Halloween is always more fun with little kids and of course with Kenyon being the cutest giraffe ever, this year was great! The weather was so nice and a beautiful full moon made it complete. Clark worked some of his carving magic and of course, all the trick or treating kids liked his iPumpkin (took a few minutes) and didn’t notice his Les Mis Cosette masterpiece. Oh, well….
This year Clark is in 10th grade at Waterford. And sad but very true, this year he has no siblings. He is the lone “Brown” on campus. Our photo that used to have 6 kids headed off to school on the first day, is a photo of Clark ready to take on Waterford by himself. He will do great!
Eleven years ago we took all 6 kids to see Diane in Boston, our friends the Collettes in New Hampshire, Niagara Falls in Canada and the church sites and pageant in Palmyra in New York. Since Clark and Elliot were so young and don’t really remember the trip, we wanted to take them back as teenagers and this was the summer!
Our friends the Collettes have daughters Miranda and Jennica that are the same ages as our boys. They have been to our house often, so it was fun to spend time with them in their “neck of the woods” (literally!)
We arrived at Niagara Falls in the late afternoon, took the Maid of the Mist boat tour and then were there as it got dark and they turned the lights on the falls. The falls are just so amazing!
The next day we visited the Church sites in Palmyra and then saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant that night. This year the pageant is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
Alan’s sister Diane lives in Ithaca, New York, working at Cornell University. They have a saying there that “Ithaca is gorges” and so it is. Diane took us to see two beautiful gorges. It was great to see where she lives (with her dog, Happy) and where she works at the University. Brown family sleepover!
On our way back to New Hampshire we stopped to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum. He produced over 4,000 works of art – over 300 covers for The Saturday Evening Post magazine. We especially liked seeing his barn turned studio.
We finished the trip with a few more days in New Hampshire, including a day at the beach and a day in Boston checking out John Adams’s houses, Paul Revere’s house and The Old North Church. Can you have too much fun on a vacation? I think we did!
On May 16, Elliot and Clark played in a percussion recital at Waterford School. The highlight of the program was Stubernic, by Mark Ford. Elliot and Clark were joined by their fellow marimbist Erica Park.
As per our New Year’s Eve tradition, we enjoyed gathering around 3 fondue pots. Our three favorites are: cheese, meat and chocolate. Because we ate too much (as per tradition) and all went into what Madeleine calls a “food coma”, some of us had a hard time staying up till midnight! A few of us did see the New Year in and I personally am looking forward to 2012…I feel in my heart that it will be a good year for our family.
It always surprises me that Christmas actually comes…I guess just because we talk about it so far in advance! As always, our family had a really nice Christmas. Actually every year we have 2 Christmas Days…one with Alan’s parents the Saturday before and then of course Christmas Day at our house.
This year I particularly enjoyed having our house decorated. It seemed especially cozy…I think we had the fire burning morning and night (pretty easy when all you have to do is flip the switch!)
Elliot and Clark both performed duets with their teacher, Dan Chamberland. They worked super hard and played super well! Enjoy watching videos of their performances…it takes a few seconds to download.
Clark playing Trains with Dan Chamberland
Elliot playing Effugonetrom with Dan Chamberland
![Elliot performing \"Effugonetrom\" with Dan.](https://www.brown8.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/percussion-recital/img_9715.jpg "Elliot performing \\"Effugonetrom\\" with Dan.")
After much hard work and diligence, Clark was awarded his Eagle Scout Award at a Court of Honor, Sunday October 29th. He spoke about his Eagle project, his leaders gave great comments and we had a fun slide show “Scouting Through the Years!” It was great to have support from family and friends.
![Clark is now invited to sit in \"The Eagle\'s Nest.\"](https://www.brown8.org/blog/wp-content/gallery/clarks-eagle-court-of-honor/dscf1406.jpg "Clark is now invited to sit in \\"The Eagle\'s Nest.\\"")
The school year has started for us with Clark in the 9th Grade and Elliot as a senior. This year also marks the beginning of early morning Seminary for Clark, so now they drive off together at 6:40 every morning. I absolutely cannot believe this is the last year we will have 2 students at Waterford….I know, a “sunrise, sunset” moment – just indulge me.
