#2

On Sunday night my cousin hosted a bunch of family for a little gathering. It was really hot and the kids wandered across the street to play at the park. I love the picture of Weston looking like he is about to nail Sadie in the head with the baseball. That boy is always throwing something.

On Monday morning we ignored the rainy forecast and headed out to Walden Pond. Sadie called it the beach since it has sand and water. Works for me. Sadie destroyed multiple structures while Elise stuck mostly to the water. Sadie's uncles were kind enough to swim out to the rope with her and to help her try and catch some fish. 

Elise fell on her back in the water and couldn't get up so I took a photo instead of helping her

a lone fish Louie

fish-catching expedition

During lunch break Elise attempted to put her puddle jumper (floatie) on by herself and head back to the water.

We had the ultimate double header with a trip to Chuck E Cheese that night. Sadie danced away with the creepy life-size characters during dinner and then was happy to run around pushing buttons and getting tickets. Elise crawled on top of several games. Weston threw several things. All 3 kids gleefully rode on each dinky ride. And the adults got a little too competitive with skeeball and the basketball game. A good time and cheap-o prizes were had by all.

We looked forward to Tuesday for weeks. The day we returned to the Children's Museum. I can't say enough great things about it. This time we started on the top floor, which we never even got to last time. Enjoy the smattering of pictures. 

That night the girls had a movie night with Alicia (who had to work during most of our visit)

And I went to dinner with a few childhood friends. It was so fun to catch up and hear about their lives, families, and impending weddings.

PS

Here are some adorable pictures of the oldest and youngest John grandchildren

Home is where the heart-- and your childhood home-- is

My girls and I are very spoiled. We have gotten to visit Boston 3 times in the past year. I guess the older I get the more time I want to spend at home. Here is part 1 of our trip.

We prepared for the airplane with lots of tasty snacks and movies, which were put to good use as soon as we were up to cruising altitude. The girls wanted to sit together so naturally I allowed them to sit behind me with Daniel. I had the hard time of collecting garbage and passing back new snacks as needed.

The first morning we slept in a bit and then headed over to a free day at the Stone Zoo. It was suffocatingly humid, but manageable for this small zoo. My mom had gone on the website beforehand and read Sadie a list of all the animals so Sadie was set on seeing all of them. The one thing that has stuck with her is the stinky smell of the bats.

Elise's favorite animal was the piggy. 

This picture was taken in b&w by accident but I like the matching expressions.

That night we went to the Red Sox-Blue Jays game sans children. My mom stayed home with the 3 grandchildren while the rest of us lived it up in the center field bleachers. I love Fenway.

Saturday morning was spent at Alicia's baby shower. She was given lots of great presents and we took a few hours after the shower to sort all the baby clothes. 

After naps that day we headed downtown, one of the first times my girls have gotten to enjoy the city. We rode the swan boats and merry-go-round and then waded in Frog Pond. I hadn't been on the swan boats since 2nd grade, so it was exciting for me as well. 

The grandchildren in the sweet double stroller the Maxfield's scored from freecycle.

The weather was perfect. Too bad angry Elise showed up once we told her she couldn't get in the water. Angry Elise has started to show up more and more frequently since Lou turned 2. She gets mad about something and yells "no" while simultaneously throwing everything she can get her hands on.

Boarding the merry-go-round pacified angry Elise.

Next up was Frog Pond, which I had been ice skating on in the winter, but never swimming in during the summer. Sadie ran around dancing and telling Bryce secrets. My sisters and I talked. Elise was happy for a short time.....

....and then Angry Elise showed up again. Daniel tried walking around the gardens to distract her for a while--she even got a free balloon-- but angry Elise wanted to go on the merry-go-round again. 

We walked out of the park with both our kids screaming. Elise was just Angry Elise and Sadie wanted a balloon. They both cried the entire ride home and my parents were reminded how glad they are to be done with the toddler stage of life. 

Deja vu

Do these pictures give you the same deja vu that they gave me?

Check out a fuzzy haired Sadie from 2 years ago. 

Kids Ruin Everything

Attending events where your kids have to be well-behaved and somewhat self-entertained is just kind of pointless when you have young kids.

We went to a party for Daniel's grandparents a few weeks ago and we left feeling like we didn't even talk to most of the family that was there. 

We drove up to the party and spent the entire evening outside. Oh well. It's the effort that counts, right? 

First Things First

We went to Boston for 8 days. It was great. 

But the week before we went to Boston Sadie went to her first basketball camp....

It turned out that there were basically no kids close to Sadie's age who registered for camp so Sadie spent the days in the older kid's gym with Daniel. She loved the attention from the older girls. 

After work each day I would just walk down and pick Sadie up. Unfortunately, she kind of turned into the snotty daughter of the coach who did what she wanted. She insisted on Daniel holding her during the daily wrap-up.

She swiped the UVU swag that campers got.

The best part of camp? 

Sadie was totally wiped out every afternoon.