We started our third morning by getting up really super early to meet the Qin family at Groton Town House for breakfast, their Saturday morning tradition. Andrew and Ada are early risers, and so the rest of the family must be, as well! We remember those days, when we didn't need an alarm clock because a baby was always screeching for attention! Anyway, breakfast was worth the early morning, it was really good.
After breakfast, we went over to the Qins' house for a while. They have a really nice yard and garden, and a beautiful home as well. Ada was napping but Andrew showed us around his room, and "Dr. Q" showed us all the improvements he's made in the basement and outdoors, too.
Michael took us over to the submarine museum, an attraction we all really enjoyed. Outdoors the kids got to sit on opposite sides of a deck gun to raise and lower it, and there were several pieces of other outdated submarine equipment that really helped us appreciate the scale of submarine construction and operation. We also toured the U. S. S. Nautilus, which is (I think permanently) moored to the dock right outside the museum. Climbing through the teeny doors, checking out the crew quarters, bathrooms, mess... all of it was really fascinating. The whole time we were right by the Navy base with real submarines and everything, where Q works. I think the kids' favorite part was when they looked through the periscope inside the museum and found our car in the parking lot!
After the sub museum we headed over to Mystic Seaport, which, yes Mom, it really is the "Greenfield Village of the Sea". We learned lots about oyster harvesting, blacksmithing, barrel making, and whale hunting. The kids played nineteenth century games on the green, we visited a period schoolhouse, church and apothecary, and spent some time in the "Children's Museum," which had lots of sea-themed games and toys. We had lunch at Schaefer's Spouter Tavern, where us parents ate what we ordered, Aidan ate some of the chicken salad that he ordered, Esme ate the rest, and I also ate Esme's clam chowder, for which she had an almost immediate distaste.
We happened to be right on time for the pick-up production of Tale of a Whaler on the Performance Stage...and both kids ended up being in it! Esme volunteered right away to be a "green hand" - an inexperienced sailor. She got to do all sorts of things, including pretend to vomit when the "sea" got rough. When Aidan saw how much fun she was having, he later volunteered to be "rain" during a storm. It was great fun.
We were thoroughly tired and hot by this time, so we stopped in the gift shop and headed back to the hotel to rest for a little while. For dinner we joined the Qins (thanks, you all!) at the Seahorse Restaurant, which was also super good. I ate more seafood on this vacation than I have eaten in probably six months here at home! After dinner we went to UConn Avery Point, which was beautiful and the kids' first real experience on the ocean. We climbed down on the rocks so they would have a chance to touch the Atlantic Ocean. Esme took several cups of ocean back to the hotel with her inside her shoes, but the rest of us stayed pretty dry!
All in all, a beautiful third day of vacation and no rain in sight. Also, except for a few very small violations of the "no whining" rule, we got along pretty well and everybody mostly listened.
17 July 2008
Hooray! We Got Our Stuff Back!
I slept about five hours last night before my brain woke me up to worry some more, about all the things I am supposed to be getting done, but particularly about what in the world we were going to do without all our clothes, as we still had no word on the whereabouts of our luggage.
I called the Continental baggage hotline about 7:30 a.m., and miracle of miracles, our bags were already on flight 2775 from Newark to Grand Rapids. Jim went to pick them up when the flight arrived at 8:50 a.m., and everything was intact. The washer and dryer are now puffing away, cleaning our week's worth of dirty clothes. The Aidan and the Esme are also puffing away, busily constructing their Lego and Playmobil sets that we bought for them at FAO Schwarz in New York City.
After Jim dropped our bags off at home, he and Aidan went to Best Buy to get me a new hard drive (adieu, 350 GB, bonjour, 500 GB), and Esme and I went off to the pediatrician's office (she is fine, just a little female thing) and Target to get started on our grocery shopping. Having had lunch at the Cafe Connection, we are all back at home now, the kids working hard on the aforesaid constructions. Jim is working for an actual living, and here I am, unpacking, baking a birthday cake, doing laundry, and working on restoring my computer. Right now I am downloading Windows XP Service Pack 3 - ooohhh, fun. It does leave me plenty of time in between clicks to work on summarizing our vacation, though!
I called the Continental baggage hotline about 7:30 a.m., and miracle of miracles, our bags were already on flight 2775 from Newark to Grand Rapids. Jim went to pick them up when the flight arrived at 8:50 a.m., and everything was intact. The washer and dryer are now puffing away, cleaning our week's worth of dirty clothes. The Aidan and the Esme are also puffing away, busily constructing their Lego and Playmobil sets that we bought for them at FAO Schwarz in New York City.
After Jim dropped our bags off at home, he and Aidan went to Best Buy to get me a new hard drive (adieu, 350 GB, bonjour, 500 GB), and Esme and I went off to the pediatrician's office (she is fine, just a little female thing) and Target to get started on our grocery shopping. Having had lunch at the Cafe Connection, we are all back at home now, the kids working hard on the aforesaid constructions. Jim is working for an actual living, and here I am, unpacking, baking a birthday cake, doing laundry, and working on restoring my computer. Right now I am downloading Windows XP Service Pack 3 - ooohhh, fun. It does leave me plenty of time in between clicks to work on summarizing our vacation, though!
Our Family Vacation - Day Two: Plymouth, MA & Groton, CT
(By the way, we're still waiting to hear about our luggage, waiting until Best Buy opens to replace my deceased hard drive, and waiting until USPS deigns to deliver the last week's worth of mail. We took lots of pictures on our trip but as it is impractical to unload them to my laptop, I'll wait until my desktop is up and running again to post them.)
On Friday, the second day of our vacation, we had breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts with the rest of the population of Plymouth. In the few minutes we were there, we saw at least 100 cups of coffee sold, and heard "How ahya?" about 25 times. Yes, they really do talk like that in Massachusetts.
We headed into downtown Plymouth, and despite the reconstruction of the surrounding stone pillars, we saw the famous Plymouth Rock. The kids were distinctly underwhelmed, as it's not very big anymore, broken in half, and mostly hidden by scaffolding. We stopped at the Mayflower Society house, which wasn't open yet, and then went to Pilgrim Hall Museum. Sounds boring, but it was actually quite cool! Jim and I were there three years ago and it was awful - no AC, falling apart, jumble of exhibits. Now they have added a whole new wing, remodeled the whole building, reorganized all the exhibits and really tried to make it interesting for children. The kids were each given an age-appropriate packet of paper with a guided scavenger hunt of things to find, and upon successfully completing it, were given a free postcard to bring home. Quite neat.
Returning to the Mayflower Society House, we found it open and manned by a "volunteer," who, true to the Society's unspoken policy, made it clear we were inconveniencing her by showing up at all. We left.
We had some lunch at a little cafe by the sea (it was a beautiful day), and headed for Groton, CT, our next stop. A lovely nap was had by all who weren't driving. Once we arrived, we checked into the hotel (the Hampton Inn), checked in with the Qins, and went out geocaching nearby at a memorial to a very early settler of the area. It took us a while and we had to use the encrypted online clue, but we found it and signed the log. Then we went back to the hotel where the children and I had a swim in the pool. Which reminds me, the kids' lifejackets are in our missing luggage, as well. Oh dear.
We were invited to join the Qins, along with Laura's mom and cousins, at Koto, a Japanese hibachi restaurant right by our hotel. I think we will all remember the experience for a long time! It was terrific to get together with our friends and meet baby Ada. It was really cool to watch our food being cooked right in front of us - Aidan said it was like watching the Swedish Chef on Muppets, except that our chef could actually catch things! He had fried rice and shrimp (it was neat to see fried rice being made), Esme had shrimp and noodles, Jim had a lot of very good sushi, and I had salmon and white rice. Yummy dinner, great company.
On Friday, the second day of our vacation, we had breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts with the rest of the population of Plymouth. In the few minutes we were there, we saw at least 100 cups of coffee sold, and heard "How ahya?" about 25 times. Yes, they really do talk like that in Massachusetts.
We headed into downtown Plymouth, and despite the reconstruction of the surrounding stone pillars, we saw the famous Plymouth Rock. The kids were distinctly underwhelmed, as it's not very big anymore, broken in half, and mostly hidden by scaffolding. We stopped at the Mayflower Society house, which wasn't open yet, and then went to Pilgrim Hall Museum. Sounds boring, but it was actually quite cool! Jim and I were there three years ago and it was awful - no AC, falling apart, jumble of exhibits. Now they have added a whole new wing, remodeled the whole building, reorganized all the exhibits and really tried to make it interesting for children. The kids were each given an age-appropriate packet of paper with a guided scavenger hunt of things to find, and upon successfully completing it, were given a free postcard to bring home. Quite neat.
Returning to the Mayflower Society House, we found it open and manned by a "volunteer," who, true to the Society's unspoken policy, made it clear we were inconveniencing her by showing up at all. We left.
We had some lunch at a little cafe by the sea (it was a beautiful day), and headed for Groton, CT, our next stop. A lovely nap was had by all who weren't driving. Once we arrived, we checked into the hotel (the Hampton Inn), checked in with the Qins, and went out geocaching nearby at a memorial to a very early settler of the area. It took us a while and we had to use the encrypted online clue, but we found it and signed the log. Then we went back to the hotel where the children and I had a swim in the pool. Which reminds me, the kids' lifejackets are in our missing luggage, as well. Oh dear.
We were invited to join the Qins, along with Laura's mom and cousins, at Koto, a Japanese hibachi restaurant right by our hotel. I think we will all remember the experience for a long time! It was terrific to get together with our friends and meet baby Ada. It was really cool to watch our food being cooked right in front of us - Aidan said it was like watching the Swedish Chef on Muppets, except that our chef could actually catch things! He had fried rice and shrimp (it was neat to see fried rice being made), Esme had shrimp and noodles, Jim had a lot of very good sushi, and I had salmon and white rice. Yummy dinner, great company.
16 July 2008
Our Family Vacation - Day One: Boston & Plymouth, MA
On the first day of our vacation, Jim and I got up at 4 a.m., and the kids were up by 4:30! We took a 6:00 a.m. flight to Cleveland OH, where we boarded another flight to Boston MA. The second flight had a first class cabin, in which we all enjoyed a lovely breakfast of fruit, yogurt and croissants on Continental Airlines china. These were Esme's first flights ever and she took it all like a seasoned traveler. She thought everything was "good" and didn't even flinch at takeoff and landing (something I still do).
Once we landed in Boston, we picked up our rental car (a white Toyota Rav4) and we went downtown, where we drove in circles for quite some time before we found a parking garage near enough to our destination - the U. S. S. Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. We took a tour of the ship, ably guided by Petty Officer 3rd Class MacGillivray, born and raised in nearby Quincy, Mass. I think everyone's favorite part of the ship was the gun deck, where we were regaled with stories of the ship's conquests.
After the ship tour, we stopped in the National Park gift shop, where Esme and I continued our tour of East Coast ladies' rooms (having begun at the Boston Logan International Airport). I won't list every one of the probably hundreds of public and semi-public restrooms that we visited, but we'll just foreshadow a bit and tell you that nothing beats the Waldorf-Astoria main lobby ladies' restroom. We visited that one three times.
We stopped for lunch at a small cafe on the way back to the parking garage - great sandwiches and a banana apiece. At that time we also began our collection of juice bottles and their brightly colored contents, a collection which would last for several days as it was gradually added to and subtracted from. We then drove to Plymouth - not far, and a nice easy drive without any traffic difficulty - and yet still just long enough for both kids to catch a little nap.
At Plimoth Plantation, there are several things to see. I do have to mention The Mooflower, a rather kitschy life-size figure of a cow dressed up as a cross between a ship and a Pilgrim, which graced the lobby of the ticket office. Or perhaps "graced" isn't the right word.
After a short introductory movie, we headed off to the Wampanoag homesite, where real native people live from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as the native people lived back in 1620. However, they're not really playing the parts of people from that time, so you can talk to them and ask them questions from a modern point of view. One woman was cooking a seafood soup and explaining all sorts of things - from what was in the soup to why there was this big structure in her cornfield (it's a play structure for the children which doubles as shade for the plants and triples as a scarecrow). Another woman was trying to keep five little kids in loincloths from wreaking havoc on the whole camp.
