Goodbye Feb, hello March!

We are digging out, or better yet the sun is out and melting it all away.  Early February brought winter and tons of snow. I don't mind winter if there is snow.  Almost 20 inches over one weekend. We don't pay for a plow, instead we snowblow and shovel. Our long driveway can be completed in about 2 hours with the 4 of us. 

Among the routine of work, school and life we got out a bit. Below are a few pictures form the last 2 months. Details below each pic. 

Spring Attitash ski day! Nic was in lessons and Chris is not yet cleared to ski from his hip replacement. 1/2 day in 55 degree weather, second half of day in downpour. 

Dogs loving the snow, Scout more than Lucy. :) She tolerates it. 

Chris and I are both pros with snowblower. Chris even repaired it a couple of times. 

Inside shenanigans. 

Celebrated a birthday and the big V Day.

Bus stop. Here, kids are required to go to school in snow gear. They can go out for recess unless it's below 20.

Cold days as the snow melts away. Nic is a ham.

The start of College tours with Andrew. He successfully took the SAT. Lots of prep.

Day at the Museum of Fine Arts and surrounding city walk. Boston 2017.

Snow hikes with the dogs at Steel farm.

All fixed! Super broke.

Scout is all fixed or neutered rather. I won't tell you how much it cost to do this in Massachusetts cause it'll make you cry, and maybe even swear (like I did). Everything here is so expensive. Dumb on me not to ask the fee before we did it. I just assumed it would be comparable to when we had Lucy spayed or Samson fixed. WRONG. We love the vet we found but we may shopping around.
At least the dog it cute, that is something.

Snow days

A regular weekend turned into a 4 day weekend, sandwiched by two snow days. The powers that be don't mess around when it snows around here. Friday's forecast predicted 6-8" of snow which triggered a school cancellation on Thursday night. Another forecast for Monday 6" triggered another snow day. It's strange to have the kids sitting home from school (before the snow even starts). As predicted, we got dumped on. They know their snow.

Snowman!

Scout digs the snow.

Before we checked the weather Chris has bought tickets to go see Masefield Perkins Fishman & Bolles (Fishman aka drummer for Phish for those not familiar) in Portsmouth, NH. We decided to brave the 1 hour drive and had a great time listening to a night of Jazz in a very intimate venue. Not the best pics but documented all the same.

Masefield Perkins Fishman & Bolles is the jazzy, bluegrass-y Vermont supergroup featuring Jamie Masefield (of The Jazz Mandolin Project), Doug Perkins (Smokin’ Grass), Jon Fishman (Phish) and Tyler Bolles (Swale).

A great thing about living here is so many nearby places with things going on. You can hit a band/event/something almost every day within an hour drive. So ... Saturday, Chris and Ben decided to hit the campaign trail and track down a few candidate rallies. Since the NH primaries are today, every candidate can be seen with little effort. I'm not sure anyone in particular won over Chris but he said it was fascinating all the same. Beau - they had tickets to see Bernie but got burned out after Clinton (lol).

NH rallies for 2016 primary

Let's SKI! Nic started ski lessons this weekend. While he has been skiing 3-4 times with us he needs a little more help to get him up and going with the rest of the family.  For the next 4 Saturdays Nic has lessons at Nashoba. Isn't he the cutest little skier?

Nic ski lessons

Ben and Andrew also enjoyed the snow weekend with much needed relaxation from a serious week or two of midterms. Say screen time. Andrew also played winter ball, worked out a bit and continued with his throwing program. The weekend involvedchores & shoveling - lots of it.

January recap

I've been hunkering down working a bunch of hours lately so I have been neglecting the personal blog updates. All is well in Mallett land.

We have enjoyed a mild weather January. It feels like spring. I know this won't last but it makes daily walks with the dogs so much more pleasant.

I celebrated another year last weekend! GO 42! Andrew & Ben volunteered to watch Nic while Chris took me into the city for a spa day and a nice night at the Liberty Hotel. The Liberty is the old Boston prison converted into a luxury Hotel. We enjoyed nice food and people watching. It was a great birthday. Family and friends sent nice gifts and birthday wishes. It feels great to be remembered. THANK YOU!

The dogs are well. Puppy training is helping keep Scout in line. Nicholas loves him so much that sometimes his hugs are little to hard and invoke a tiny growl from Scout. Lucy is enjoying feeling young again and I am constantly picking up stuffed animal guts as these two dogs can really tear them apart.

Ben and Andrew are great but, as you know, not too willing for photos. Andrew is enjoying ski team and is improving daily. The snow here is different from Utah and he has a bit of a learning curve. Andrew made the local paper the other day. Benefit of living in a small town.

Ben and team won a soccer tournament. Five games spread out over a Saturday their team won 4 of 5 games and Ben had a 4 game shut out with NO goals scored! He played super well and had a great time!

Chris spent a large chunk of time finishing his chapter 4 & 5 of dissertation. These are out for review right now and hopefully with minor edits he'll graduate in April!!!

Puppy love!

Boy ... we are all so in love with our new little puppy! Scout is a sweet boy and fairly mild mannered. He is a beautiful dog and LOVES Lucy, I think he has finally won her over. Lucy is happy.

Scout had his second vet appointment today. Two weeks ago he weighed 16lbs. He now weighs 24lbs. What a chunk! He is growing like mad. Soon he'll be a puppy in a full sized body.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

What a jam packed weekend! We enjoyed an intimate Thanskgiving dinner with Leslie. The meal was amazing and I am proud to say I cooked the entire thing - even had all the dishes ready at the same time. Go Charlet!  We had a long Skype phone call with much of our Utah family. It was awesome to catch up.

Chris took me black Friday shopping on Friday morning (nothing was open Thursday in MA). I was worried it would be super crazy shopping here but it was a much milder experience here than in Utah. We found every deal we went looking for and then some. That's a first. It was a bargain and worth the effort. 

We switched the Prius rental car for a bigger car for the trek to TN to pick up the puppy. Chris, Abby and Renetta braved the 32 plus hour drive. I opted out at the last minute to hang with Leslie and the kids, do a little work (I am busy right now) and decorate the house for Christmas.

Chris, Abby and Renetta finally made it home this morning around 3 am. They were tired and the three puppies were full of energy. Ben was the only kiddo who stayed up to great them. Lucy was unsure and barked, which scared the puppies. After a bit all seemed to adjust. Nic woke up this morning beyond excited to meet Scout and see the puppies. The 3 dogs quickly overwhelmed him. He has never been around a rambunctious dog before. Lucy is so mellow. After a short time he became more comfortable and has not left Scout alone since. Fast friends.

We have much to be Thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving!