My art shot for the evening.

 
Lounging before dinner, Jeanine is responsible for orchestrating the family reunion weekend which is a joint celebration of my mother’s 80th birthday and my 50th (not till late September actually).

 
Before the evening ends we are joined by my parents, my uncle Bob and aunt Maruja, sister Mayela and brother-in-law Stephen, and Jeanine’s sister Susan who drove up with us from Concord. Here we pose in front of the Crawford train depot illuminated by the setting sun.

 
We arrive in time for a quick hike around Saco Lake. Kyle had to remain in Concord for high school soccer tryouts and will not join us until tomorrow.

 
Our arrival coincides with three perfect days of weather after a long stretch of rain. Temperatures are perfect for hiking.

 
We will spend a total of three nights at the Highland Center Lodge which is run by the Appalachian Mountain Club of which we are members. The accomodations are spartan but cozy and allow plenty of room for our group of twenty one.

 
My first vacation day since I started work at Sonos. The family heads north to Crawford’s Notch, NH for a family reunion/dual birthday celebration weekend. Here we enter Franconia Notch as we near our destination in the White Mountains. We are renting another van while the Honda is being repaired.

 
My boss demonstrates his photographic talent capturing this image of me on day two of our strategy summit. It’s nice to be on the other end of the lens for a change.

 
The executive team at Sonos after day one of a two day strategic planning session held in Cambridge. Although it was a rather long day, we made excellent progress. Rather than joining the group for dinner, I drove home to be with the family only to discover on my arrival that they had gone with the VanDoren’s to watch a Revolution (pro soccer team) game in Foxborough. As they were leaving the parking lot the van was hit by a stadium employee who was speeding on his way out. No major injuries to speak of but the van is going to need some serious work.

 
Kyle has become something of a grill master and is largely responsible for this evening’s meal featuring a dry rub salmon. Yum yum.

 
Today Jeanine, Maya and the VanDoren clan went whale watching. I had to work and regret having missed such a great adventure.

 
For desert we enjoyed a marbled pound cake baked by Maya. She was as proud of her creation as we were appreciative of the delicious treat.

 
Today the VanDoren family from Belgium arrived. They will be visiting with us for the next few days. Francis (far right) was a foreign exchange student who lived with Jeanine for a year during high school. They have stayed in touch ever since. Counter clockwise from Francis are here husband Dirk, son Arne, yours truly, Maya, daughter Jolene, my bride and Nala completes the picture. We enjoyed dinner on the sun porch and got to watch a beautiful full moon rising over the field.

 
With the kids scattered to the winds (Maya in Nantucket, Nico with cousins in Minneapolis, Kyle in Nicaragua on a service project) Jeanine and I had the day to ourselves. We decided to go kayaking on the Sudbury River launching from the South Bridge boat house where we rented a kayak for Jeanine. We headed upstream for a liesurely 9 mile paddle and encountered more Blue Heron than people on our voyage. We are very fortunate to live so close to so many great kayaking destinations. We are less than 5 minutes from the Concord, Sudbury and Assebet Rivers.