We headed up the path to Plimoth, a reenactment of the original settlement further up the coast. There are houses, gardens, a fort/church, animals, and people, all living and acting like it's 1620. We stopped in one cottage where a young boy (perhaps age ten) was sharpening his knife and he and his father were posing riddles to passers-by. "How far must you walk into the woods before you're walking out of the woods?" Halfway, of course. "What is taller than a house, but smaller than a mouse?" A star! "What is small enough to hold in your hand and big enough to fill a room?" A candle.
After the village, we went to the crafts building, where craftspeople make a variety of products that are used in the village and sold in the Plantation shops - including pottery, wood items, arrows, and cloth. Not much was going on, but we did get to watch a woman making a pottery cup. We had a snack in the visitors' center and headed out.
We checked into our hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn) after our visit to the Plantation, and then went out looking for a geocache nearby. John Cleese (now the voice on Jim's TomTom navigator) got us close in the car, and then we used my new GPS thingamajig to nail down the location. We found a big plastic bin with tons of toys inside, so we switched one out with something of our own and signed the log! (Which reminds me, I have to log the caches we found.)
We had dinner at Uno Chicago Grill and stopped at Target (okay, okay, yes, they're both places we go all the time at home) and then went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We began a trend of the kids pretending to sleep while actually watching TV until quite late, and eventually all going to sleep at pretty much the same time! It was a good and super tiring first day.
I really hope we get our luggage and contents back.
Once we landed in Boston, we picked up our rental car (a white Toyota Rav4) and we went downtown, where we drove in circles for quite some time before we found a parking garage near enough to our destination - the U. S. S. Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. We took a tour of the ship, ably guided by Petty Officer 3rd Class MacGillivray, born and raised in nearby Quincy, Mass. I think everyone's favorite part of the ship was the gun deck, where we were regaled with stories of the ship's conquests.
After the ship tour, we stopped in the National Park gift shop, where Esme and I continued our tour of East Coast ladies' rooms (having begun at the Boston Logan International Airport). I won't list every one of the probably hundreds of public and semi-public restrooms that we visited, but we'll just foreshadow a bit and tell you that nothing beats the Waldorf-Astoria main lobby ladies' restroom. We visited that one three times.
We stopped for lunch at a small cafe on the way back to the parking garage - great sandwiches and a banana apiece. At that time we also began our collection of juice bottles and their brightly colored contents, a collection which would last for several days as it was gradually added to and subtracted from. We then drove to Plymouth - not far, and a nice easy drive without any traffic difficulty - and yet still just long enough for both kids to catch a little nap.
At Plimoth Plantation, there are several things to see. I do have to mention The Mooflower, a rather kitschy life-size figure of a cow dressed up as a cross between a ship and a Pilgrim, which graced the lobby of the ticket office. Or perhaps "graced" isn't the right word.
After a short introductory movie, we headed off to the Wampanoag homesite, where real native people live from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as the native people lived back in 1620. However, they're not really playing the parts of people from that time, so you can talk to them and ask them questions from a modern point of view. One woman was cooking a seafood soup and explaining all sorts of things - from what was in the soup to why there was this big structure in her cornfield (it's a play structure for the children which doubles as shade for the plants and triples as a scarecrow). Another woman was trying to keep five little kids in loincloths from wreaking havoc on the whole camp.
We headed up the path to Plimoth, a reenactment of the original settlement further up the coast. There are houses, gardens, a fort/church, animals, and people, all living and acting like it's 1620. We stopped in one cottage where a young boy (perhaps age ten) was sharpening his knife and he and his father were posing riddles to passers-by. "How far must you walk into the woods before you're walking out of the woods?" Halfway, of course. "What is taller than a house, but smaller than a mouse?" A star! "What is small enough to hold in your hand and big enough to fill a room?" A candle.
After the village, we went to the crafts building, where craftspeople make a variety of products that are used in the village and sold in the Plantation shops - including pottery, wood items, arrows, and cloth. Not much was going on, but we did get to watch a woman making a pottery cup. We had a snack in the visitors' center and headed out.
We checked into our hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn) after our visit to the Plantation, and then went out looking for a geocache nearby. John Cleese (now the voice on Jim's TomTom navigator) got us close in the car, and then we used my new GPS thingamajig to nail down the location. We found a big plastic bin with tons of toys inside, so we switched one out with something of our own and signed the log! (Which reminds me, I have to log the caches we found.)
