Boys and their scooters

Benicio and Nick like to film each other doing stunts and I think its pretty adorable when their photos show up on my camera reel

Nice height B!

Like this angle too - 

Nothing but net

The winter month bring basketball and with 3 boys - LOTS of basketball.  Nick's age started travel basketball which meant 2 practices a week and 2 games on the weekend - and thankfully a great group of families to enjoy it with.  Nick was one of the smallest on the team and while he didn't have ALL the skills he played with LOTS of heart.  Never too small to defend any player.  

Always in the game.

Always trying

Shane was a bit more in his element and could really navigate the passes and start to make a game of it.

Just at the age where they are figuring it out together as a team.

Drew's age, not so much - his games were often the Drew show as yes, he has been around the basketball court a few times and yes, he does know how to find the hoop and he will do it again and again.  He had a buddy he could pass to, a girl that got pretty darn good and a few others that would pay on the floor - sounds about right for kindigarten and first grade right??

Excited to see where this goes - 

Olympics at the ZOO

The Zoo is coming together - one step at a time.  Here are the first time kid place attendees - 

A little Zoo Olympics marketing - 

Harder to get this together than you think!  But we are kinda Olympians - o.k. not really - 

Can you tell this was my idea??

Puppy time

We signed up with Fidelco to help puppy sit - we were blessed with 2 great puppies and this adorable little guy was thrilled.  I honestly love capturing him like this - straight out of the shower feeling and smelling wonderful

We had 2 dogs - Vixen and V-Sue - both about the same age.  Super sweet and wanting to please - also puppies - so they have puppy energy.

And waited by my door for morning walks.  With Pauli passing in August, having time with these sweet dogs was beautiful therapy for me.

Loved how they just want to be with you.  Glad my sister's kiddos were up for their spring break to see us for a bit too!

First Chair

Missed First chair by seconds as the boys had to run back up to brush their teeth - can you smell their minty fresh breathe??

Since its presidents day weekend its BUSY and in order to ski with my family - I have to make it there early and leave before line up (in case they need me which at the moment they didn't)

So together we stayed

Doesn't Shane make hot chocolate delicious?

Demo day so i got to try out a rocking pair of skis.  I will admit, I can feel a difference.  I will also admit - its not quite worth the hundred's of dollars quite yet!

I got called back later that day to teach a few lessons.  Happy to go back as my crew lounged in the PJs at home after a great morning on the slopes.

Be The Good

Love this photo as here Nick and I are headed to get 2 super soft donuts for my new retainer wearing man.  

His poor little mouth.

  And yet he didn't once ask or expect Donuts so it was even more of a blessing to be able to surprise him.

The snow was falling too - extra special

 Icing on the cake, we were babysitting for our friends wonderful dog Roxy - an act of love for our friends and their dog.  

I feel the good.

After painting our room I took down the old photo I always hung - it was a photo I grabbed while a LT in Germany at the REAL - is signified 2 friends up late having a glass of wine together talking about their lives.  It was just time to change it.  But being such a prmininet spot in our daily life - to what.  This thought kept coming to my mind.  

And than I went to church and heard of the shocking and very sad passing of one of our church members.  

I pray I never forget her.  

Ginny and her 2 boys (3 really when you include her husband Paul)

They often sat behind us in Church.  Or shall I say we sat in front.  Our church when you are late you get front row seats, thus we were often in front.  She always found a way to say something kind or thoughtful to our family.  She often made the time to stop by and bring hand me downs from her boys.  She made calendars with her photographic talent - beautiful captures of our Canton Town.  I am thankful to purchase a few as gifts for our family.  

Ginny had cancer.  Not many of us knew this.  She was originally diagnosed in 1996 and had bouts on and off for years following that.  Her boys are high school age.

She never stopped praying, never stopped believing and truly never stopped being the good in so many folks lives.  Ginny is the good

Her memorial service at our church was something I went to alone yet with hundreds of others as it was a packed house.  I cried the entire time and not entirely sure why other than a beautiful soul is no longer here with us.

Than I asked 2 local artists (Kim Algren and John Nottingham) to make this sign.  One for me and one for her family.

I hung mine up instantly and taped her memorial program to the back.

