Synchronized Swinging

When I was a child, my favorite playground activity was the swings. And when I was older it was the seesaw or teeter-totter (my obsession began at age 11 on my 6th grade camping trip). I am so disappointed that seesaws have gone by the wayside! I used to be able to turn around and do all sorts of tricks. But I digress... I am so happy that Dova loves the swings as much as I do, but she is far more adventurous when it comes to them. Not only does she jump off the swings, check out this incredible position.



The chains were nearly horizontal, she was completely upside down! Even Adam looked impressed. I tried it myself and could barely get my body horizontal looking behind me, let alone vertically upside down, looking at the ground. Not to be outdone, Adam gave extreme swinging a try.



Oh yeah, he saw the ground all right. This was from a boy that refuses to ride rollercoasters. But wait, I gave them one more challenge of swinging upside down at the same time.



Success! Synchronized swinging!! I love these kids, they will try just about any physical photography challenge I come up for them.

The House on Loon Lake

This American Life aired an episode titled House on Loon Lake which tells the story of a real life Hardy Boys mystery about an abandoned house in Freedom, NH. The story has become so much a part of my psyche that I felt that I actually read the Hardy Boys mystery book and looked to purchase it online.  Thankfully, the Internet set me straight and brought me back to the This American Life episode.  This post has nothing to do with the episode, but another house on another lake which brought me up and close to a real life loon.

We are fortunate to have friends that have a summer home not on Loon Lake, but on nearby Newfound Lake in New Hampshire. We have visited every year since I was pregnant with Dova, and have had the pleasure of living the lake life for a weekend without the cost of ownership thanks to our gracious hosts.  The lake life consists mostly of water-skiing...


(my second time up on water skis ever...)


(unlike me, Doug can actually water-ski without looking like a goofball in goggles)

Tubing...


(Adam tubing at age 5, miraculously I captured this shot without having a heart attack)

Just for comparison sake, here are shots of Adam at age 2 and 9 on the same tube:


(I gotta stop feeding this kid, he is getting way too big)

Relaxing on the dock...



Or on the beach...


(for some reason, Doug and I took similar "relaxed feet" shots")

Watching the kids play in the water...



Sometimes I swim with the kids like a mama duck...



And sometimes we just go for a boat ride...



I never understood the mysterious draw that New Hampshire-ites all seem to have for the call of the loon.  It's just another duck, right?  I had no idea how majestic these creatures were until I saw them up close. Normally, this is about as close as you can get to them.



But last year, we managed to get closer and I took these shots with a very steady hand on my point and shoot camera.



Look at those bright red eyes against the loon's jet black smooth head!



OK, I get it, these birds are amazing! We are looking forward to our summer visit this year to the house on loon lake.

Relay for Life – An Inspirational Night

 

Note: I participated in this Relay for Life in June last year but I am woefully behind in blogging. Thankfully the Relay for Life comes around every year and hopefully this post will inspire you to join  a local relay near you.

When I first heard that my company was sponsoring a Relay for Life team for the American Cancer Society, I jumped at the chance to participate.  The Relay for Life is a fundraising event that lasts 18 hours from 6 p.m. in the evening till noon the next day.  If there’s two things I’m good at, it’s walking and being up in the middle of the night.  I choose to be present for the midnight to 6 a.m. shift, but I arrived early to see the luminary lap which started at 9 p.m.

The main reason I chose to raise money for the American Cancer Society was because my father passed away from brain cancer at the age of 69.  I purchased a luminary bag in his honor and the kids decorated it.  When I arrived at the relay around 9:30 p.m., the lighted bags were already set up around the track.  Seeing the hundreds of luminary bags set up along the track was an awe-inspiring sight.



Each candle is held in place by sand inside the bags.



My walking shifts were from 3 to 5 a.m., so I passed the time walking a lap here and there and playing Scrabble and cribbage with my co-workers (BTW, stoge is a slang of cigarette, similar to stogie, which I verified on my iPhone - win!).  From around 1:30 to 2:30 a.m., I retreated to my car and took a nap in the back of my wagon.



The 3 to 4 a.m. lap had a "Toga" theme, so I draped a sheet around myself for the hour.  It kept falling down until I finally got the right set of knots together.  I am now a toga expert!


3:14 a.m. darkness + iPhone photo = blurry Angela.

The 4 to 5 a.m. lap had an "Oldies" theme, so I dressed in tie-dye shirts with my fellow hippy co-worker.


4:14 a.m. in tie-dye shirts with minimal sleep = looking totally stoned.



Here's a more presentable shot of us.  The 4 to 5 a.m. hour definitely had the least amount of walkers.  It started after most people succumbed to sleepiness after staying up all night.  I felt invigorated to be part of the hard core insomniacs taking every step with purpose.  On one lap, I noticed a tent with Cure with Hope tie-dye shirts, but they were only offering them for sale on the Internet.  So with my trusty iPhone, I actually purchased a shirt within one lap of obtaining the URL.  Sleepless geek purchases tie-dye shirt while walking at 4:45 a.m.!  My co-worker was impressed.


Night is almost over taken by fellow relayer, tuberat.

The most amazing part of the night was sunrise.  We started seeing the sky lighten up around 4:30 a.m.  With my iPhone, we learned the differences and times of the civil, nautical and astronomical twilight before sunrise.


Sunrise, taken at 5:03 AM.

Holy smokes, it was a gorgeous sunrise!  By this time, everyone else was waking up from the light.  I finally headed home around 6 a.m. after the morning crew showed up.

In total our company raised around $1900 for the American Cancer Society.  It was a great cause, and an inspirational night to remember.