Saturday, August 20, 2011

Baseball and birthdays and brothers, oh my!

We returned from 10 days of camping on Monday afternoon. That was awesome fun! I have about 8.000 pictures to share from that, so it will take a while! (Meaning, you'll be lucky to see any of them before next year's trip...!)

We returned on Monday afternoon, and then I took off with the kids on Tuesday evening to head to my dad's house. He won Red Sox tickets in a raffle, so we decided to take Connor to his first game. These were not just any Red Sox tickets, however, they were Green Monster seats! These, for those of you who don't know, are the seats on top of the Green Monster, and have the best view of the game. Amazing.




This same week we also took Aisling to the American Girl store to celebrate her (belated) 7th birthday. One of the gifts that Uncle Kevin gave to her was a CD full of songs with Aisling in the title. It was such a special and meaningful gift. (Fitting for a Godfather to give his Goddaughter!)



While staying overnight at dad's house, we had an afternoon free. During this time, Kevin and I noticed that the kids were going bonkers, and that they didn't have anything to play with outside. We took off to the store to buy them a few things to keep at Poppy's house. When we returned, this is what we saw:

Poppy had a few tricks up his sleeve, and was letting the kids slide down the "big hill" on sleds and rugs! Very cute.

We headed for home the next day. Knowing that we had the whole day, I decided to make an adventure out of it. We stopped at the Quechee Gorge on the way home. I had big plans to hike with them. We did a short (5 minutes?) walk, and then the kids were starving. I noticed that there were storm clouds above us, and we could hear thunder. So, I made them take a look at the gorge before eating (worried we wouldn't have a chance to see it at all.) It's a good thing too, because moments after they saw the gorge, it started pouring! Our lovely picnic outside became a free for all in the car! We still had fun, and we managed to see the gorge a little after lunch.

One interesting thing that happened during lunch, was this: a car pulled up next to us, and 2 parents got out with their 2 kids. They knocked on my window and asked if they could trade us some peaches for a cell phone call. I handed over my cell phone, and we ate some lovely home grown Maine peaches from our friendly neighbors. (from Maine)

It was a great week, but I am so glad to be home. I head back to work on Monday. I will miss the extra time home with the kids, that's obvious. However, I look forward to some added structure to our lives.