Reunited after nearly 3 years!

This morning when I posted, I was actually waiting in the Manchester Airport for my plane to Chicago. While I was in India I emailed my favorite brother-in-law and told him of a plan I had which was to fly out and suprise me sister for her birthday and boy was he IN! We arranged the ticket and he got the day off work to come and get me and for the months in between we just tried not to let it slip. The plan worked flawlessly and while she was gone to pick the girls up from school, Hafe and I slipped into the house and I waited in the kitchen for her to come in. This is Hafe on the phone checking his messages to make sure she hadn't called and a picture of the clock as we waited and then the million dollar picture I snapped as she walked into the kitchen. It was perfect and she was so excited which made our days as well! My nieces took a few moments to figure out who the heck this new person was as well but they caught on and it was a fun afternoon of hanging out with my cool family in Normal, Illinois which will always hold a special place in my heart as I lived here for 3 different summers with the Hafens.Wealso had a little Rock Band jammin (that game is amazing...I really felt like a Rock star. They are totally bringing it to the reunion in June.) I also gave the girls some bangles that Lucy helped me pick out in India. Miranda was so eager to see what I had for her and Allie and Shannon very diplomatically split them up so both has equal colors. It was a pretty cool day.I will be here for the next 6 days so more pictures and stories to come.

Ads and Articles.

In loo of the springish weather we have experienced the last couple days, the Ad for the Merc this week harks to the Mud that so eagerly accompanies Spring in Vermont. These boots really are cool. Hobo Brig bought a pair when they first came in and if it wasn't for McKay and her generously sharing all of her Vermont Winter Footwear, I might have a pair myself. Although there is another company Bogs that does a few funkier designs of this same sort of Boot. MuckBoots are the real deal, worn by real faaamers in the real muck and having the proper footwear for Vermont winters is essential and I have remembered that now.

On another note, last Sunday we had an editorial in the paper on Sibling Development, the Merc, why all the Larsons moved to Windsor, etc etc. The reported had come in and talked to all of us, called Joy, and tried his darndest to get the story as straight as possible. There is some serious intrigue about why we want to work together but the story mostly gave a bit of a chronology of our lives and how we've ended up here. It was big and we were on the cover of the Business section with 2 color photos and then onto the next full page with 2 more photos. It was a good spread (not a fan of the way I look in the pictures as I didn't shower that morning ;) but it has been incredibly well received and I have already received 2 design jobs straight off the article. Every person who has come into NLWILSON has mentioned it and it has brought a nice vibe to the Merc as well. It's big so I was planning to scan it and post it or something. So hopefully we can ride on that.

Hobo Brig goes to Boston.

Boston is only 2 hours away and a pretty straight shot from Windsor which is really exciting because in just 2 hours we can be in a great city. I mean I have driven longer than 2 hours to get to a movie before (I once drove with Mom and Dad 3 hours one way to see a movie in Tucson but we needed out of Morenci so you can't blame us) We took advantage of Alicia and Phil being here and went down with Chelle and Hobo Brig. According to Wikipedia,

Hobo is a term that refers to a subculture of wandering homeless people,^[1] particularly those who make a habit of hopping freight trains. The iconic image of a hobo is that of a downtrodden, shabbily-dressed and perhaps drunken male, one that was solidified in American culture during the Great Depression. Hoboes differentiate themselves as travelers who are homeless and willing to do work, whereas a tramp travels but will not work and a bum does neither.

Meet Hobo Brig.

We don't know when we are going to see Hobo Brig. Right when we think there is rhythm, say Tuesdays, he becomes unpredictable and we don't see him for awhile and then one day he wanders back into our lives. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by Hobo Brig to Boston.

We parked outside the city and took the T into the Holocaust Monument which is new since I was last in the city and is a very well done installation. We went to Quincy Market for some slices of pizza and Mike tried his first Polska Kielbasa sausage grinder thing. As we were walking towards the Common outside the Market we caught these street performers and if you look closely at the pictures you can see the man jumped over the line of kids....whoa. Hobo Brig liked that.Chelle had Boston down and we followed her around although it is such a manageable city and easy to walk around. It was a bit nippy, however.

