel so alone. And it was so beautiful.

I think my favorite thing about Portsmouth was it was the place where I really fell in love with my wife--not at the hip breweries or restaurants. But on a bridge. An old bridge. A bridge that was going to be shut down until Maine and NH decided to get together and fix it. I guess (and Sarah, can you help me?) it is just called "the route 1 bridge." It leaves from Portsmouth, crosses Badger's Island, continues over the Pisquatica, and leaves you in Kittery, Maine. It was our bridge. We stopped in Portsmouth a few weeks ago on our way back from Mass. I didnt expect the emotional profundity of bringing my children to a place that, in their youth, they couldnt possibly understand in terms of the power it holds over their mom and dad.

But it has tugboats, so call it a tie......
Standing on our bridge, looking out at the Naval Shipyard (in Kittery or Portsmouth---the two states are eventually going to war over this you know....). Two cool things: The tan building with the greenish roof was a HIGH SECURITY prison for POWs during WWII. I hear it is haunted. Big time. I also heard that part of THE SHINING was filmed there? Sarah? Second, in the center, you'll see a Coast Guard cutter. This was the exact boat that went to search for the _____(I cant remember the name), which was the boat from the story THE PERFECT STORM. Also cool is that 1 second after we put the camera away, we saw a seal poke its little head up and search around at what was going on....by the time we turned the camera on again, it has dived down...
Looking west toward the "Route 95 bridge," the big one that brings you into Maine or NH....
Maira WAS wrapped....but the wind kept wreaking havoc....
The tree garden between Prescott Park and Strawberry Banke....home of the famous beer and chili festival!
Prescott Park--Callum LOVED running around here.....

cliche sounding....(part 2)

Okay. Blog every day. Or so. From now on. I need to. For the kids.


Grammy Goldsmith had yet to meet Maira, as I wrote before. She was excited to meet her first granddaughter!Maira update: She changes every day--obviously. At this point, she is a hair over four months old! She is DESPERATELY trying to turn over....she really wants to....she puts forth a lot of effort! Also, she is quite the chunker, and when we prop her up, her big belly hangs over her cute little pants. She always smiles when you tell her she is "pretty." This either means she likes the sound of the word PRETTY....or that is really a Jersey Girl like her mee mee and zoo family....

For all her beautiful and wonderful attributes, Maira Elizabeth SUCKS at sleeping. She is NO CALLUM in this department (but we all have our strengths and shortcomings, right??) Maira still only sleeps for two-three hours at a time. This is rough. Rougher on Sally, obviously, but rough for BOTH of nonetheless. Maira, please go to sleep....Daddy loves you!
I have no pictures of Nannie from the weekend? Why is this Nannie? We have lots of video though....but Callum loved taking pictures with his Upbob. They are definitely buddies....kids and animals all seem to gravitate towards Bob. Maybe he should have been Santa Claus. Callum's visit to see all his grandparents really left an impression on him--over a week later, he is still asking where "Papa is" or "Upbob is" or "Nannie's house is." He loves all his grandparents very much. And they all love him.
Thanks to Nannie, Callum is now into taking "funny pictures" with people. He is such a ham!
On the way back from Mass, we stopped in Portsmouth for lunch and a walk (another blog altogether!). But this picture, taken on a bridge, seemed a good one on which to end this post.....
Finally, a NATURE NOTE (I am borrowing this saying from Muriel....thanks!): Today is April 16, and Callum, me, and Lynne took a quick walk back on the trails in back of Springpond. There are STILL places on these trails in the woods where one could snowshoe. What. The. Heck. Also, I planned on taking Callum out this week on the canoe to do some fishing....except the two ponds I wanted to take him have no open water---they are still covered in ice. God Bless Maine.

Cliche sounding....

Meaning that I always say "It has been way too long since I have blogged....." and yada yada yada....

