A Day at the Beach

Yesterday we decided to head to the beach instead of languishing in the heat for another day. Luke's parents were staying with friends in RI who have a "bungalow" (that's what they call their camper at a campground) near the ocean so we called them up and asked if we could join them for the day. We headed out nice and early to make sure we could get a parking space since the lots tend to fill up quite quickly. We hit the sand with our wagon filled with all the necessary accoutrements: towels, beach blanket, chairs, the cooler full of drinks and fruit, and of course, sand toys. Luke's parents and their friends, the Greenwoods, arrived and brought an umbrella and beach shelter for us to use and a boogie board for Noah.

The water was great--pretty warm and the waves weren't too big. The kids got braver and braver as the day went on though Lily wouldn't leave our arms she would let us go further and further out with her to enjoy the waves. Noah had a blast jumping the waves and even tried the boogie board. He's not quite big enough to actually stay on it though and got flipped upside down several times before calling it quits. When they weren't in the water they were digging in the sand and looking for neat rocks. We tried to build a castle but the bucket broke on one of the first attempts.

I of course managed to get a nice sunburn even though I put on sunscreen and spent a lot of time in the water. Somehow the sun is so much stronger on the beach--probably because it's not only beating down on you but also being reflected back at you from the sand and the water. I did enjoy swimming in the waves and even attempted to 'ride' some of the bigger ones in. It was a lot of fun.

I took a lot of pictures but a lot of them didn't turn out for some reason. Here are the ones that did.

The Greenwoods invited us back to their campsite for dinner so we headed out around 4pm. We got to shower and get all the sand and seaweed off and enjoy a great meal cooked on the fire. By the time we left the kids were more than ready to go to sleep, which they did shortly after we got in the car. They went straight to bed in their new bunk beds when we got home. The perfect end to a great day.

Finally, some pictures...

Luke fixed the computer and I was finally able to upload all the pictures from our trip. There were a bunch so here is the link to my web albums so that you can go and check them out. Enjoy!

There and Back Again

We have returned home from our vacation in Pittsburgh with my family. What a great week we had! We left last Friday and drove the 9 hours to my parent's house. The kids did well and we had no traffic. We didn't get in til 11 PM though so it was straight to bed for us after a warm greeting from Mother and Daddy. Saturday, Loey and Craig and their kids, Ana and James joined us from Philly and Brian came over with Seb and Oren (Jen was still fighting a bad cold so she had to miss the fun of our first evening). We all went to my Dad's church on Sunday and then all had lunch together, including the great-grandmothers. We went swimming and to an amusement park and did several Bruster's runs (one of our Pgh traditions) and just plain had a lot of fun together. The kids had such a great time with each other--they had a sleep-over every night in the living room, ran through the sprinkler, played spies, and built a house for the Hershey Kiss Fairy. Lily of course had everyone wrapped around her little finger, especially Grandpa and Uncle Craig, her 'buddy' for the week. She did warm up to Grandma and her Aunties too and even let Grandma rock and sing to her. I hope that made up for some of the disappointment she faced with her youngest grandson, Logan, whom she visited in Colorado 2 weeks prior--that story can be read here. We missed being able to meet Logan and see Evan and Matthew and Sophie as well as my sister, Melissa and her husband, James, this summer but hopefully we will all be able to get together again soon. At least we can keep up with them on Melissa's blog.

We spent a couple of mornings at the nursing home where both of my grandmothers live. I'm glad we decided to go back the second day because the first day wasn't enough time for the kids to really warm up and interact with their great-grandmothers but they did during the second visit and gave them a glimpse of their true personalities. Since we don't get to see them very often, I am glad to have the opportunity for my kids to build strong and lasting memories of their great-grandmothers, Grandma Jennie and Grandma Nadzia.

Thursday night I had a couple of my college friends, Erin and Jess and their families over for dinner. It's always a short visit but it was so nice to at least see them and talk for a bit and it was especially nice to meet Erin's new baby, Caleb, who is 4 mos old and terribly cute. Jess's son Maxwell (19 mos) is also a doll and it was fun to watch them interact--the squeezing, pinching, biting--such wonderful displays of mother-son affection. We've all changed so much from our college days--but then are still the same in many respects. Very neat to see. They both have their own blogs as well. Erin's can be seen at "'Burgh Baby" and Jess' at "the Bovard Family Singers" over in my side bar.

We returned via Philly and my sister's house where we stayed over night Friday so the kids could have more time together playing in their nice big yard. So we arrived home Saturday evening just in time to head over to Luke's parent's house where the extended family had gathered. Luke's uncle's father had died during the week and they were all in town for the funeral, which we missed but at least got to see them for a short while before they headed back to their homes in California, Mexico, and New Hampshire today. It's been a long week of late nights of fun and reminiscing and building new memories and we are all tired. It's nice to have today to relax and recuperate before we get back into the daily grind. This week that will include a day of potty training for Lily according to the book, Toilet Training in Less than a Day, which I am praying will work well.

I do have lots of pictures but I am not able to download them from my camera yet and I know I have a lot of weeding through to do. I wanted to at least post about our experiences and soon I will upload all the pictures to my web albums and link you to it so you can see for yourelves what a great vacation we had.

Weekend

Well, as you may have guessed from the previous post, we had a not-so-great ending to what was otherwise a wonderful weekend away. Everybody's health improved enough to go ahead with our plans. We dropped the kids off at Luke's sister's house Friday evening and headed up to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, where Luke and I had some much needed R&R away from the kidlets. For all the veteran parent readers, you know how absolutely essential this is for your sanity and the health of your relationship and for all you newbies I suggest you keep it in mind--your kids will thank you for it.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day and we spent much of it outside. First we headed to an orchard and brewery and got a tour of the sugarhouse where they make their maple syrup and saw how they tap their trees. Then we headed to the shops in town where Luke willingly walked around several different shops with me and even appeared to enjoy himself. After lunch, our last stop was a pottery gallery. Luke has always been fascinated by pottery--the finished pieces and especially the process. While they weren't throwing any pieces that day, the gallery was quite impressive and the artist very nice. We found several things that we really liked but were way too pricey but, thank goodness, they had a sale table and we found a piece that completed the collage that I have been working on for our living room. So, we have a nice souvenir from our weekend and , after over three years in the house, a completely decorated living room.

We had purchased a dinner package deal at the Inn so Saturday night we had a rather impressive meal at a particularly nice restaurant. All was well until Sunday morning when the lack of hot water threatened our newly acquired tranquility. As you recall from my question, the situation was not rectified and I ended up washing my hair in the sink with ice cold water (that's actually painful to the scalp and my head was tingling for a good part of the day) so that I didn't look like an absolute freak with really bad bed-head. They had offered the use of another room but I was not terribly interested in packing up my stuff and traipsing across the hotel in my pj's. When we checked out, instead of being profusely apologetic, the owner did everything he could to get out of compensating us for the incovenience we were caused by assuring us that it was not his fault that the water heater died. Well, you know what sir, neither was it my fault! Finally he begrudgingly agreed to refunding us a whopping $50, much less then even half the cost of one night. At first it was offered as a credit towards our next stay but after facing his rather uncaring attitude, I assured him that we would not be coming back.

It threatened but did not ruin our weekend. We enjoyed it immesely and at least one of our kids was happy to see us when we returned. Lily heard the door and before I even saw her I heard her yell, "Oh YAY! Mommy!" Noah on the other hand did not even look in our direction and muttered a hello and of course cried when we told him it was time to go and he could not play with his cousin anymore (whom he sees every week)! Ah, the love.