Boom OK

We spent the 4th weekend in Lake Placid. The parents of a college friend of ours own a place up there, just a few miles outside of the town proper. We haven't seen this friend, and his wife, for a couple of years. My recollection is a bit shaky, but it may well be that the last time we saw them was at our wedding some five years ago. Some of our other college friends came up from Boston with their ~1 y.o. son, who made a very fine playmate for the B.

A few highlights of the weekend:

Between Friday night and Saturday afternoon, Brynna ate four bananas.

On Saturday Hilary took a little side trip to see our good friend Sara down in Saratoga Springs. The rest of us in Lake Placid took a late hike up a minor bump called Mt Jo, then took a dip in the large pond at its base. It was not a particularly long hike, but there were plenty of steep sections. Plus, it was hot. Not quite as hot as it has been this week, but still pretty hot. Jasper was quite happy to be out and about, though, and just loved coming down off the trail and jumping into the water.

On Sunday, while Brynna had her nap, Hilary and I got out for a decent bike ride. It's only a few weeks from the Lake Placid Ironman, so there were a lot of folks out on the road on bike and on foot. Hilary and I still can't quite see ourselves training up for a full Ironman distance (2.4 mi swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mi run, anywhere from 10 to 20 hours). For one, we'd have to really put in the training time: 2-3 hours a day, at least, which is patently absurd in our current lifestyle. Still, it was pretty neat to see so many fellow triathletes out and about.

While we were out, Brynna was avoiding having her nap. After a little while she started crying, and one of our friends went to see her. Jasper was diligently sitting in front of the pack-n-play, and Brynna was standing right up. They brought her out into the living room for a bit, and she (rather humorously) scanned the room from face to face. Mama? No. Dada? No. Mama? No… After determining that we were nowhere around, she crept back against the wall and started looking sad. Fearing an explosion of anguish, our friends asked if she wanted to go back to bed. Brynna said, glumly and on the verge of tears, "yeees," and proceeded to sleep for the next three hours without a peep.

Sunday night was, of course, the 4th of July fireworks. Hilary and I had some misgivings about bringing Brynna. She could either love it or run away screaming in abject terror. Brynna has seen fireworks before, such as last year's 4th on Long Island Sound. But those fireworks were far off, and the booms quite muted. This time we were on a little slope on the water's edge, and the booms were going off about 200 feet over out heads. The first three minutes of the show seemed to confirm our worst fears. Maybe she objected to the weird techno music they were playing as accompaniment (what, no Sousa?). But, through the careful encouragement of Hilary and our friend's mother, Brynna managed to take a more positive view of things. After another few minutes, she was lying back on Mama, enraptured. B thoroughly enjoyed herself by the end, clapping enthusiastically with everyone else. Here's Brynna's take on it.

Boom! Air!
Raaad, ye-whoa, booo, geeen!
Lay down Mama.
Hode Dada hayaaand.
Boom OK!
[claps]

Monday, alas, we needed to make the rather long trek back to Concord.