A Wedding, A Baby and a Bonfire Part IV, The End!

Rope Climbing at Crossfit

Day 8, Crossfit and a Baby!  Woke up early next to my BFF Jen Stack and went to get some eggs at the local diner.  Then we dressed up, grabbed Anna and headed off to Crossfit for another round.  This time we did squats, pullups, and pushups AMRAP until the time ran out.  It felt pretty good.

Eating Deli Sandwich on the Road 

Akiva Teaching me about Coffee

Elisheva

Anna and I headed back to Saugerties and packed our stuff as fast as we could so we could be out of the house before Mom came home.  It's just true.  We threw shit in our bags and ran to the car.  We stopped off at Price Chopper to get some deli meat and bread, made sandwiches on the trunk of the car and headed off to Boston.  It wasn't a long drive, but I started to fall asleep while I was driving and we switched off.  Anna took the controls and we swooped in on our nephews and our new niece!  It was so great to see Akiva and Asher, I usually only get to skype with them and it's just not the same.  We gave them their gifts and set off to the playroom to play.  Angela alternately fed and held Elisheva, since that's all she was capable of at that point.  Little 3 day old babies don't do much but eat, sleep and poop.  The boys were adorably excited about the baby and kept reaching out to stroke her cheek or pat her side.  Akiva and I played catch for a while and then we sat down to dinner.  Just simple spaghetti and meatballs family style.  Then the boys and I did some burpees.  The video should be posted in my list of links on the side.  It's super cute.  We played some more games and went to bed.

Awesome Game

Go Fish

Day 9, play, play, play.  Akiva woke Anna and I up super, duper early and since Anna wanted to sleep in Akiva offered to teach me how to make coffee.  Of course I accepted.  This kid is smart.  He walked me through the whole process.  The only thing he didn't know was how many cups of water to put into the coffee maker.  He's awesome.  We got the boys ready for school after some quick games and sent them off.  Anna and I read, slept and then hung out with Ang and Ben for a while until we could pick the boys up from school to play more games.  Since you probably don't care about the nitty gritty of the games, I'll just say that we played the most awesome games of Hungry, Hungry Hippo and War or something.  The boys are hilarious and adorable.   We took turns holding the baby and talking with Ang and playing games and so on and so forth.  Ate, went to bed. 

Cereal and Checkers

Mad Puzzles

Day 10, made a Moby Wrap.  Akiva woke us up super early again and we played a quick game of Checkers while he ate his breakfast and set off for school.  Asher doesn't go to school on Fridays.  Anna, Asher and I put together mad puzzles, and Anna and I took turns cleaning the playroom.  When Ang got home we headed to the closest fabric store, who lied to us about having regular old cotton fabric.  They were a upholstery store.  So we got some heavy cotton fabric, headed home and I whipped up a Moby Wrap.  We tied it onto Anna to practice and then stuck the baby in with Angela.  I hope she gets some use out of it, but I'll probably make another one with lighter fabric for her.  Anna and I planned on leaving for Saugerties around noon, but instead waited around to pick up Akiva from school.  He was really excited that we were still around.  We played a few more games.  Asher helped Anna and I pack and we played the best game of hide and seek ever.  Asher told us to hide and started counting.  Then he hid too.  Anna and I just busted out laughing because he wouldn't come find us, he just wanted all of us to hide.  We would have been there forever if we hadn't been able to talk him into finding us.  Again, love that kid.

Beginning Bonfire

So we said our goodbyes, and packed into the car for the drive.  On the way Andrew called and said he was heading to Saugerties too, so we made plans to meet at Sue's where the Kovaks always get together on Friday nights.  When Anna and I got home, Mom gave me the finger (now nicknamed pulling a Pauline) and Anna and I took off to Sue's.  We hung out with Andrew and friends and finally headed home around midnight.

Bonfire!!

Day 11, Bonfire.  We woke up early and started rolling logs.  Had to finish up the firepit to prepare for the night's festivities.  It's hard to describe, but I put some other videos up of us log rolling.  It was a hell of a lot of work.  Andrew fixed the bonfire so it would actually light on fire, we stacked wood to throw on as the night went on, we collected hot dog roasting sticks, we hit Price Chopper and bought all kinds of snacks.  Andrew put together a potato casserole to be cooked later in the night as well as some chicken to throw on the fire.  We drank Guiness and got ready.  At around 5:30 the fire was lit.  This was the biggest fire I've ever seen at the Sullivan's.  It was ginormous.  The video hardly does it justice, but the link will be up all the same.  From then on friends continued to roll up, the keg was tapped, hot dogs and marshmallows were roasted.  Mary McGinn, Jen Stack, Mary Jankowski, and Becca Hoppsen showed up and that's all that really matters.  Also present were several of Anna's friends and Andrew's girlfriend Emily, who is very nice.  We partied as long as we could keep our eyes open and headed off to bed smelling like a firepit.  I stripped off the outer most layer of my clothes and curled up in my bonfire gear.  I actually looked at all of my pictures and watched the bonfire lighting video before I went to sleep.

