We have spent the nicest weekend visiting with Traci and Rob and their two boys Ben and Charlie. Charlie turned two this week, which was coincidentally also when Traci started her first out-of-the-home job since Ben was born, and also the boys had a bad cold at the same time. So we arrived at a convenient time! But it all went very very well, it was great hanging out with them, and Katie really took to Ben and Charlie. Here they are at the restaurant Friday night, which was Charlie's actual birthday, and our first time seeing our friends in seven years.

The restaurant was a renovated train depot, which has model trains running into the rooms, near the ceiling, and old pictures from the depot's glory days.

The kids had fun crawling under the unused tables

Seven years ago, Traci and Rob moved from West Caldwell, NJ, a suburb near NY where Rob has a walking mail route, to the rural town of Blairstown, NJ, where they bought an old farmhouse with some acreage, a barn and a "summer kitchen" and a pond. Here's a shot from charming Old Blairstown, a spillway once used by an old mill which still stands next to it:

We chatted with a couple bookstore owners and got stories of floods and town characters.

Here are a few pictures of Traci and Rob's great place:

It was renovated 15 years ago when the farm was divided into tracts and developed as multi-acre lots. The developers used the old farmhouse as their office, and then sold it to Traci and Rob. It's the kind of place that Mark and I have often said we'd love to buy, if we were to live in the country. Here's a couple shots inside:


That last picture was taken at Charlie's birthday party on Sunday; Mark blew up three punch balls, inflating them absolutely as much as they would go. When those things pop, it's really dramatic.

Here's Charlie, wearing his birthday crown and his dad's shoe:

Here's Katie and Charlie, patiently waiting for cake:

We turned off the lights that night and played with Charlie and Ben's Disney whirly-toys. Rob and I experimented with different camera settings on our cameras. Here are a couple of my favorites that we got with our camera. I think his camera produced even better effects.

I was sad to leave. It was so nice chatting with Traci. Mark got to throw the football around with Rob and talk sports. The kids got along so well. But Traci and Rob had worktoday, so it was a good time to say Sayonara to them and the pretty countryside. We're leaving the silos and rolling green hills behind, and heading to Jersey City, where we'll camp for ten days while we visit New York City.