Kyle and Angela combine forces to put out the fire.

Jeanine prepared a peanut butter cheesecake for the occasion, and Maya helped place the candles. Yummy.

Dad finds great humor in the birthday card made by Maya.

Mom turned 76 yesterday, and models an ensemble she received as a gift.

Apparently, two sandwiches were not enough for Mario, who thought a frog would make a nice snack.

Dad and Mario could not be bothered with relaxation when there was the business of food to attend to.

Maya and Rachel are reclining comfortably while enjoying lunch. It seems to me that expressions of such contentment should be reserved for tired parents.

It was fun to watch the cousins at play. They did not miss an opportunity to share in the fun.

Not to be outdone, the adults took to the tree as well. My dad still can’t keep his hands off my mom. Photo by Nico.

Nicolai required no assistance going up but did accept help coming down. Not shown was the part in which he used the head of his older brother as a convenient height step.

Mario was the first to scamper up the tree and required the most coaxing to come down. The genetic monkey traits of his father at work no doubt.

It didn’t take long to find the perfect setting for a portrait of all the cousins.

Today, our family drove to the Mount Tom State Reservation to meet with Frank and Angela, the Quinn family, and Rory and Mario. Within 2 minutes of arriving, Nicolai spotted a large black bear. This was as close as I dared approach. In retrospect, it was probably too close.

Kyle assists Maya on the new “zip” line I installed today.

Maya was in charge of pancakes this morning.

Another great skyscape this morning looking out across our field.

When I returned from work this evening, Nicolai was also back from his week long summer camp. When I asked how he enjoyed it, he went on for ten minutes about all the cleaning that campers were expected to do. Eventually, he did acknowledge that he enjoyed himself immensely. He traversed a river, blindfolded, on a 2-wire bridge (one to stand on, one overhead), was hoisted 40ft into the air on a spider line (harness on rope through tree mounted pulley), danced with girls, and ate a lot of food. Despite his claims of food consumption at camp, you would have thought he hadn’t eaten in a week when we went out to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Kyle’s birthday. He ate everything in sight including several new foods. While at the restaurant, Maya stops to visit with friends who were also dining there. Maya had her last day of farm camp today and rode a “big” horse named Teddy and helped to shear a sheep.

Kyle became a teenager today (13 years old). Jeanine prepared breakfast in bed for him. Although I took several photos of him enjoying his breakfast treat, none included eyes which were open as he was still half asleep. Kyle has been at tennis camp all week and they run him pretty hard. Yesterday they used a radar gun and clocked his serve at 94 mph.

Sleepy Maya gets ready to go to Farm Camp today. Yesterday she made a special pizza to feed the horses. I take great pleasure in asking her when she will be milking the chickens.

The morning began with sleepy cousins getting reacquainted over one of Jeanine’s special breakfasts. Mario and Rory are off to Albany/Schenectady for a week-long visit before they return to Concord.

Mario and Nico appear to be playing synchronized croquet. It should be noted that shortly after this photo, it began to rain, and the game continued despite a thorough soaking of the participants.

My sister-in-law Marie arrived early this morning with cousins Mario and Rory. Marie has that second trimester glow, which means Maya will have a new cousin to play with by Thanksgiving.

Our river adventure concluded with ice cream at Bedford Farms, where Maya befriended this massive Newfoundland. Maya has a special bond with animals and had no trepidation what so ever when introducing herself to this dog that is easily three or four times her weight.

Kyle is enjoying limo treatment with the Metzold boys Evan (rear) and Edmond doing the work. This vessel made several unsuccessful attempts to better the canoe containing Carl, Tom, and Nicolai. Problems with erratic piloting and apparent use of the wrong end of the paddle contributed to their problems.

Lunch was enjoyed under a tent at the historic Old Manse. Nicolai is still spiking a fever and did not need much encouragement to take it easy (although he did paddle for almost a fourth of the journey). Photo courtesy of Evan.

Maya insisted on paddling and turned out to be quite capable. The women were quick to decide they would have a canoe to themselves, leaving the boys to engage in various forms of testosterone-driven behaviors, including crashing canoes into each other and racing back to the put-in point.

Karen, who shares the same birthday as Carl, is an outstanding volleyball player and here demonstrates her proficiency at piloting a canoe. Jeanine first met Tom and Karen at their wedding where Carl assisted Tom, clad in his tuxedo, into the hotel swimming pool. Fortunately on today’s outing all parties remained out of the water despite some close calls in the kids boat.

Tom and Carl were wrestling partners in high school and have remained close over the years. Tom was bigger and stronger, but Carl was quicker and better-looking.

Today we joined the Metzold family for a canoe outing on the Concord River. We embarked from the Southbridge Boat House and paddled up to the Old North bridge where we put in for lunch and conversation.

Today the boys learned they could earn money by weeding the flower beds. Maya enjoys weeding and does so for free. Nicolai has spiked a fever every day since his return to Concord. A trip to the hospital and then to his pediatrician have eliminated many possibilities, but the cause is still a mystery.

My favorite shot of the abundant flowers.