Dakota, guardian of the neighborhood

This picture is Dakota watching the street below from our third story window. Her favorite pastime is doing this and then barking at the people and cars that pass.

New York

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit our friend Sarah Angell and her family in New York last weekend. We stayed at their house, which is located right next to a beautiful farm that used to be in the family, but is no longer. We took a walk around the farm, and it was amazing! Here are a couple of pictures:
We also had the opportunity to watch THREE cows give birth at the county fair while we were there! Sarah's younger siblings were showing the family cows at the fair, and a few of them were working in the cow birthing tent, so we got the inside track. Who knew there was such fun going on in all of those buildings full of animals at the fair? Actually I wouldn't necessarily call cows giving birth "fun" to watch, but it definitely was interesting. A little disturbing, but also amazing.

New Niece!!!!

Our new neice was born today! My sister, Christy had a beutiful 7 lb. 10 oz. baby girl named Danica Catherine Hanson. It was of course very sad for us to not be able to be at the hospital in person but we did get LOTS of pictures which is almost as good. So now hte Hanson family has three kids: Elaina, 6; Luke, 3; and now Danica!

Here are some pictures of this lovely new addition to our world:

What a beauty!

This is our newest niece, Danica with our next to newest niece, Sasha who was born on May 1st.

The three Hanson kids...what a cute family, huh?

Why Matt hates Amusement Parks

So Matt and I have gone back and forth over amusement parks before. I love them and think they're great family entertainment. I have wonderful memories of family vacation in Disneyland, etc. Matt, however, argued that they are ultra-commerical, wastes of money and resources etc.
So we left that one there...

But when Naomi came to visit she and I decided to go visit Lake Compounce, a family amusement park. It was a BLAST but it was also pouring rain (We got COMPLETELY drenched) and then they decided to close the park and gave us free passes to come back. So not only did Nomes and I get a GREAT time but Matt and I got a free date out of it.

Plus I thought it would be interesting to see if Matt's opinion about amusement parks would change if we had a really great day there.

So the day started out great! We spent a couple hours in the water park portion of the park, which was great. Then after lunch we headed for the roller coasters (what I was really excited about!) After the first roller coaster Matt commented that it kind of jarred him and wasn't really that great so we headed for one that wasn't as jerky. That one didn't sit much better with him. So we tried my favorite: a ride that shoots you up insanely high in the air and then just drops you. We got off and I was pumped up! But Matt said he wasn't feeling so good...he didn't really like it that much. He was definitely ready to go but I really wanted to try one more ride: the swinging Viking boat thing. This is a ride that just swings on a pendulum, going higher and higher each time so you get that great dropping feeling in your stomach.

As we waited in line Matt started saying that he didn't think he should ride it, that he thought he might barf. He sounded so serious about it that I offered to not ride. That it would be fine with me to just leave. But he decided to give it a shot. It was the last ride, after all.

So I was having a blast but Matt started looking less and less okay. When the ride finally ended he sort of staggered off the ride to the edge of the platform and then just let it rip. I felt so terrible. And the worst part was he didn't feel better for the rest of the day! I drove home and when we arrived he slept for awhile and still felt horrible. He was okay by the following morning but I felt terrible!

So the debate about amusement parks is officially over. Matt may not like the commercial, self-indulgant nature of such parks and think they're overpriced but what really will keep us away is, uh, his sensitive stomach. :) So it was still a fun day but we probably won't be having any more "fun" days at the amusement park for a long while!

Dunkin Donuts

Marilee, Dan, and I went to Dunkin Donuts this morning. I think we may have mentioned this before, but Dunkin Donuts is supposed to fill the Starbucks niche here, because there is only one stand-alone Starbucks in this whole city. They really try to emphasize on commercials and stuff that their main business is coffee.
So you'd think they would put coffee in their drinks. They have this thing called the "Coffee Coolatta" that is supposed to be like a Starbucks Frappachino. Last time we went there we got the Vanilla Bean Coffee Coolatta, but it was so sweet we couldn't stand it. And we couldn't even taste the coffee. So this time, we got the Mocha Coffee Coolatta. Once again it didn't taste like coffee at all. So I decided to ask about it.
I went to the counter and said "Is there any coffee in this drink?" and they said "No, just caffeine." And so I asked, "What would I have to ask to get coffee put in the "coffee" Coolatta?" And then they said "I'm pretty sure we just don't do that. We don't think that you'd like it if there was actually coffee in it." And I told them that I come from the West, and they actually put coffee in their mocha drinks there, and I DO like it. I hope all of you out West know how blessed you are!

Neighborhood kids...

We have been really blessed to get to know the kids who live in our neighborhood lately. They love Dakota which makes it great because they run her around the yard and we don't have to! :) Seriously, though, they're really cool kids and, in an odd way, they sort of fill the kid-loving part of us that misses our nieces and nephew so much. They stand outside our window and holler "Dakota!" and "Marilee!" and "Matt!" until we come down or stick our heads out the window and tell them why we can't come down. It can be annoying, yes, but mostly it's heartwarming to have people who want to see us almost every day.

We are really looking forward to our good friend Dan's visit which begins on Thursday! We hope to show him a really good time out her in Worcester. And, again, anyone who feels like maybe Massachusetts could be the state for them - feel free to come on out. We'll even help you move in. :)

I guess that's it for now. Have a great day, all!

Matt and Mar enter the information age!

We finally got the internet at home! Now we can blog and email and surf the net to our hearts content...how lovely.

And even better: Matt got a job. Of course, he already has a job (his research at WPI) but Matt cannot settle for simply one job - no, no us MickJoins must achieve, achieve, achieve! :)
Seriously Matt's new job is a really sweet deal. He'll do tutoring in math and science and for teh SATs with high school students in the area. The beauty part is that it can be as few as 3 hours a week or as many as he can handle. He is, as anyone who ever went to the physics help lab at George Fox knows, an EXCELLENT tutor so we know he'll be a huge success.

Another exciting bit of news: we got a new fridge! On Monday our old (and I do mean OLD) fridge broke down and our landlord sent us out to buy a new one. It was pretty cool really! And we really got a great fridge, all big and white and cold. :) We would post a picture but, really, there must a limit.

But we will post hiking/backpacking/nearly lost in the woods sending up flares pictures!

This is the view from our tent - one of the nicest parts of the trip...no bugs and no need to walk.

And this is our fearless hike leader, Dakota exploring the territory!