Weekend of Cousins

I hate to post photos and run, but HEAVENS am I tired! As you can see from the photos, Ken and I had a great weekend of visiting with family!

Ken's Nana Cormier turned 93 on Friday, so we stopped in Southington to give her our best on Saturday. Her memory is better than mine . . . and I hear that she, too, loves to play Scrabble. I'm going to keep playing and hope for the best.
Then we heading to Torrington and visited with Aunt Midge, Uncle Paul, Kara, Sean, Eamon, Elizabeth, Brett, Megan, Damon, and Egon. We ate yummy food (I finally got to taste the Kalhua Cake Midge makes [and even though I can't spell it, it tasted good!]). What a treat to see all of the Maddens! Elizabeth is even dearer in person than in photos, of course. Eamon had so much fun telling us the names of all the Matchbox cars Auntie Midge brought out for him.

Then Sunday we drove up to NH, where Carolyn and John were having a BBQ. Ken finally had a chance to start getting to know my cousins on the other side. We saw Carolyn, John, Isaac, Matt, Mel, and met their cousin Mike, and his wife Danielle. Phew. Isaac is such a sweet little boy--he loves to imitate adult conversations, complete with laughing hysterically at just the right moment. Their house in Durham is an absolute dream--we can't wait to go back!

Today was the first day of teaching for me . . . I'm sleepy & heading to bed.

Matt & Mel--happy as the day they were married!

Cozy summer meal with the Cortesis

Isaac . . . ready for the weather!

Carolyn, Matthew, Danielle @Carolyn & John's

Kara and Elizabeth--what a beautiful sight!

happy boat spray

skiing out of saginaw bay

the engine

dinner on the porch

The boat

The dock

At the Gazebo

Celebrating with potato chips and champagne

Cheers! This was our early anniversary celebration. It was chilly, but the champagne warmed us. Last night we had dinner at the very same place we had our reception. It was nice, but since it was a Monday night, it was a little empty. I think that made the contrast more dramatic than I expected. I mean, it was pretty and fun to revisit the place, but it really made me miss everyone! How can you compare a room full of your friends and family with a fancy dinner for two? I know, I am being SO dramatic, aren't I? But it was a little eerie... I missed everyone. The food was great, but I didn't have room for dessert! Horrifying. They gave us a little bottle of champagne to take home as a little first anniversary gift. That was nice.

To answer Liza'a question, no, we did not have the top of our cake last night. We enjoyed every last morsel of it on our honeymoon last year at this time. We just couldn't wait!

Mom and Ken's debut

Our Paper Anniversary

Oh happy day!

One year ago today Ken was waiting in the back of the church, and I was putting on my veil. Thanks to all who were with us that day, and thanks to those who wished us well from afar! It truly has been a beautiful year . . . full of good, good, good, good things.

finances, schminances

upon hearing that one should save for retirement at a young age

Meeting with a financial advisor put all sorts of new words into my vocab today. Perhaps they shouldn't have been NEW words--maybe that is part of the problem. But now I have heard of a Roth-IRA, 401K, 403B?, Mutual Fund, and other things that flew right over my head. Since we decided not to buy this little red house (something we are glad we decided not to buy--as there are plans for a subdivision to swallow the 22 wooded acres before too long), we also decided to do something to make ourselves more ready to buy when we are at that place...

I was depressed to learn that SRIs (Socially Responsible Investments--the one thing I had heard of) don't do as well as horribly irresponsible ones. Why do all the bad companies that employ tiny children and destroy the environment get all the financial rewards? Maybe their reward is here on earth . . .

ANYWAY. We've decided not to send our future kids to college (I mean, education is not all it's cracked up to be, it doesn't really get you more money, as well we know.) We've decided that retiring is for the birds. We'll work till we're 100+. We've given up eating and shelter to save on costs and are going to join a band of wandering persons who seek out temperate weather.

The above photo is from Sunday night. Before we went out on the town with Aaron and Holly (a first for the 4 of us), I had a moment with Gareth and Eliot. This photo was shot before they found out that their work-study pre-school already had a 401K set up for them. In 2065 they'll be billionares.