Motocross Mayhem

Motocross has entered our family life, much to my protest. It started with my 13-year-old son Nelson asking to race his four-wheeler. When I said no, he narrowed his mission: just one race? When I still said no, he went one smaller: one race and he would come in last. It’s hard to deny someone […]

Train hunting in Traverse City

A train comes through Traverse City a couple of times a week, at most. For rail fans, that isn’t enough. And my son, Nelson, age 12, is a major fan. For two years now, we’ve tried to get a glimpse of the train. He wanted videos, pictures, the whole package to post to www.railfan.com. Then, […]

Cliff jumping

We went to Lake Placid, N.Y., for our family vacation this summer. On the first day, we stopped into High Peaks Cyclery for the sidewalk sale but left with a plan to jump off a 20-foot cliff. “You’ll wanna hike from Copperas Pond trailhead,” the guy at the shop said. He was a lean, mean […]

My Teddy Bear: Letting the kids sleep in my room

My Teddy Bears It’s happened again. Somehow the boys have started sleeping in our room like the old days. When they were much littler, they slept in bed with us when they were scared and they brought in their teddy bears with them. Now, they’re on the floor next to the bed. One on each […]

A Mother’s Day Tribute (on a four-wheeler)

I wrote this in 2008, a year after our mother passed away. It seems a fitting tribute to publish it this year for Mother’s Day, looking back on that first summer without her, when our kids were so little and we were figuring out this motherhood thing all by ourselves. We know she’d laugh.~ We […]