But it has. Lots going on in our lives. This past weekend we made our way to Mass for a visit with Nannie/Upbob and Papa/Grammie Goldsmith. It was a great visit--Callum and Maira had a fantastic time seeing their grandparents. We went down Friday night, got there around 830, and hung out for a bit before going to bed. On Saturday morning it was about 70 degrees outside--beautiful! Callum, who is RIDICULOUS for baseball, wanted to take some batting practice outside Nannie's house. Like his daddy, he is a much better pitcher than hitter. I was a pretty good pitcher....did you know that? Callum has a pretty decent arm. Seriously. Plus, I think he is left handed, which will make him more marketable as a QB at the Naval AcademyI had a great run consisting of some mile repeats; my marathon comes up at the end of June, so I am in full training mode. Callum, Nannie, and Upbob went on a date to Target while I ran, Amanda read, and Maira Beth slept. Later in the afternoon we went over to Papa's house. Here are Callum and Maira. And congrats to my dad, who is having great success with a personal goal of his! We are all rooting for you. Also, Maira is wearing my favorite pants.....
Before we went out to eat (at Fresh Catch, of course!) Callum and Maira got in a great visit with their Papa and Grammie. In fact, this was the first time Barbara met little MB. And when Papa got up to go into the kitchen, Callum and Maira completely TOOK OVER "the chair." It is akin to Archie Bunker's...which resides in the Smithsonian....
Callum, I hope you read this blog in ten or fifteen years. I hope it still exists. You are SUCH an awesome big brother...so caring and tender towards your sister. You know how to make her smile, and you can get her to giggle (even I cant do that yet, and I sired her). Sired, even!

While Maira ate, Callum completely vegged out in papa's chair. He is playing with his "ball eggs," which he STILL has not put down since Nannie bought them for him at their Target date. Basically they are Easter eggs with "ball" designs (football, basketball, etc) on them. The kid sleeps with them, looks at them, carries them around, and shares them with Maira and Lupine. Hilarious. They cost like 99 cents. That is always the way, isnt it??
And as any boy will tell you, their 'rite of passage' is driving their dad's (or Papa's) truck. Callum loved driving Papa's truck. Papa, you should give this truck to Callum when you get a new one. I will tell him, okay? Haha.
This is only part one. I will do another blog tomorrow with some more pictures--Callum with Upbob, Callum playing around with Maira, etc. It was a great visit. Maybe even the best visit we've had to Mass in a long time. We didnt get to meet up with Jackson (he had a big egg hunt and was busy) but hopefully next time the cousins will get together. We had to miss his birthday party because of a blizzard (crap!) and he still hasnt met his newest little cousin Maira Beth. A great time! Even if my mom DID yell at me for looking at a picture on the wall too long, even!

April Fools....

Are you serious? On April 1st, we had a snow day. Most of the state of Maine did, in fact. We got 14 inches of heavy, wet, slurry dumped on us. Our clothesline out back got crushed over with the weight. It was miserable. This is the second April Fools Day blizzard I can remember; in 1997 or 98, whilst working at Plymouth Rock doing homeowners insurance, we got a foot of snow on April 1. Why?

At any rate, LeRage shut the whole state house down, so Amanda was home with me. So we got to have an early spring snow day. Callum looks out on the confused landscape....And I got to use the new "Kawi" and plow. I have to say: it was a BLAST. I got some good practice with the logistics of plowing our driveway. This will come in handy next winter. Also, I tried to help neighbors: I plowed Bill's whole driveway, and I plowed the "ends" of Cindy and Dana's and Josh and Kora's. Ya know. To be nice....and get practice (and because it was a blast). I have a lot to learn about plowing--angles and winching (that's what she said) and good use of time and space. I am sure next winter we will get no snow at all....

We made BBQ pulled chicken in the crock pot. We made mashed potatoes to go along with they. Callum enjoyed every bit of his BBQ.....
And even Maira--who, we found out at the doctor's the other day, has bronchitis--managed a smile or two.....
I love winter....but COME ON!!!