A Day Off for Mommy

Sunday afternoon, Papa took the boys to 'the Carnival', or OOB as the locals call it, for some fun on the rides. They were headed to MA for an errand, so they were gone from 3 p.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Monday = A DAY OFF FOR MOMMY!!! Logan and I enjoyed eating at The Ports of Italy for the first time with Mom, a leisurely evening without the bedtime routine, and I enjoyed sleeping in until 10 a.m., followed by lots of lounging around the house feeling lost without the munchkins occupying all of my attention. What a wonderful break! Our neighbor popped by in the afternoon to ask what time we wanted her to come for dinner, which sent me into a flurry of activity because I had forgotten we had invited her! That's pregnancy brain, for you!

Of course, the boys also immensely enjoyed themselves! They've been talking non-stop about all of the rides, the popcorn, the cotton candy, etc. Josiah is especially proud of himself for riding the Pirate Ship (last picture), which Papa had the controller stop almost immediately because he looked scared. Thanks to Papa for giving the boys a memorable adventure!!!

A Day on the Lake

Brooks and Jen invited us to go boating a week ago Sunday, so we had a blast on the lake with our new church friends! This is what I get when I ask the boys to "Say Cheese!"

Logan went skiing for the first time in ten years! He stayed up for 10 minutes before he gave Brooks the signal that he was done. :)

Logan and Brooks

Getting ready to take Logan and Josiah tubing. They told Josiah to give a thumbs up to go faster or a thumbs down to go slower, so he gave them a thumbs down the entire ride! Brooks said they weren't even in gear sometimes, they were going so slow! But he was proud of himself and enjoyed his ride. :)

Logan, the human tugboat.

Railway Village

I would be remiss to not mention our daily activity this summer: an afternoon ride on the train! We usually catch the last one of the day, when it's not so hot for preggo me. Our mornings are spent playing with friends, riding the trolley, going to Healthy Kids or to the library, etc. Then lunch and nap time for Ben at home, and then we hop over to the Railway Village. The boys are just as excited every day as they were the first time they came. It's really remarkable how this never gets old. :) They know all the employees by name and act like they own the place. Last week, Josiah dug his overalls out of the laundry every day and dressed up in full engineer costume so he could 'help' with the tickets and turning the crossing signal on, etc. He always wants to have a job to do! We also get to see lots of friends on the train, so it's been a lot of fun for all of us. Posing with Engineer Chuck

Cole and Jenn are frequently on the last train too!

The boys love the Thomas table in the gift store.

Baby Isaac takes his first train ride.

Engineer Jason let the boys ring the bell!

Healthy Kids Summer Field Trips

We just caught the last two Healthy Kids playgroups in June, and learned about their summer field trips. What an awesome program this is!!! Geared for children 0-5 (older siblings are welcome), and always free, they have a cool field trip planned for every Monday in July and August. We've already gone for a harbor tour on a big boat, and enjoyed the new Children's Garden at the local Botanical Gardens. There are always a bunch of kids along, so the boys have had a blast.

This picture was miraculous: five smiles in one shot!

Burt Dow, Deep Water Man

Good Luck, Uncle Danny!!!

On July 11th, we went down to support Uncle Danny's open house for his new business venture! It was so great to see his office, meet his partner, meet April's mom and grandparents, see their friends and family out to support them, and enjoy the delicious bbq! The photo below was the 20th or so I took of the boys holding their sign (I should post some of the pictures that didn't make the cut...too funny), then we framed it for Uncle Danny's desk. Good Luck, Uncle Danny! We love you!!!

Our First Family Vacation

Since our honeymoon in PEI six years ago, Logan and I and the ensuing additions to our family have spent many weeks and weekends away visiting friends and family, but we dubbed this our 'first family vacation' because we went away for a whole week, just the four of us! And the exotic, distant location was...20 minutes down the road to Mr. Maynard, Mrs. Sandra and Miss Pam's 'Cottage in the Woods'! Situated on a peaceful strip of lake, it was the perfect place to relax, have lots of family fun, and take loads of pictures. Here is a sampling, to give you a taste of our week:

The boys got to sing in a gospel concert with microphones for the first time! They were very excited about their debut. They sang, "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart."

We enjoyed the fireworks with friends from church. They were so close, I almost felt like running for cover. Benjamin couldn't rally enough courage to watch them.

Every day, we thought the boys would be wiped out and easy to put to bed. But they were so keyed up about sleeping in a new place, it never was easy! Josiah, our creature of habit and ritual, desperately wanted to go home to sleep. :)

The boys each got a new fishing pole before our vacation, which resulted in enthusiastic spurts of fishing: 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there. Surprisingly, no fish! :)

The first time they tried these inner tubes, they both exclaimed, "I'm swimming!!!" They had so much fun going down to the lake every day.

The three amigos with their fishing poles.

We hit up the local story time one especially hot day. I enjoyed the AC, and Josiah especially enjoyed the story about the hermit crab.

Benjamin being cute for the camera.

Josiah had a dreaded hair cut, which he wept through!

Mr. Maynard brought us on his boat a couple times!!! What a treat to spend time with these special friends. We also enjoyed dinners with them and being pulvarized by Pam on a couple game nights.

There were only two nights we ate dinner on our own. This is a picture of some of our Bible Study friends, gathered for a potluck.



Papa came to visit, offered to take the boys for a boat ride, and shocked everyone by falling overboard! It was a prank gone haywire when Benjamin asked, "Papa, where you glasses?" "Oh my goodness, I was wearing them!" Followed by a successful rescue by Logan with his goggles. :)

We tried to go for a hike most mornings before it got too hot. We enjoyed visiting the beautiful preserves in the area, and the boys were little troopers!

I was there too, as evidenced by a self-portrait with the boys. :)

Josiah got decked out in all his camo to hunt squirrels in Mrs. Sandra's garden. Quite a sight! :)

We had such a wonderful week!!! For those of you who know the 'Cottage in the Woods', you should get on the horn with Sandra immediately and reserve your vacation for next summer before they fill up. It is such a wonderful ministry, and we were so blessed by their warm hospitaliy, excellent accomodations, and the peacefulness of living by the lake.

Computer Crash

I haven't posted anything since June 25th, and A LOT has happened since then! We've had Logan's 35th birthday party, a week-long vacation to Cottage in the Woods, awesome field trips with the Healthy Kids program, and much more! I'm way behind on updating my blog because we've been busy, but primarily because our computer crashed!!! It was the laptop that Logan and I purchased on a Black Friday when I was pregnant with Josiah, almost 5 years ago. We stood in line at 4 a.m. in 17 degree weather waiting for a good deal, and it was a good 4 2/3 year relationship for us and our Gateway! Praise the Lord for a good friend who rescued everything off our hard drive and set us up with a cast-off computer from his work!!! We're back in business!! So my plan is to start catching up here in the next few days. Don't miss any of our exciting posts!!! :)