Laurel Lake and Whitney Farm

On our last day with Grandma and Grandpa B. we finally got some sunshine. Since we were back home in Pittsfield, we decided to spend the morning at Lenox Beach on Laurel Lake - the little beach I used to take Eli last summer. It was the perfect day for relaxing on the shore, and doing a little wading/swimming/crayfish stalking! The kids are getting quite the farmer's tans.


We finally left when we were all starving, and grabbed some pizza from our FAVORITE place out here - Hot Tomatoes - and drove to Pontoosuc Lake (yep, lots of lakes out here) to eat our dinner on the shore. Pontoosuc is the one I walked on with the boys when it was frozen!


Afterwards, we took a scenic drive through the northern part of the county to show it off to Brad's family. Of course we stopped at our favorite hangout spot - Whitney Farm - for some good times and yummy icecream. I will MISS that place for sure. It is the only bribery I have for getting Eli to behave when I take him shopping at Target. "Go see amals (animals)?" he begs everytime we even pull into the store parking lot. He can run around and play with hay, throw rocks at chickens, chase birds, and climb the tractor jungle gyms for hours. It was a very fun way to spend our last day with the fam! Eli keeps asking to "go find ga-ma, ga-pa, au' Heidi!" and to "go to ga-ma's house" and to "ride ga-pa's van." We're sure glad they made the trip out here, and miss them already!

Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary

I mentioned that Brad is going to be working crazy hours the next few weeks. Well, we were both sad that he wouldn't have a day off this weekend, but luckily Friday was one of his "short" days in the rotation schedule and he got home around 5pm. So, we grabbed a picnic dinner from Subway (gotta love $5 footlongs!) and headed down to the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox. This little piece of paradise is only ten minutes from our house. I should mention that these little side trips lately have been FREE because our library has passes to them that you can check out for a day.

We had a LOVELY evening stroll around a pond and through the woods. We saw birds, squirrels, mice, and beaver. Eli's favorite part was doing his "peripheral test" with a stick. He was so enthralled with the stick that I couldn't get him to look at the camera (that's nothing new) or even much of the wildlife around him. We finally had to start throwing pinecones into the forest and pretending the "thump" was a mouse scurrying by in order to get Eli moving down the trail. He's been obsessed with mice eversince - and saw two real ones the next day when our landlords were doing yardwork - so now I have to tell him a bedtime story about the mouse every night. Owen absolutely loves the outdoors, and he at least took full advantage of the scenery. Anyway, What should have been a 30 minute walk took 90, but having a laid back evening together was the point. Thankfully we had our bug spray though because the pests come out in full force at dusk around here. Even still, Eli and Owen both ended up with a fly bite, but at least the mosquitos were kept at bay! It doesn't even get dark here until after 8:30pm, so we stayed late. Once loading the kids in the car they were both sacked out within 5 minutes, so I took Brad on a little drive to show him some of the beautiful things I had discovered lately within just a few minutes' drive of our home - including a waterfall down the street from our church!

Waterfall Near Church

Ice Walking

Sounds adventurous, doesn't it? It's the new extreme sport for moms and tots - walking across frozen lakes! The boys and I hung out with Amy and Stew this week, and they live right next to Pontoosuc Lake, which of course is frozen over this time of year. People drive cars, trucks, snowmobiles, and four wheelers out there on the ice, as well as ice fish. We thought we would be brave and walk the kids out to the island in the middle and back. It was actually quite a walk! Amy and I both had a baby strapped to us along with dragging a toddler, and there were several inches of slushy snow atop the ice to sludge through. We made it, enjoyed the view, and were glad to be back on solid ground. There's probably about a foot of ice on the lake, but it's still pretty nerve-wracking to think that you are walking on top of a deep body of water with little kids in tow - especially when we could see the cracks in it as well as some of the holes left by the fishermen. We thoroughly tired the kids out that day and Eli conked out on the way home.

