Sports, Elfestes, and Prairie Dogs

Here are Crispin and Liam walking along Broadway and Milford on their way to play frisbee and whiffle ball and football and soccer and various games of their own creation with me and their Grandpop Walt.




I have been reading Tolkien's The Hobbit to Liam. Tolkien's illustrations have raised Liam's interest, as has the map of the lands Bilbo and the dwarves travel through. Liam created his own map of Elfestes, for his book Simeo. Liam gave me a copy of his book Simeo for father's day.




Later in the afternoon we went to Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo. Crispin showed a yen for the prairie dog exhibit, which allowed him to crawl in and out of various tunnels and "disappear into blackness" as he told me with great glee.




We had a lovely dinner at Citrus in Milford. Both boys ate adventurous salads and then gourmet versions of comfort food (mac and cheese and fried calamari). Crispin spent most of the meal grabbing me by the collar and telling me in an excited voice (it was a noisy restaurant, so he fit right in as a young Cary Grant speaking in agitation) about his roller skates and knee pads and elbow pads (he called them shoulder pads) that his mom just bought him before our trip.

The boys wish our time here could be longer, and they also sound excited for roller skates, and more serious production of novels and musicals and ballets (if I had granted Liam's wish, I think we'd already have a ballet and a musical in production on a major stage in Seattle or other larger city).

Boys ant Yale

We went to Yale's Peabody Museum, had lunch at what used to be called Naple's pizza--it still has carvings by college students in the tables, but they have done away with the bathrooms in the basement--and then walked around Yale campus. Liam was curious and interested, and because I was able to talk about the volleyball and wiffle-ball and kickball I played in Berkeley college and Cross Campus Lawn, Crispin showed great interest as well.

In the room in which the boys are sleeping are some pictures of me from my Yale days. Below is a picture of me in 1990 or 1991 (this is a digital photo of a photo on the wall of the boys' bedroom), when I was living with Steve and Zach and Frank and Troy in our basement suite in Vanderbilt Hall on the old campus (annex housing for Berkeley College).






Here are Crispin and Liam and their grandfather 20 years later, a little farther in the arch.





Here are Crispin and Liam all the way through the Vanderbilt arch, now within Old Campus proper, excited by an ultimate frisbee game. All the way across is Durfee hall, where I lived during my first year at Yale.

Boys in Milford

Here are the boys by the rental car, with Grandpop Walt and Elizabeth's Victorian house in the background. Liam now has a penchant for Enterprise's red HHR's (which I had no idea what they were until Enterprise in San Jose talked me into a "deep discount" upgrade--really pretty reasonable).

Liam's Art in CT

While we flew, Liam enjoyed using a magic pencil book, in which a wooden scratching tool revealed colors. He tends to have his own ideas and to want to make multiple uses, so he now is copying at his grandfather's house the book, much as one might copy the great masters.



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Maxwelton Beach Photos

While Liam and Crispin remain enthusiastic about sports (especially now that they have sports safety equipment such as catcher's gear and batter's helmets), they do other things as well at the beach near my apartment, especially when families from the school gather on Fridays.

Liam, for example, has helped baby-sit young Ezra, who is almost exactly 7 years younger than Liam.








And when friends from school came, Liam and Crispin made various dams on a stream. Time and time again the indefatigable water broke through, but this did not dampen the work of our young and happy Sisyphus followers.


We also went to a Summer Solstice party, complete with face painting. Crispin was clear that he wanted to be a gorilla. Liam was an eagle, but I have no photo of that.




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Playground photos

While we are in Connecticut with Grandpop at the moment, I am sending along some photos from the first 2 weeks of our summer on Whidbey. In addition to lots of baseball time, we've had other outdoor time. The shots below come from Dan Porter park, near the ferry dock on Whidbey.



I remember finding the monkey bars challenging, and I still do. Liam surprised me with his strength as he went across the bars a few times (they are very low, so he had to really bend his legs).






Crispin entertained himself in a variety of ways.




And Liam wanted to pose for a couple of shots on the slide.








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In Hartford

Ez flight.

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Here's Crispin

With a camera effect.

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On the ground in Detroit

A short flight to CT to come.

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Baseball

Meetings are over. Traffic was kind. We were able to get front row seats so we don't have to rely on kind Canadians to duck to let Crispin see.

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Summer

At the beach. Crispin's half birthday was yesterday, and Kelly ordered him hungry hippos, a game he has been pining for. I am trying to upload a video of this to Facebook.

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Night of Moon-Sum

Night of Moon-Sum, apparently, is a play created by Crispin for which Liam is doing most, if not all, of the production and advertising work.




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Location:Maxwelton Rd,Clinton,United States

Morning Nap of a Bear

At the beach, and generally throughout the island, the sun is a frequent guest. I see glimpses of the sunset at 10am, and by 4:30am it is relatively easy to see without light.




Even with curtains closed, Crispin woke early thinking it was time for breakfast but drifted to sleep with the equanimity of a tired polar bear.


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