Having celebrated Christmas in Lexington it was time to head to the beach for the next round of festivities in Madison. Whenever we visit our respective families we always try to fit in some ocean time regardless of the season. So we headed down to Hammonasset State Park and walked out on the jetty. Callie and Sarah were having a great time until Callie lost her footing and her whole entire leg went into the water. Surprisingly enough, there were no tears and she quickly recovered.
One of the big events of this year's holiday visit was a road trip to Bethel, NY to spend the night at John's Uncle Tommy and Aunt Terry's house in the country. The whole Bowes, Balestracci, and Hannen clans descended on their place for what turned out to be an absolutely fantastic time. Needless to say, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Terry were extremely generous hosts.
It's always fun to take your kids into the homes of people who don't often have visitors under the age of 20. For much of the night we had our eyes on Callie, Reese, and Zoey as they ventured near and looked at all of the incredible glass figurines that Terry has throughout the house. We had to remind Callie on several occasions that you can't just do a cartwheel as you are going down the hallway in this particular residence. We are happy to report that all glass figurines were still intact when we left.
The evening flew into high gear because Tommy was the bartender. As we said, he is a very generous man, and not only with his time and love. Katie and Suzy were not the only ones who had to be strategic about their night based on the drink they were poured. Fortunately these drinks were also accompanied by a vast amount of appetizers spread out along the bar.
It was great to see Tommy in such good health after he had a challenging year to say the least. He looked great, and that is in no small part due to the efforts and love of his incredible wife. The two of them have been together for over forty-two years and they are still the same lovebirds they have always been.
As should be the case with any good meal, we didn't rush through the evening and spent quite a bit of time just hanging around the bar, eating, drinking, and enjoying each other's company. It was certainly a fun night with the idea that we had unlimited time and no one had to leave so they could drive home. That made Tommy's generous pours even nicer.
Once we finally turned to dinner we got the girls set up at the kitchen counter. The three of them had a great time and couldn't get enough of each other. It is so much fun to see both Callie and Reese laughing and playing with Zoey.
Of course this home in Bethel is not simply a vacation home. Tommy and Terry spend most of their time there which means Tommy is also connected to work. The morning after our great night he showed his set up to all who were interested. Mike Balestracci, who is now a college freshman studying business, was particularly interested. And of course Chris, now twenty plus years removed from his days as a broker, enjoyed taking a peek as well.
We were able to get a picture of the whole gang, but unfortunately this is not it. In our photo collection we have a picture that includes everyone except Sarah and Brian, who were trying to manage a self-timing camera and the smiling faces of their respective children. So while this photo is good, it's not perfect.
Because we had so much time to get comfortable at Tommy and Terry's, the good-bye process was a little more painful for the younger kids. Reese and Zoey needed to make sure that they showed their great-uncle some love before they headed out the door. It was a wonderful visit overall and hopefully we will be able to do it again soon.
For our New Year's celebration we spent the night with Mike, Kristen, Ella, Ethan, and Eli Skonieczny. It worked out well because the kids got to hang out for a bit and the adults had some quality time to catch up. Callie and Reese are always excited to spend time with Ella once they warm up, and Ella is absolutely amazing with both of them. She is beyond sweet and we wish we could bring her home with us.
But enough about the kids, because we all know this is really about John and Mike getting to relive the glory days and take ridiculous pictures. Here they ponder how much life has not changed for them while using the Chewbacca hand koozies. Jason McBean also joined in for some of the shenanigans, but he missed this particular photo op. A great time was had by all.
In between all of the hijinks we managed to get a pretty decent family picture in the last hour of 2015. It was another great and crazy year for the Bowes family and this photo highlights the willingness of the girls to take everything on, even if it means staying up way past their bedtime. Hey, we have taken pictures in far worse places this late at night.
As 2016 entered we tried to capture the moment in grand style by acting out the year. Reese wanted no part of it, however, so the 6 in 2016 ended up being disproportionately larger than the rest of the human scribble. Eli's 0 is also a little abstract, but if you squint you can see what he was aiming for.
On this trip we stayed at the Balestracci's house, which also meant we got to venture into the woods around their neighborhood. For the most part we didn't see any wildlife, though there are stories of big red bears that used to roam the lands.
As usual, Reese managed to convince an adult that her legs were too weak to carry her any farther. And Katie, being the wonderful aunt she is, was more than happy to play along with her niece. The walk was quite fun and a new experience because we had not realized just how extensive the trails were around their place. We'll remember that for the next time we are in town.
Another memorable aspect of the entire trip was Callie's last minute assignment from her teacher that entailed taking a Flat Gingerbread Man on the trip and documenting his adventures. We got pictures of him all over the place, and on the last day he got to get in on this photo with Nana Banana and Sport down by the Guilford docks. It was another amazingly quick visit, but we packed in quite a bit of fun.
We must admit that the Flat Gingerbread Man assignment was more intensive than we had imagined. Or perhaps we were just the only parents who had their child write up a two page narrative describing the stories behind each of the ten photos we took. In any case, this was the last one, as the Big Blue Horse, a.k.a. Big Lex, welcomed us back to the Bluegrass. 2016 was off to a great start!
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