The Progress Report

My yearly calendar is full of the usual stuff, family dates, appointments, work schedules, vacations and St. Monica's info. One date in particular we were looking forward to was October 19-Progress Reports. Alex's very first and more proof that our son is brilliant. It was very official looking in a brown envelope with his name and date. I couldn't wait so I opened it in the Y parking lot.

Comments like knows all his upper and lower case letters, working on soft and hard vowels, reading at level, excellent language skills. Yep I knew it, stand out in his class. Wait a minute......Needs improvement! Apparently the little guy has ants in his pants. To boot he's a chatter box. All the academics stuff is at level or better and the behavior stuff is all needs improvement. Now thinking back I do remember getting most talkative in my class so that may have been passed down to him. Hmmmm....after speaking with Gail I find out Allen had all the same issues when he was little, the ants in the pants part. I guess the apple really doesn't fall to far from the tree. I guess it's better than needs improvement on the academics and at level for the behavior. He'll just be a social rocket scientist or doctor!

The hike that turned into a mountain climb

We've been lucky enough to be able to go up the mountains a few times over the last couple of months. We headed up for 4 days this past weekend with the intention of some relaxation as well as some fun with the kids. One of the things we have not done that we keep telling the kids we'd do is take a hike. I met up with my friend, Gale, who lives in Thornton, Friday night and she told me of a few hikes that would work with the kids. One in particular sounded nice, easy and we'd get to see some waterfalls.

Sunday mid-morning we headed out to Waterville to hike the Cascade Trail. our hopes were almost dashed when we ran into the 5K Waterville run and were told we couldn't get to where we needed to go. We managed to find another way in, parked the car and headed to the trail marker. Low and behold about ten feet in we end up in someone's yard. Hmmm...this doesn't seem right. Whip out the book to check it out when the guy yells down from his porch the trail head is now at the top of the hill since the construction of new homes. No problem hike up the hill, beginning to have second thoughts now, already had to take off the sweatshirt and I'm out of breath. Find the trail head and refer back to the book. Wide, logged trail leads into wooded trail, yadi yada so forth and so on. Looks good we start climbing/hiking. After a while Allen and I are looking at each other. The guide says this is an easy hike. Easy for who? Another 20 minutes later we're done. We have now climbed about 80% of Mt. Snow going up the ski trail. Back to the guide....hmmm..says there is a trail marker. Must have missed that. Feel like we're on the Amazing Race looking for one of the those stupid yellow and red flags.

Back down about 75% and oh look at that a small brown sign next to a brown tree says Cascade Trail. I realize they are trying to preserve nature but come on brown? This looks more like it. Wooded, yellow trail markers here and there, come out to a clearing and everything is roped off. Trees are partially uprooted and apparently the stupid trail is closed. Are you kidding me? Tell the kids we can't see the waterfalls which leads to tears. Well you didn't get to go on a hike but you did get to climb a mountain. If we hurry we can get home in time for football! Besides I'm pooped! Oh well there's always next year, on the bright side the view from Mt.Snow was beautiful!