We had dinner at Uno Chicago Grill and stopped at Target (okay, okay, yes, they're both places we go all the time at home) and then went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We began a trend of the kids pretending to sleep while actually watching TV until quite late, and eventually all going to sleep at pretty much the same time! It was a good and super tiring first day.
I really hope we get our luggage and contents back.
Okay - There's Good News, and There's Bad News...
We made it safely back from a wonderful family vacation! Thank you, Lord, for watching over us and helping us get along during all that enforced togetherness. We did have a great time, and details of our terrific trip will follow...eventually. That's the good news!
The bad news is, our luggage was (hopefully temporarily) lost. All four bags. We saw them actually go on to the plane in Newark, but they didn't make it to Grand Rapids. How that's possible, I don't know, but please hope and pray with us that our bags will be found and returned to us quickly - including eight days' worth of clothing for all of us, shoes, all of our souvenirs, some of the childrens' toys, etc.
There's more bad news...I booted up my desktop this evening and my hard drive was working fine for about five minutes. My computer froze up and when I rebooted - nothing. Jim, my own personal computer hero, is pretty sure it's the hard drive and is working to restore the poor guy and its data. Fortunately, I learned from past mistakes and I'm pretty certain I have ALL of my pictures backed up on a separate drive, and may have lost only a week's worth of documents - not much. Even my Outlook files were backed up completely just before we left on vacation - I had eighteen emails that I might have lost, but I think I have most of them on my phone. So if you emailed me between July 10 and July 16 and I don't get back to you in the next couple of days, please contact me again.
The bad news is, our luggage was (hopefully temporarily) lost. All four bags. We saw them actually go on to the plane in Newark, but they didn't make it to Grand Rapids. How that's possible, I don't know, but please hope and pray with us that our bags will be found and returned to us quickly - including eight days' worth of clothing for all of us, shoes, all of our souvenirs, some of the childrens' toys, etc.
There's more bad news...I booted up my desktop this evening and my hard drive was working fine for about five minutes. My computer froze up and when I rebooted - nothing. Jim, my own personal computer hero, is pretty sure it's the hard drive and is working to restore the poor guy and its data. Fortunately, I learned from past mistakes and I'm pretty certain I have ALL of my pictures backed up on a separate drive, and may have lost only a week's worth of documents - not much. Even my Outlook files were backed up completely just before we left on vacation - I had eighteen emails that I might have lost, but I think I have most of them on my phone. So if you emailed me between July 10 and July 16 and I don't get back to you in the next couple of days, please contact me again.
08 July 2008
Mortality...
After over a year of intermittently working on it and putting it off, we will be signing our wills tomorrow in front of a notary with our lawyer (thanks Chris!) and witnesses (thanks Melissa!).
So. To all of our friends and family who have been putting it off, too - we finally did it, you can too! It's easier than we thought it would be, and it's probably much easier when you have a friend who's a lawyer.
Just in case you're wondering, we do plan to be around for a good long time yet, so don't get exercised about it.
So. To all of our friends and family who have been putting it off, too - we finally did it, you can too! It's easier than we thought it would be, and it's probably much easier when you have a friend who's a lawyer.
Just in case you're wondering, we do plan to be around for a good long time yet, so don't get exercised about it.
More Geocache
This is fun! We went back out after dinner and found 1 cache (super small, just enough for a log, which we signed), and then got the first three spots in a four-part cache. The woods were super mosquitoey and the GPS couldn't get a signal so we are postponing the last part until a sunnier time. Also, though it's probably cheating, now that we have the coordinates for the cache, we can map it.
The first set of coordinates led Jim to hot glue in the cap of a fence post, which had been molded around a film canister holding the second set of coordinates - very clever. Then those led to a small black box magneted to the bottom of the fishing dock; after Jim narrowed down the location, Aidan found the box! The third set of coordinates led to a lamppost on the other side of the park - I figured out that the bolt covers at the bases of the lamps could be lifted, and underneath Aidan found a film canister with the last set of coordinates. We wandered around in the woods for a while and temporarily gave up when the mosquitoes picked up Esme and we had to all hang onto her legs to keep her from flying away with them!
This is really fun! Cheap entertainment for the whole family, and exercise into the bargain. The kids bring along their binoculars and walkie-talkies (hardly necessary, but fun), Jim drives the GPS and I carry the printouts. We probably walked about two miles tonight, just looking for stuff. You have to try this!