After walking around for a bit past some of the sites on the Freedom Trail and where the Boston Tea Party Began, we made our way to the top of the Prudential Building where we took a tour of the city from above. It was clear day and cool to actually be able to see the whole city from above. Later, we went to see 'Jumper' which totally bit in a royal kind of way. Here are some pictures.

Valentine Sledding.

Over the past week we have had quite a few snow storms alternating with ice/rain/sleet storms so if one were do make a cross section of a snow bank you could map out our winter from the layers like the rings of a tree. Yesterday it rained all day, over the 6 inches we had received that night so there was a thick crust of ice over a nice blanket of powder = sledding at Keighty and Jordan's house! First we had to break through the ice crust to make trails and then away we went. It was a beautiful, sunny Winter day in Vermont. Alicia is here visiting with your friend (wink wink) Phil so they tried a little snowboarding out which resulted in Alicia face planting and getting ice burns (see photos later) but she looked really cool doing it so they are just like war wounds...awesome. Wyatt loved watching them on their boards. Anders loved eating snow. Max loved sledding with his mom. Sydnie loved sitting still for nearly 30 minutes as she watched everyone else (she could have fallen asleep for real) and Maddie loved watching her mom and brother go down the hill but wasn't so sure herself. After we went inside for hot chocolate, hot banana bread, and cupcakes. Pretty good Valentines day if you ask me.

Happy Valentines.

Weekly Ad.

Within the first few days of being open, a man came into the Merc with a project his father had done in 1926 by collecting the weekly ads that his father put into the paper advertising their Grocery/Dry Goods store here in Windsor. This is one of the ads. They are absolutely fantastic. I scanned it in and had to do a bit of fussing to get it to look clean enough but that is straight from the February 5th paper of 1926 here in Windsor. I have about 20 of them and we will scatter them through out the year. You just can't get any better than this really. 82 years old!

The Diner.

No Boston.

Well we didn't make it to Boston. It started snowing just as we were leaving and didn't stop so the roads were a mess. It took us nearly 3 hours to get to Manchester, New Hampshire and the thought of continuing on didn't make sense. So instead we went to one of the top ten diners in the states visited by the likes of Paul Newman and Adam Sandler. We had a blast catching up and eating diner goodness. We are thinking Boston this is next weekend.

Off to Boston.

One of my favorite people is coming to visit. I don't think I have seen Alicia since we got married in 2004 but could that be correct? Why did we miss her the roadtrip summer of 2005? My brain hasn't been working well recently unlike Brig over at his new blog. Anyway Mike, Chelle, and I are headed down to Manchester, NH in the next few hours to pick her up at the airport and then we are heading into Boston for the evening/day tomorrow. We are going to meet up with another great friend of mine from back in the day who has settled down there and meet her at the branch she goes to in Cambridge. Chelle has made the trip to Boston with quite a few people since living here this year so she has pulled out the maps and is ready to perfect any past meaderings that went awry. I am just so excited for Mike to see something new (even though he's been to Boston) but enjoy New England a bit more and I can't wait to reconnect with good friends. Reports upon our return.

Rambo boys. SuperBowl.Snow.

The other night, the boys went out to see 'Rambo'. They got into character before even leaving the house and wore their lil Rambo scarves the whole evening and they didn't even get a discount on their tickets. Sadly, Brig isn't pictured but he was also there. They came back changed men. Mike also got to watch his first SuperBowl this last week. It wasn't very interesting but really picked up in the last quarter when the Giants really made some exciting plays...and that says a lot coming from me. I always like when the losing team pulls ahead. We keep planning on a Girls night out but the weather seems to be against us. Last weekend we had a big icy rain storm and the weather is predicted to bring more of that, 8-12 inches in the next 24 hours apparently. I must say, the joy of living so close to town/work/everyone is so great. It takes so much stress out of Vermont winters when you don't actually have to to go anywhere if you don't want because it is all so close.