I held onto the one for her family.  I was suddenly scared to go over there.  I didn't know Paul and the boys very well at all.  Heck I didn't personally know Ginny well.  But I knew she couldn't have been known well, she wanted to be.  

Fast Forward until April - yes, it took me that long.  

After the boys baseball game Drew and I drove to Ginny's house in hopes of not completely disturbing them or making it awkward.

Paul was along working and organizing his garage.  He recognized me and welcomed us.  Drew stayed with me as we chatted a bit.  Not chatted, but talked.  Paul is such a good soul.  I told him I wasn't sure if there was room in his home for this sign, but I wanted him or something he loved to have it.  He wanted to talk about Ginny, about the notes he was finding of her prayers, how he just washed her pillow for the first time.  How it is so hard without her.  How he is amazed by the support circle that has surrounded his family and all the work it takes to maintain that and how Ginny truly poured into so many.  I left his home having HIM made me feel thankful I stopped by.  Than in just a mere 3 days I get the most beautiful thank you note.

It is never too late, and God works in truly beautiful and amazing ways.  Ginny I hope you get to see of feel the amazing things you have done, created and touched in your life here on earth and continue to do so in Heaven.

Date afternoon

Somedays are just beautiful.  With my job transitioning FROM skiing to the gym, I was starting to feel my days numbered.  It had me appreciating them more.

So I asked him to join me for lunch and he said YES!

The ZOO Gym and the next chapter

Pretty sure I couldn't have predicted this one.  One day I took a spin class (not taught it, took it - big difference on my perspective)

 - as I looked around to this rock star instructor I realized the gym was literally falling apart around her.  She had Christmas light haphazardly strung behind her and lots of the bikes had bad clips, the AC was on the fritz, the list goes on.   Yet she was still awesome putting out tons of effort and I was just in the class.  

What the heck??  

What does it take??

Through FB I knew a fellow Latimer Lane (think grade school) buddy owned a Zoo Gym in NH.  So I reached out to him and said, what can the Zoo do to help our little gym?  Well to make a long story short, he decided to buy it, and ask Mike and I to run it.  Now there is a lot in-between, bikes stolen, bills unpaid, upset members, horrible policies, risks taken, yet Julian believed we could turn it all around.

I would like to remember the critique these boys gave this photo after we took it.

Julian brought in a new Shake system and one night, it made Champagne!  It was amazing seeing these guys work hard to turn this gym around.  In just a weekend things truly felt different.

Zak is a new hire in the back there - one of our members sons who tried to get a job earlier but they never hired him.  We hired him that night!  Victoria got to mentor him.  Mike cared about this gym even when no one else did - thankful he stayed on as it would be impossible without him.  The 2 boys on the right are part of Pure Core - our personal training company.  Matt and Julian run the show back in NH and 

I brought the champagne on a late Thursday night between basketball practice for Nick

Its opening night in my opinion and honestly a new step in my life.  For 8 years I didn't have anywhere I HAD to be.  My schedule was my families.  Now I have to admit - it feels pretty awesome to get u and have a mission every day - one that I do believe in.  Cheers to the next chapter.

We can make a difference

I kept feeling this and kept seeing this.   That push I needed to keep working for something - 

This is no easy feat - but maybe something else.  Pretty sure its a snow day here!

Yet still taking in the daily beauty

Ortho!

Its happening and earlier (they say the better)  Nick needs to make room for those big teeth to come in.  

Expanders here we come.  

Top and bottom.  

He gets to design them.  Red and blue - patriots colors with a football in there.  Geesh I hope they work better than the ones I had as a kid too! 

2 times a week he has to turn the crank.  He spoke like he has marbles in his mouth the first few days.  And his teeth hurt.  We made a special donut run on the first afternoon.  Such a trooper this one

Montreal - international super bowl

OMG where to start - this was a BIG weekend with so much to look forward too.  A weekend away together with our best friends.  Super Bowl is a tradition and traditions must continue - kids or not.  We were so thankful to have Brian home and being able to celebrate instead of us headed to Dubia for Super Bowl.  Counting our blessings.

We travel light - Chris's clothes are bigger than mine yet he still has the smaller suitcase.  Hope he packed some warm clothes.

Farrah and Brain had some crummy luck in their connecting flights.  I told them to get up to bradly international and join us on our flight.  She said there weren't any seats available.  Guess we know why.