The first set of coordinates led Jim to hot glue in the cap of a fence post, which had been molded around a film canister holding the second set of coordinates - very clever. Then those led to a small black box magneted to the bottom of the fishing dock; after Jim narrowed down the location, Aidan found the box! The third set of coordinates led to a lamppost on the other side of the park - I figured out that the bolt covers at the bases of the lamps could be lifted, and underneath Aidan found a film canister with the last set of coordinates. We wandered around in the woods for a while and temporarily gave up when the mosquitoes picked up Esme and we had to all hang onto her legs to keep her from flying away with them!
This is really fun! Cheap entertainment for the whole family, and exercise into the bargain. The kids bring along their binoculars and walkie-talkies (hardly necessary, but fun), Jim drives the GPS and I carry the printouts. We probably walked about two miles tonight, just looking for stuff. You have to try this!
Geocache Seeking!
We went geocache seeking for the first time today! Well, okay, we've gone along for the ride once before with Melissa and Ryan, but today we did it on our own! There are lots of caches right near our house, so we decided to start with one at our dearly beloved Whistlestop Park - a "traditional" cache with only one thing to find.
Unfortunately, we think the cache was ruined by the recent storms (lots of wind and rain), but we're pretty sure we did find the empty container. The last logged find was 19 June, before the really bad storms around here. Anyway, Aidan found a yellow golf ball and we had a good (and mosquitoey) walk through the woods. We're planning another try on a different cache at Whistlestop later in the day.
We had some trouble getting the GPS to keep up with us (we're using Jim's Handheld Everything Thing) but he upped the baud rate and it did better.
Unfortunately, we think the cache was ruined by the recent storms (lots of wind and rain), but we're pretty sure we did find the empty container. The last logged find was 19 June, before the really bad storms around here. Anyway, Aidan found a yellow golf ball and we had a good (and mosquitoey) walk through the woods. We're planning another try on a different cache at Whistlestop later in the day.
We had some trouble getting the GPS to keep up with us (we're using Jim's Handheld Everything Thing) but he upped the baud rate and it did better.
Why I Let SpongeBob SquarePants in My House
Normally, I have a strict "no SpongeBob" policy. And I still don't let the kids watch it on TV or anything. But recently while watching Aidan hunt and peck on his computer keyboard, I decided I don't want him to go through life hunting and pecking, like his grandfather, who managed to make it through his entire career by hunting and pecking.
I looked at several different typing tutor programs, and decided I definitely wanted to get one that's made for children, not adults. While Mavis Beacon is a great teacher, I didn't think there would be much appeal for a seven-year-old in her methods. What I wanted originally was Mario Teaches Typing - including a character Aidan already knows from playing Nintendo with his friends - but Mario stopped teaching typing over twenty years ago and the software is no longer available except at an inflated price.
But Mavis Beacon makes SpongeBob SquarePants Teaches Typing, and by some miracle Aidan LIKES to use the program! I showed him only once where home position is and which fingers to use for all the keys, and he sticks right to it. Now he makes fun of Esme hunting and pecking, while he slowly and calmly uses all the right fingers. SpongeBob has some cool games and encouraging words.
Anyway, that's how SpongeBob got a toe hold in my house. That's likely to be the only one he gets, though.
I looked at several different typing tutor programs, and decided I definitely wanted to get one that's made for children, not adults. While Mavis Beacon is a great teacher, I didn't think there would be much appeal for a seven-year-old in her methods. What I wanted originally was Mario Teaches Typing - including a character Aidan already knows from playing Nintendo with his friends - but Mario stopped teaching typing over twenty years ago and the software is no longer available except at an inflated price.
But Mavis Beacon makes SpongeBob SquarePants Teaches Typing, and by some miracle Aidan LIKES to use the program! I showed him only once where home position is and which fingers to use for all the keys, and he sticks right to it. Now he makes fun of Esme hunting and pecking, while he slowly and calmly uses all the right fingers. SpongeBob has some cool games and encouraging words.
Anyway, that's how SpongeBob got a toe hold in my house. That's likely to be the only one he gets, though.