Hancock Shaker Village

We recently came across some free tickets to visit the Hancock Shaker Village out on the edge of town. We were so grateful because at $15 a ticket we were wary to spend the money on an activity we knew we could not possibly get our money out of with a 19 month old along =). The Shakers were an interesting bunch - very devoutly religious. They believed in abstinence as a necessity to be pure, so they did not marry and lived in dormitory settings together. Their congregation could only grow through converts or adoptions. They would establish self-sustaining settlements - with farms, gardens and everything necessary to support their community. This particular village dates back I think to the early 1800's and had people living there up until like 1960. Now it is maintained as a historic location and is very cool to visit! We didn't get to tour many of the old buildings because Eli got cranky in the humid heat pretty quickly. But he did enjoy the farm animals, and we forced him to dress up like a Shaker before he had a complete meltdown. We enjoyed lunch at the little cafe, and Eli proceeded to finally pass out after at least a half an hour of hysterics that I'm sure concerned everyone at the village =).

A Trip to the Farm

Recently the three of us made a little visit to the local Whitney Farm stand. There are lots of farms in the area. This one's great because they have a little petting zoo that's free - aside from the 25cent machines where you can buy feed for the critters. Eli loves watching his farm movie and playing with his little animal figures, so seeing them in person was a blast. There was also a yummy "Dairy Shack" on the premises with delicious ice cream!!! It rained on us most of the time we were there, but Eli did not seem to care one bit.

Getting Settled

I admit, our first week here I was feeling pretty depressed. I cried a lot and kept thinking but not voicing "I want to go home!" It didn't help that Eli and I were stuck in our empty house with no car, and it rained every single day. Once our stuff got here (and really, unloading the truck with those movers was another giant headache!!!) it felt good to get things organized and settled in. For Eli it was like Christmas seeing all his old toys again. And now we've had a chance to get around a bit and find out where things are. We are still a one car family, so Brad will occasionally walk to work so we can take an outing. He's working on getting his bike fixed so we can have the car more often.

Ok, so where exactly is Pittsfield? We are in western Massachusetts, in the heart of the Berkshires (what they call the mountainous area). Here's info about our town http://www.pittsfield-ma.org/ . Here is a map so you can see how close we are to New York, Vermont, and Connecticut http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Pittsfield,+MA&ie=UTF8&ll=42.481213,-73.254089&spn=1.539474,3.383789&z=8.383789&z=8 .

It is green and beautiful and famous for arts and culture. The Boston Symphony Orchestra makes the area its summer home and performs at Tanglewood. Hopefully we'll make it to one. The towns are all small, and though I consider this a "small town" it's actually one of the bigger cities in the area. We do at least have Wal-Mart and Target, but all the shopping is on the edge of town so as to maintain the integrity of the residential neighborhoods. Our neighborhood is picturesque New England, except of course for the street we live on, lol. Our duplex is brand new and we love it, but for some reason the other houses on the street are pretty run down. Everywhere else in the area is beautiful. I will have to get some pics of the local houses to post. We are close to "downtown" so Eli and I can walk to the library, the park, museums, and even the corner market. We can see the Housatonic river out our front window - in fact our street runs right along it. The one drawback to our duplex is that the driveway and the yard have not been put in. So it's like 4-wheeling up a muddy, rocky hill to park our car. And it made moving the furniture (piano especially!) a trick. That, and all the stairs. I miss my ranch level home - now I have to lug laundry from upstairs down into the basement and it's no fun!

I am adjusting to the weather and rather like it. It does rain a lot, but I suppose that's necessary to maintain all the green goodness around here. The hottest it's been is about 85, which really does feel HOT with humidity, but still I don't think it's as bad as being outside in the 110 degree Phoenix heat! We still go outside for walks when everyone around here is holed up with their a/c complaining of the heat, lol. Spoiled New Englanders! Our ward has been really great as well. It's small in number, but everyone is really friendly. Our first Sunday here we found this on our front door with an invitation to a 4th of July picnic:

There aren't too many families our age - there's only one other child in nursery with Eli but a few more who will be in soon. The nursery teachers are the bishop's wife and daughter, and for whatever reason, Eli LOVES nursery and goes right in without a hitch! I have been so surprised and overjoyed, really! After church last week, we picked him up from class, then he snuck away back down to nursery, went in and shut the door so we couldn't get him. This really made me laugh coming from the child who is like glue to my side most of the time. Maybe we'll be able to handle two kids afterall!