Home of the Durken’s — Daryl, Amber, Colin & Lauren
We visited the Summit House at Skinner State Park for some beautiful views and a picnic lunch. The Summit House sits atop Mount Holyoke and is located in Hadley, MA. The kids really enjoyed the picnic and the scenic views. The picture of the four of us below was taken in the same spot where I proposed to Amber some 13 years ago.
Tonight Colin and Lauren helped make brownies. Unfortunatly, they will not be able to try them until tomorrow morning.
This year both Colin and Lauren both participated in the LYA Basketball program. Colin has improved quite a bit and usually makes a least one basket per game. Lauren joined Colin this year and she enjoys participating and looks forward to the games on Sunday.
Colin
Lauren
This weekend the Amherst Railway Society hosted the Railroad Hobby Show at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield. Grandma and Pappy joined us on our visit to the show this year.
Colin and Lauren were amazed at each of the model train displays. There were small model trains and big model trains and each delighted them in a different way.
Colin enjoys the model trains
Lauren watches a model train go by
Colin and Lauren enjoyed Halloween this year with some special guests. This year they went trick-or-treating with their friend Evan, his sister Jillian and their cousin Kayla.
Colin trick-or-treated as a transformer while Lauren was dressed up as a beautiful princess. We went trick-or-treating from house to house around our neighborhood and ended up with baskets filled with candy.
Afterwards the kids sat around in delight counting their candy and of course eating a few. While the adults enjoyed apple pie and coffee.
Every fall we make our annual visit to the Big E. This year the Colin and Lauren were tall enough to be able to go on most of the rides. They were able to enjoy the Giant Ferriswheel, a haunted house and a four person roller coaster called the Crazy Mouse for the first time. Of course, everyone enjoyed the traditional fair foods like cotton candy and candy apples.
The Crazy Mouse (above) was just “scarry enough” for all use to enjoy. We also enjoyed driving into each other at the bumper car ride and going down the giant slide.
Three hundred dollars for four tickets to see the Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays. Thirty five dollars for parking. One hundred dollars for fenway franks, cotton candy, peanuts, cracker jack and souvenirs. Bringing your kids to their first Red Sox game at Fenway. Priceless.
Amber had a wonderful mother’s day celebration today. We started the day off with Colin & Lauren presenting mom with gifts that they had made in Preschool. Each of them had a special picture magnet that they presented to mom. Later we met up in Southwick for a special gathering. We had seven moms celebrating Mother’s Day!
Today we visited Tim & Kallan and finally got to meet Parker Caroline. The kids we so excited to greet their new cousin. I could not believe that I was an uncle and my brother was now a dad. Congratulations.
Lauren holds Parker
Colin holds Parker
Another winter storm came through dumping around 6 inches of the white stuff. This time the snow was soft and fluffy. While I cleared the driveway with the snow thrower the kids had fun sledding down a small hill in our backyard.
Afterwards I joined them in a snowball fight. You could make the best snowballs with this snow and boy did we. Colin and Lauren had a great time playing outside and helping Dad.
Colin throws a snowball at Dad.
Lauren helps Dad by clearing the snow out of the drain in the front of our house