Reunion Part 2

Fall type weather has dropped in suddenly here in Massachusetts. Cool nights and semi warm days. We just wrapped up a nice weekend with today where Amán and I went exploring the Umass campus on our skateboards and scooters while Isaiah went on a nice bike ride with the Alschulers and Oma. I ended a day with a grueling mt bike ride at a place called Bachelors street that I had heard about for years and never had a chance to explore. I got pounded to say the least... half the ride was fun and the rest was just plain old pain... And the depth of tiredness reminds me of the epic 8.5 hour hike that Britt and I took while in CR. You may remember a year or so ago me posting about Britt and her friend Anne and others in Costa Rica attempting to find a path from Escazu where Anne lives to Ciudad Colon where we lived. 3 attempts (two forward and one backward) were made which all ended with them arriving at some yittle town way out in the middle of nowhere bumming rides from the local pirate taxis to get home... 9-10 hours later... Britt and I got to spend the most continous time together we have in years and finally conquered this same run. It was tiring but exhilirating... 8.5 hours and the way both of our knees hurt we seriously thought our legs were just going to fall off! The next morning we drove to the beach with more adventures but that'll have to wait til after a sleep a little.

We have been going non stop all week with work and painting our bedroom... we are done except for the radiators and are severely sleep deprived. I include also a couple more Costa Rica pics of a little romp we did with Aleta and Beau to the river during their visit to the house. They later came to the beach with us too....

Mckinney-Ruhe Reunion Part 1

Well it is official... we did it! Got all the siblings from the Jere-Julie clan together .... except one. Lisa, Eddie and their two girls were not able to make this time around... but Jaleh, Aria, David, Giannina, Ali, Ilka (Ali's girlfriend), Britt, Colin and all the respective kids managed to land in the same house for a few weeks! It was a very nice lovefest to celebrate the family, meet the new niece Ela (insanely beautiful, cute and buttery) and catch up... The boys were so good with Sasha and played tons out in the yard with her and the new puppy Barney... the old swing got a lot of attention of course being that it is by far one of the cooler swings on the planet (thanks to Jaleh of course). Here is a few pics from the first couple of days. We had a few sessions of trying Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans ... some with disasterous result as the booger, vomit, earwax and others do in fact taste like what they say they are... sugary but disgusting... There are a few pics of obvious near vomiting... We also took TT (Jaleh) to our favorite "top of the world" spot above the university for peace. I was amazed that she hadn't been there and happy that we could share. Britt watched Sasha while Aria took a break. The watching really was watching her run out in the rain and play in the big mud puddle... along with all the boys and the puppy of course. Isaiah of course had to try and get his footprint up on the ceiling of the garage which is the underside of the David and Gianni's porch... The prints I put up there a couple of years ago are still there... This was done via the two swings that Jere had installed under the porch... of course Isaiah did it quite quickly while Aman made it his goal to smack the leaves of the mango tree with his head... which he did quickly also... Well a lot more to tell but it cooled down considerably here today... tonight the temps will be in the low 50s and perfect sleeping weather... I am going to go snuggle up with Les Miserables and go to sleep... (I include also a pic I took of Mason and Anika sleeping just before we left...)

Back

Well, I am back but Britt and the kids are still in sunny Costa Rica. There are tons of stories and pics to share but I got in at 2 am last night and will be going to bed straight away. Before that happens I wanted to share a link for an NPR Story about the program that Britt started and is running here in Hadley, MA as part of her job.

NPR_Story:_New_Gym

Enjoy.