07 July 2008
Picture Update Time
During the last day Megan was staying with us, Aidan was showing her how to play racing games on the computer. She thought that was something else. Every time he finished a race, he would ask her, "Megan, do you want to get down and play now?" and she would say "Racecar again!"
We finally went to the beach one beautiful Friday morning. The kids had been nagging me since school got out to take them to the beach at Holland State Park. They were thrilled.
We've found these "surfer suits" to be perfect swimwear for the kids. They keep the sun off their most sensitive skin (everyone hates burned shoulders) and they're cool and breathable so they're great for swimming.
Aidan's busily building a sand castle with plenty of lakewater.
We forgot the life jackets, so I just stayed close by the kids while they were in the water. The marked swimming area is never higher than Esme's shoulders, but she would still panic when it got up to her armpits.
We had a great time - the beach was not too crowded, the sand was warm and the water felt nice after a few minutes of numbing!
We don't get many pictures of Aidan wearing his glasses, but one evening at the airport he happened to still have them on. He's one handsome dude, with or without.
Yesterday we went to Meijer Gardens again (we're really getting our money's worth on that membership this year!) to scout out some birthday-picture sites. Jim is taking our kids' birthday portraits this year! We like this spot for Aidan - he just needs to sit up straighter.
Anywhere with flowers turned out to be a good spot for Esme - it's just hard to get her to have a natural expression on her face. This one turned out well! Any suggestions for what color clothes she should wear, on August 31?
Aidan doesn't like showing his teeth - or lack thereof - so we don't have any pictures where he's really smiling but we'll be sure to get some next week on his birthday.
This is my favorite picture of Esme. I think it's perfectly beautiful. I hope we can get one just like it on her birthday.
Here she looks like she's growing right out of the pot of petunias.
Fake smile!
Now there's a real smile! We had to tell her to laugh before we could get a natural smile out of her.
...and then we had to have a silly moment, too.
Tiger Esme in the jungle!
This is one of Aidan's great expressions. He's really good with the eyebrows. We're going to go for a white t-shirt with this location but the expression on his face is perfect.
The kids are actually standing in the topiary maze in the children's garden here.
Esme looks great among the daisies. We're not sure, of course, what kind of flowers will be blooming at the end of August, but I'm sure we'll find some more great ones.
We finally went to the beach one beautiful Friday morning. The kids had been nagging me since school got out to take them to the beach at Holland State Park. They were thrilled.
We've found these "surfer suits" to be perfect swimwear for the kids. They keep the sun off their most sensitive skin (everyone hates burned shoulders) and they're cool and breathable so they're great for swimming.
Aidan's busily building a sand castle with plenty of lakewater.
We forgot the life jackets, so I just stayed close by the kids while they were in the water. The marked swimming area is never higher than Esme's shoulders, but she would still panic when it got up to her armpits.
We had a great time - the beach was not too crowded, the sand was warm and the water felt nice after a few minutes of numbing!
We don't get many pictures of Aidan wearing his glasses, but one evening at the airport he happened to still have them on. He's one handsome dude, with or without.
Yesterday we went to Meijer Gardens again (we're really getting our money's worth on that membership this year!) to scout out some birthday-picture sites. Jim is taking our kids' birthday portraits this year! We like this spot for Aidan - he just needs to sit up straighter.
Anywhere with flowers turned out to be a good spot for Esme - it's just hard to get her to have a natural expression on her face. This one turned out well! Any suggestions for what color clothes she should wear, on August 31?
Aidan doesn't like showing his teeth - or lack thereof - so we don't have any pictures where he's really smiling but we'll be sure to get some next week on his birthday.
This is my favorite picture of Esme. I think it's perfectly beautiful. I hope we can get one just like it on her birthday.
Here she looks like she's growing right out of the pot of petunias.
Fake smile!
Now there's a real smile! We had to tell her to laugh before we could get a natural smile out of her.
...and then we had to have a silly moment, too.
Tiger Esme in the jungle!
This is one of Aidan's great expressions. He's really good with the eyebrows. We're going to go for a white t-shirt with this location but the expression on his face is perfect.
The kids are actually standing in the topiary maze in the children's garden here.
Esme looks great among the daisies. We're not sure, of course, what kind of flowers will be blooming at the end of August, but I'm sure we'll find some more great ones.