Andrew in the Bear Cave

Andrew at Opus 40

Day 12, Opus 40.  We woke up to prepare bagels and scrambled eggs.  Mom and I headed off to Mass at some church in Saugerties.  When we got home we cleaned up the bonfire area, watched some Hawaii 5-0 and prepared for a trek to Opus 40, this amazing architectural landscape that some guy built by hand over the course of 37 years.  It is a quick walk through the woods from our parents house.  We used to go there all the time when we were kids.  On a hot day the cool air that comes from the quarry rocks feels amazing.  On a day like this Sunday, it was very peaceful, and a little sad.  On the way there Andrew showed Emily the "Bear Cave" that he and his best buddy Ken made when they were in 6th grade.

Andrew at Opus 40

When we got home it was really sad because Mom had made all of these plans for me while I was home and we didn't get to any of them.  True, we could have gotten one or two things done if she hadn't been actively ignoring me most of my vacation, but you can never get all of the things you plan in on these crazy East Coast ventures.  We said our goodbyes, had some coffee and jumped into Vandalf, first to return the keg, then to sleep at Andrew's place since it was closer to the Newark airport than Saugerties.  We hit up the Zombie Hut for the Giants game and then we hunkered down for the night at Andrew's apartment.  We ordered ourselves a car to drive us to the airport at the buttcrack of dawn and passed out for a few hours.

A Wedding, A Baby and A Bonfire, Part III

Gathering her Strength and Courage for Log Rolling

Day 7, Log Rolling!  Monday was spent with preparation for the bonfire.  Much planning occurred on this day.  We dismantled the old firepit seating and built what we believed to be a beautiful 3 level piece of art that may or may not burn.  We then proceeded to roll newly cut logs (gift of Hurricane Irene and chainsawed by my Dad) up a shortish hill and over to the firepit area for some new seating.  It was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  I think I am going to add the video to my blog, if I remember tonight.  Look for it on the side of the homepage.

The Cache of Logs at the Bottom of the Hill

 After a full day of physical labor we rested a bit and waited for Mom to get home.  That was a bit unpleasant.  We went out and did some more log rolling.  Mom was not an active participant.  Later in the evening after feeling quite uncomfortable for a good length of time we decided to leave the house for some beers.  We had a shout out with Mom, which ended in quite a civil manner and an agreement to hike Overlook after she got off of work on Tuesday.  Anna and I left to hit a fabulous tavern called the Dutch Ale House in Saugerties, NY.  I had a really great chicken and mozzarella panini and we shared a super yummy salad.  I had two Guinness' as well.  Then we moved locations to some other bar and had some beers with Anna's longtime friend Robert Horton.  I didn't care.  I just didn't feel like being home.  When we were tired enough we headed home and tucked into Anna's bed to watch an episode of Hoarders.  I didn't even make it through the first one.  Anna elbowed me when I started open mouthed snoring halfway through the show and kicked me out to my own bed.  I tucked in with my 6 blankets and tried to warm up.  I did sleep like a baby once warm enough.

Our Multilevel Creation

Day 8, Overlook. I usually get up to hang out with Mom in the morning to have some coffee and such, but I wasn't really feeling it.  She ended up stopping into my room and double checking our agreement for Overlook Moutain hiking.  I said I was surely in.  Anna and I proceeded to roll some more logs and build a better bonfire.  It was freaking awesome.  I'm sure it was the coolest if not the most flammable bonfire around at the time.  We rolled logs until we couldn't move our arms anymore, then we went to Target for some gifts for the nephews and our brand new niece.  We got some super cute stuff and headed home.  Mom came home and we all filed into her car for the hike.  It was slightly uncomfortable at first, and we mostly made some small talk.  We started the hike and mom took off on a speed walk.  Anna and I fought to keep up and finally she tired out a bit and we were able to talk for real.  We talked all the way up to the top.  The views were fantastic.  It was cold and misty, so the building was surrounded by fog.  I kept taking my scarf off because I was sweaty and then putting it immediately back on because it was really freaking cold.  Here's some pictures:

Climbing the Rope like Nobody's Business

 Post Overlook I had to remind Mom that I was headed to Boston the next day.  Then we went out to meet Jen Stack who was going to take me to Crossfit.  Crossfit rocked.
Day 8, Crossfit and Babies. TBC