We were sitting first class.  A little close for my liking, but Chris soaked it in.

Without Brian and Farrah arriving first, Chris and I were exploring Montreal in search of food and drink to welcome them with.  it was FREEZING out there.  So cold my phone kept turning out (that is how you determine how cold it is these days - Applethermia - when you use it for your GPS its tough when it stops working.

so we headed into a DELICIOUS bar to warm up the phone, and our fingers.  After some amazing cocktails we were back out and in an UBER - to the grocery store.

The arrival!

Reunited in Canada of all paces.  Can you hear our loud voices for where you are?

We had dinner at a great spot and than headed onto a bar Brian had researched.  Let me say, traveling with the McCulloughs is amazing and leaves no stone unturned.  No door unopened.  Even the ones you never thought would open.  He told us to knock on this door - and guess what, it opened to a pretty fab underground bar.

Creative cocktails

We went again the next day to further validate.

 

here we are going to one extra bar at the end of the night - maybe one bar to many - wait, that would be the Caberet.

The view from the pretty fab and unique airBnB brian found.  In the distance you can see the igloo party which initially I thought we would go.  But the average age was probably 25 and folks were VERY dressed up - in costume.  We didn't pack that.  Its best we avoid the techno party.

Saturday morning was a 4 mile walk to a market that Brian has sniffed out.  Took a little break along the way to snap this gem.  Spelled right and all!

The market was amazing - filled with syrup and cider tastings and LUNCH - Farrah and I score a table right next to a mom who was pretty much us 3 years ago, young kids, stroller etc.  Farrah and I were all eye rolling and thankful that is not where we are at the moment in our lives.  Oh the days.

Seriously - Look at these 2 and this lunch - YUM

Selfie stick and all

So if you have a huge well that was previously used to reel in boats from the lake, what would you do, surely you would hold a photo opt in the reel right?!?!

Red eye all around in this one

Guess its not so clean up there.

Which guy do you think packed more stuff?!?!  Hmmm....

The more photos the better I always say.

Especially when it snowed all day - such pretty snowy moments.

A photo bomb in there 

Dinner was a delicious - brian researched some pretty awesome places.  This one had a limited DELICIOUS menu and BYOB - win win!

Look at the beautiful ladies they got to dine with

Now lets take on the night in an Uber (remember we walked 4 miles that day!!)

the size of the cup is NOT reflective of the strength of the coffee - do not be fooled!

There has always got to be a tourist in the bunch

They say Montreal makes you feel like you are back in Europe and going into this church I agree 100%

the 3 of us went into the church and came out not finding Chris - he couldn't have gone too far right?!?!  So this is us killing time.

And this is a darn adorable photo - mostly due to the photo bomber that is blurred out but the IPHONE 10 - 

Super Bowl here we come!  We literally camped out at this bar.  They promised to have the game WITH commercials and sound - and beer - so win win win

Only trick was, the commercials were the Canadian ones.  Apparently only a different Canadian network (not shown at the bar) was showing the commercials....  Maybe this is the last international Super Bowl.

The stage in the night when we are leaving beer behind.

The stage of the night when the game is over and 3 out of 4 weren't thrilled with the outcome.

This was the breakfast place around the corner and it was DELICIOUS!  the Iron Man bowl.  AMAZING and beautiful at the same time!

Our one touristy thing was my request to ride the ferris wheel.  It was a clear sky chilly beautiful day and we had to catch and UBER by 11;20 - plenty of time right?

catching the beauty of the scenery and the CHILLY water.

little did a know it was pretty high and none of us really loved the heights.

And little did I know they would run us through it SEVERAL times.  We figured it was just once.

than we went again, and than almost one more time, but we literally banged on the door and asked them to stop it.  They must of thought we were terrified.  Well maybe a little of that.  But time to catch our UBER!

These weekends don't happen by accident.  

Its because we put the time aside and make this time together a priority.  We had packed schedules and finances that weren't tremendous, heck, Brian wasn't even supposed to be home.  But he was.    It is weekends like this with our best buddies really fill you up and set you back to real life better, stronger, more loved.  

Knowing there are souls in the universe that really are pulling for you in this life no matter what.  These are the folks we would do anything for and being with them like this is truly a treasure.   Thank you for making this all possible.  God knew what he was doing when brought us together.