At the Ruhes in Amherst, MA

We arrived at the Ruhe's place in Amherst about 8pm after a 5 hour drive from New Jersey.

Colin, Britt and the boys have joined with Britt's brother, Alfie, and his wife, Erica, with their two small children in buying an amazing old 12 bedroom Sorority house. They've split up the house for the two families and added a second kitchen on the ground floor, so it works out great for an extended family residence. Plus there are so many great spaces to enjoy--a basement which they've converted into a TV-family room, complete with a fireplace, as well as a big attic area which works out great for sleepovers with the kid's friends. Lots of great areas to play and hide out.

Britt says that the cost of buying and fixing up this old place gave them a much larger and more practical area than had they bought two smaller homes separately.
Isaiah and Aman took us on a grand tour of the nearby U-Mass campus and we could appreciate how this whole area seems as if it were a rural neihborhood. Check out the stairway and stained glass windows!We are delighted to get to know Alfie and Ericka's two children, Mason (3, shown below with his auntie Britt) and Anika (1, with Julie).
Then, off to lunch at a favorite Pizza place in downtown Northhampton. We listened to improvised guitar music and entertainment in front of the courthouse until Britt arrived with the kids.Colin, Isaiah, Aman, Mason and I went to one of their favorite playgrounds which was provided to their school by a number of contributors. This is the best playground of this type that I've ever seen. It's loaded with wood stairs, flexible ladders, tube tunnels, slides and places to hide, swing, run and jump. I sure wish we could build something like this for our kids at home.
Colin starts a game of chasing his boys around the playground and draws in a whole flock of other kids since they're having such a great time. He's such a cool dad...Julie and I are saying we would be delighted with just half his energy!
Here are the boys at Britt's dinner table.In the morning before the Ridvan holiday celebration we all went on a picnic trip to a forested area with a playground and terrific riverside walks.


Then that afternoon we were invited to the Ridván celebration at Juan & Braulia Caban's home.

Colin had prepared an amazing recording of a bird song from his bedroom window which he edited and looped so that he could play it during the beginning of the presentation. We were to close our eyes and imagine the scene at the Riván Garden in Bagdad in 1863 of a group of enamored followers of Baha'u'llah sitting around a huge pile of roses and the atmosphere of anticipation of some great event soon to enfold--the declaration of His Faith to all the world. It was very moving.

Then, after prayers and readings we all joined together in a social portion with piles of delicious food and a really nice variety of friends present, including some people we knew from many years ago. (It seems that almost every place we visit we are seeing people whom we know or who know people we know.) The lady in the photo below (left front) is Carol Rutstein, Author Nathan Rutstein's widow.