Maria, Peter and Jeff Thatcher

Patrick is playing Jeff Thatcher in the Vermont Children's Theater production of Tom Sawyer. This afternoon is the final show. Here he is last night in his big scene, the opening act of the play. If you hang in there long enough, you'll see Tom Sawyer forget his lines and Patrick try to help him out and lots of awkwardness. The kid playing Tom had been sick the night before. And on opening night he also forgot his lines. You had to feel bad for the poor kid. If you know Pat and the way he remembers songs after hearing them just once, you know that HE didn't have any trouble with lines. He did a great job in his play and we're all really proud of him. He had a lot of fun, too.

The other highlight of our weekend is that our dear friends, Maria and Peter, are visiting from Pennsylvania. They arrived Friday night and I think they are staying indefinitely. Seriously, I can't seem to get out of them how long they're staying. But I hope it's a long time. (An aside: Everyone in my house has been sleeping in this weekend so that yesterday I got up, ran, came home and showered and everyone was still asleep! Now I'm writing this and everyone but Pat is still asleep! Nice to have these quiet mornings.) Neil and I met Peter and Maria when we were in grad school at the University of Wyoming in 1993. They were a year ahead of us in school, so we only had one year there together, but they lived with us that last summer they were in Laramie. Well, mostly they lived with Neil because I was in Cody doing an internship for two months that summer. Anyway, since we all moved back east, we see each other a couple of times a year, usually for New Year's Eve and a visit in the summer. It's always a treat getting to spend time with them and they are a couple of the funniest people we know. They are also both really smart and thoughtful and especially kind to the children. And Maria is a fabulous cook. And they like to do the kinds of things we like to do; hike, bike, go for walks, eat, make crude jokes and drink lots of seltzer. Here we are on our favorite hike up Wheeler mountain.




Neil wasn't with us because he was doing a fundraising century ride for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center with our friend Fritz. In case you didn't know, a century is a HUNDRED MILE bike ride. My husband is amazing, isn't he?




Peter was Nature Man on our hike and whenever we were uncertain of the way, Peter sniffed a rock and led us out of danger. To be Nature Man you have to stick ferns and other greenery in your hat. Towards the end of the hike, Nature Man realized he was getting old and needed to retire, so he handed over the reigns to Patrick, who is now Nature Man. Peter also made up a song we all really enjoyed to the tune of Neil Young's "Love is a Rose". One line goes like this: Boogers in your nose but you better not pick them...
















When we returned from our hike at about 2:00, my mom had made bread and two pies and organized Harper's bureau drawers and done some other cleaning. She also had the music cranked up pretty loud. Then Mom helped me make dinner. I don't think the woman sat down all day. She's amazing. Here are the strawberry/rhubarb pies she made. Yes, they were as yummy as they look and there is still almost a whole pie left. Hmmmm....I think it's time for breakfast!