Yesterday, I received a very great honor from my church, Trinity Episcopal Church. Peter Gregory, Arianna's godfather, delivered a very nice speech, and what his words could not convey, his emotions did. He is a devoted father and Christian. He sets high standards and has his priorities in the right place. And he himself was honored with the Trinity Cross many years ago.

I was so happy that Cyndi was there at my side to witness(yes, she cried), and I immediately thought of my parents. Mom, Dad, this is for you. The note below is from Fr John, who describes what this is about:

PS: although the lighting makes it seem like gold, it is actually a beautiful pewter.

Dear Friends,

When I first arrived at Trinity, someone said to me, “why do we only honor people at the end of their lives?” It was a great question, and at the annual meeting in 1987 we began honoring people each year who had served Christ and this parish through many years of ministry and service. Every year at the annual meeting we choose a few people who have shown us the light of Christ day in and day out, and who make the ministries here better.

You cannot “win” this award, nor can you “earn” it. We pay tribute to a few people each year with the Trinity Cross as our way of saying, “you have inspired us, and served us for many years in the name of Christ-and we pay homage to you and give you our thanks.”

Someone recently said to me, how are the people chosen who receive the Trinity Cross. Usually I come up with a few names of people that I think have done outstanding ministry for a long time and talk to several other long time members, asking their opinions. And then I choose the 3 or 4 who best exemplify for that year the gifts of long standing service, excellence, and faith in our parish.

A few years ago I opened it up by asking those who have been awarded the Trinity Cross for their thoughts. It worked so well that we continue it this every year. So, let me know who you think should be honored . Please mail me the names of one or two Traditionally we choose 3 or 4. You must put your name on the nomination, and it would help if you could explain briefly why you believe they should receive the Trinity Cross. This will be kept in confidence.

1. several years of service to the people of Trinity,
2. great ministry, touched the lives of many, and
3. an inspiring faith in Christ.

Believe it or not, this is how you were chosen.

God bless,
Fr. John

The highlight of my week was Thursday evening. Arianna has piano lessons, and has come a long way. She doesn't prefer to read the music, and has developed a great ear.

Some time ago, she was practicing a song, and started on the wrong note and accidentally played in a minor key. We had just finished a conversation about what it means to play in a major key and a minor key, and I asked her why she thought she was playing it wrong. She said, "Well, it sounds sad". I told her THAT is what a minor key is, and told her to keep playing the song that way, the sad way. So, she figured out the rest of the song in this minor key, and then played it correctly in the major key, and began to switch between the two.

Thus encouraged, she likes to learn a song, then change the key, and sometimes change the feel from major to minor. Sometimes, it sounds like the modulation in a video game when you 'level up', so that's what we say when we want her to modulate the song" Level it up, Arianna!" She likes this, because you can't read this from her lesson music; you have to invent it.

Meanwhile, during her lessons, I play on the pianos in the store, often without music. I tend to get lots of compliments from other students, and even her teacher. SO, this week, Arianna apparently was showing off this talent for her piano teacher, using Carol of the Bells, and when she came out of the room, her teacher was beaming at me, telling me that Arianna has such a good ear and talent for this sort of thing, changing the song and still play it right. Her teacher finished by telling me "Yes, she is definitely your daughter!"

Some of you might know we have someone in the family who can forge iron: Cyndi, who took a forging class at MIT in her undergrad years. Yes, she is a rocket scientist, and she can also pound iron into submission, bending it to her will. Yeah, yeah, she can also knit socks and fingerless gloves, and makes THE BEST gazpacho in the world, but we're talking about a rocket scientist who can forge iron, and has two degrees from MIT! Anyway, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah.

I am pleased to say we can now add another artisan skill to the family: Aaron can blow glass. He is taking glass blowing at Baron GlassWorks, here is Michigan. I hope to add more pictures of the stuff he's making, but here is the first one. This is a seeding dome, with a leaf curled over on the top. Those of you who know Aaron well can totally picture him blowing glass, can't you? Totally.

BTW, of all the totally cool side benefits that come with having someone in the family who is blowing glass, my favorite one so far: I have finally seen, with my own eyes, a pool of liquid glass, right there in the furnace. Wicked.

This weekend, I was home alone with Arianna while Cyndi went out shopping, and the boys were out at the zoo with their girlfriends. The weather was so nice I  invited her to come outside. So I lay in my hammock, and she lay in one of the lounge chairs, and I couldn't resist taking this shot with my phone(we were both reading our books, but my book is not bigger than my face):

Later that night, we went over to a party for current and former leaders of the church youth group. A storm blew in after dinner, but afterwards, there were some beautiful clouds lit from underneath by the sunset. This is sort of what they looked like. At time like this, a phone camera really doesn't do it justice:

This weekend, we went camping at Harrisville State Park with the Hansknecht family, one of our close friends from church. Arianna and Tessa(whom you've see high in a tree in an earlier post this summer) spent much time together on the beach. Here is a pair of sand bath tubs they made, on the coast of Lake Huron:

Each year, we take a trip to Boston to visit with our college friends from Cyndi's dorm that was called Russian House, or RusskiDom. Every several years or so, we try to have a special gathering. Some years ago, we went skiing in New Hampshire. This year, we postponed the February trip for a special reunion in July, again held in New Hampshire.

This was one of the best vacations I've ever had. There were 25 of us, including our spouses, children and a sibling. We went hiking, took a canoe trip on a river, braved a canopy tour(zip lining), participated in a cupcake eating contest, watched an incriminating video of the first reunion from 1991, played cards every night, cooked all our own food, and cleaned up after ourselves. There was much laughter, no quarreling and no drama. There was even dance lessons in Flamenco, Argentinian Tango and Swing.

We took lots of pictures, some of which I will share here. The others will be closely guarded state secrets published on a secret database until the next reunion. Earlier, I posted an entry with some photos of our at the top of Cathedral Ledge. Here are some photos of our last night, before we tried to polish off 20 bottles of wine, whiskey, and tequila(I think the vodka disappeared fairly early in the vacation. I think.), and hence, are submitted to the public domain for safe consumption(RusskiDom'ers, all of these are available in full resolution upon request):

The 'family photo':

One of our original members, Tanya, daughter Naia, the newest edition to the clan, plus one more on the way, all posing after sunset on the amazing property where we stayed:

I took a dozen shots of the sunset, and I think this one is one of my favorites. This is the view from the balcony:

Cyndi and friends playing cards at ONE of the card tables:

Some of the kids, wait, I think ALL of the kids, playing cards with some of the grownups. Well, playing cards with some of the adults, anyway:

Can't go wrong with smiles and dimples, can you? And that's me drinking, um, orange juice:

And Aaron playing guitar in the parlor, singers and drinks abound. There was also a ukulele and a saxophone that night!

So, we are communing with nature(and about 20 college friends and their kids) out here in New Hampshire's White Mountains. We took a hike to Cathedral's Ledge, and at the top of the ledge, Arianna sat down to check out the view. Cyndi took these great shots. Later, I want to try and crop them into a poster or something, but thought I would share them unedited for now(apologies for the large file size):

Here is one of the sketches that Arianna made with her klutz kit she got

Here is the other and this one is based off of Aaron's "Awesome Purple Vest" and black skinny jeans