1st Day of Ridvan, April 21st

Here are a few images from the Mt. Tom hike. Heather came through with flying colors on these. Thanks for sharing Heather. We parked at the entrance and took a beautiful, single-trak trail up to the peak closest to the highway and overlooking the Connecticut river and Northampton (Steve I thought of your descriptions of some of these trails as we walked). At one point I actually remembered the trail as one that Alfie and I shot down several times on our mt. bikes 10 years ago. At the top there were excellent climbing rocks and the remanents of the Eyrie house which served as the kid's castle. After lunch at the top River, Heather and I sat and shared success and test stories on Ruhi courses, serving on LSAs and our own Baha'i experience. We arrived slightly late in Amherst for the Ridvan celebration very sunburned, tired (but energized) and happy.

Walkway

The beginning of the week started with a monday holiday. Alfie and I and the kids collected stones from the woods to build a walkway between the houses. What really is needed is to knock out a portion of a wall and make a door between... There has been some talk maybe in future of making a sunroom that connects both houses but that is just at the brain level right now. The rock collecting proved to be way too much for me and I injured my back severely pulling up the last rock (the last one on the right in the picture). I have been hobbling along all week. Fortunately, Alfie had good energy and was able to finish it. Friday, the Baha'i holiday of the 1st day of Ridvan, was a total success with an all day romp with the Brandon family again. Four hours of hiking, the Ridvan observance in Amherst and then they came over/up to the house for pizza. I am still in awe how well our kids connect (and the adults too). I didn't bring my camera but I know Heather snapped a few along the way that I will post later. Here also is an Isaiah original self portrait from the pool.

Rain Rain Go Away

This weekend we have experienced typical April weather. Cold (~50 degrees Farenheit and 10 degrees celcius) and rainy. We made the best of it saturday with a trip to one of the UMass gyms for an open house of sorts of the Exercise program and then watched videos the rest of the afternoon. Today we had a very successful venture to the pool with Alfie, Ericka and Mason. Britt and Alfie relived a few childhood moments by doing tons of splash-dives and the boys got bolder off the diving board.

April Showers Bring...

Whoah, ok 10 days... Stuff's happened for sure. Let's see the big news is that Britt's dad Al is living with us now. We are very pleased to have him here, super close where we can enjoy his company and be as much of service to him as we can thru this next round of treatments and beyond. He has joined our "24" club of fanatics to plow our way through 2 episodes of that outrageous TV show a night and has been giving Isaiah a run for his money in chess. He also was one of the key planners of a series of interesting and ongoing "experiments" such as what happens when carbonated drinks and mentos (the candy) mix (some results shown here). We also were happy to have Lise here for 2.5 days this past weekend. She came out to hang and be here for the first treatment in Northampton on Monday. Aman and Isaiah of course were very happy to spend some quick moments with another auntie they miss terribly... We had a good family game of "baseball" of sorts full of great hits, runs and giggles. These past couple of months have been a time of big change and a huge emotional rollercoaster for all of us at many levels. The boys have had to take on their fair share of what stress is out there but we are so proud of how they are rolling with it and growing and progressing at many different levels (I guess that goes for all of us). I had a solid interview this week and was just asked back for a second one. It is for a RF design position which would get my foot back in the door of that world I have been out of for the past 7 years. Please send some good thoughts our way that the doors open further... I mean if I walked in to talk to you looking like this... wouldn't you hire me???? Other tidbits? This week the kids are off from school for easter. We are all still holding our breath waiting for the phone call that announces the birth of Anika Rose (Alfie and Ericka's 2nd child) so that we can meet her of course and finally be able to implement all the plans we have in place for this occasion (she is due April 20). Warm weather is keeping smiles going. The boys and I discovered the Amherst middle school pool this past week and have been enjoying the water immensly. I cracked some ribs in a fall during one of my skating sessions. Britt has made up her mind for now about which of the two jobs she would like to keep, leaning towards the Service Net job that has a more community service aspect to it than the other.

Uncle Salad

I just had an incredible, hour-long conversation with Josh today that reminded me of how much I love him and miss him. He is in Peru for a couple of months working on some film projects and visiting a "friend". He called using his VOIP phone and the connection was perfect! Thanks again Yoshie. While we were talking, I was reminded of the simply fantastic visit he paid us late last year in Costa Rica. He came for 10 days I was able to take time off to hang and take some trips with him and while at work he was able to hang with Britt and the boys. He also had a chance to chill with Jaleh and some of her friends as well as, in the usual Josh fashion, to continue to further amplify his network of contacts by meeting with local producers and other folks that you connect with when you are an amazing artist/producer/writer/filmmaker/cineaste/musician/etc. One of the things that floored me about his visit was the connection he established with Isaiah and Amán who calls him "Uncle Salad" due to his passion for the fresh crunchy cleanliness (it could be cleanly crunchiness... not sure) of salads. They hiked together, laughed, filmed, giggled, made funny sounds, learned some new breakdance moves, frolicked on big sand banks at the beach, fed horses... etc. ...Yoshie and I had a fantastic surf session one afternoon. We were so happy we stayed in the water until it was almost pitch black. Wow! Yosh... what else can I say... thank you again...! It was a great romp...

Back to the Routine

Monday.. and its back to the routine. We split Aman and Isaiah up on Saturday. Britt took Aman on a highly successful venture to a zoo and Isaiah and I took a road trip to price out boys bikes. Ours ended with seeing the movie Shaggy Dog which yanked quite a few laughs out of us... Sunday, we went to Baha'i children's class and then met Alfie and Ericka and Mason for a great hike up to the Horse Caves in south Amherst. Aman is really growing up. Here is a comparison of him on Sept of 2002 making pancakes with daddy and at the Zoo on Saturday.