The Little Cousins Take DC By Storm!

Uncle George and Auntie Lynn are here in DC with their families. Michael brought his 2 boys and Donna is here with John and all of their kids. And my gals are in heaven having folks to show around a bit. (Especially when it's some of their favorite cousins!)

Nora, Coleman, Aidan, Molly, Brenna, Nolan and Johnny at the Museum of Natural History

My girls and Michael's boys

One of my girls and Donna's boys

Little goofballs who look like drowned rats after our run through the rain!

Nora and Molly

They thought it was hilarious to poke fun at Uncle George/Papa!

Stuck in a shark's mouth

Watching the fish

Burning off energy on the Mall

Monkeys!

Hello Mr. Lincoln! Johnny, Brenna, Nolan & Molly

What a sight at the end of the day!!!!

Texas

I had the pleasure of joining 3 friends for a fabulous long weekend in Texas last week. I zipped right from camp on Friday (well, after a shower!) and flew into Houston. I was the last to arrive so Jenn and Jan were already waiting at Shelly's. We spent a brief night there (but at least got to hang out with Cameron and Brenna Sue for a little while) and then headed off to Shelly's family's ranch for Sat. and Sat. night. After naming all of the cows, Shelly decided we all must be hallucinating in the Texas heat and loaded us up on Sunday to drive to San Antonio. She was the perfect tour guide and we deftly covered the San Jose Mission, the Alamo and walked back to our hotel on the Riverwalk to take a quick swim and have dinner. Monday found us on the road again although I can honestly say that conversation flowed so easily that it seemed like we hardly spent any time travelling! We dropped Jan at the airport in San Antonio and the remaining trio headed to Austin. We had enough time to do a quick drive-by of the Texas Capitol building, a yummy lunch and a stroll through the LBJ Museum which I really enjoyed.

Molly had tucked a little toy duck (with a perfume bottle cap on it's head. Don't ask - with Molly you never know what possesses her to do some things!) in my suitcase and it turned out that SCUBADuck became our little mascot for the weekend. Jenn was having so much fun blogging about all of the adventures he - I mean we - were having that I sent him home with her to continue his vacation. Molly is now enjoyong all of the pictures SCUBADuck is sending us from North Carolina.

It was a great getaway for all of us and it was especially nice to just be able to hang out and chat with some great ladies who I'm so glad have come to be my friends!!!

Happy Independence Day!

Where better to celebrate than in the nation's capital!

We met up with Dean's cousin Gina and her husband Chris and their gorgeous daughters for the parade, lunch and later the fireworks on the Mall. The weather in DC continues to be glorious - warm and sunny but not humid - so it was the absolute perfect year to take in the festivities.

We had decided to meet somewhere near the National Archives - not a great idea given the sheer volume of people there - lines out the door of the building and people lined up 5 and 6 deep along the curbs. We walked down one street and turned left in front of the building. They walked down another and turned right. So by complete luck we found each other within 1 minute!

The girls had a ball together and I was happy to catch up with Gina and Chris. They have recently moved to Virginia so I hope we'll get to see a lot more of them!

The session is finished

Well, all good things must come to an end and today was Brenna and Molly's last day at Camp Nana (poor Papa! He gets overlooked in that title but he sure is a big part of Camp Nana!)

Anyway, it was very hard to have to be the party-pooper that put everything in the car and drove away. There was a whole lot of stalling, whining and crying . . .

And that was just from Nana! The girls didn't do too well either. :)

Poor Nana and Papa - they're really going to be lonely these next few days as they adust to a quiet house again. I'm not sure who enjoyed Camp more. How incredibly lucky we are!

Growing Up

Four years makes a big difference!

I don't recall giving them permission to grow so much so fast!

The Red Coats are Coming!

Today I took Brenna to an awesome event downtown. Over 20 companies of 18th century British army re-enactors set up a replica of the original camp on Boston Common. Activities and demonstrations included military drills, cooking, making clothes and shoes, games, equipment repairs, medicine tents, musket firings, a small skirmish with colonists, music and other aspects of daily life of a British soldier. This was the first time the Red Coats camped (and they did truly camp all weekend) on Boston Common since 1776!

We had a great time - made better by the fact that we ran in to a history teacher from my high school. He remembered me and was so welcoming with Brenna. It was a fabulous opportunity that clearly won't come our way again anytime soon!

(click the bottom right corner of the slideshow to make it bigger)

The Party Bus has rolled out!

The girls are off on the grand sleepover of the summer. I don't know who was more excited - my cousins - who have more activities planned than the 4 kids can feasibly accomplish in three nights, much less one! - or my kids who happily strapped themselves into my uncle's van (dubbed the Party Bus since all four kids and 2 hosts were in it) and drove off into the sunset!

The tour bus rolls on . . .

As we continue our grand New England summer tour, we've had a few more stops recently.

We went to visit Uncle Don and Auntie Kristin (although the girls tend to give them big hugs and then immediately run off to play with their dogs (here's Riley) or their Wii - both of which are longed for things in our house.

We' ve been to Castle Island several times - sometimes to play by the water but mostly just to take walks, ride our bikes or scooters or just get ice cream!

Nana celebrated her birthday this week and the girls bought her a Webkinz - despite the fact that it probably means she won't be logging on to their accounts and earning points anymore!

One of Nana's friends gave her concert tix for her birthday and I had the pleasure of accompanying her to see Kenny Rogers. The guy is 112 if he's a day but his voice is still strong and believe it or not, I knew most of the songs! I loved hanging out with Mom and we had a ton of laughs, but I probably won't be going home bragging to my friends that I went to this show. :)

Today we visited out cousins Nolan, Aidan and Kathryn and had a great time playing with them. (I love that the kids get along so well!) Of course I was ready to scoop Miss Kathryn right up and take her home. She's like a baby doll!

Tomorrow we are off to visit Auntie Dottie who is hopefully feeling better. Then the girls will have a much-anticipated sleepover with cousins Jack and Brody at "Auntie" (okay, she's my cousin but we've addressed that issue previously!) Lisa and Angelo's house. We figure that since Lisa and Angelo have been married for 3 months now they must be fully prepared to handle 4 kids! This was their idea and they insist they're ready and willing so I guess the best I can do is just pray for them! :) Of course Lisa's sisters Debbie and Diane plan to join in the fun for part of the evening's festivities (and knowing them will wind up staying as well.)

I swear these kids could do something new every day and still not fit everything in. We still have more cousins to see and more places to visit!

Story Land

We had a great trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and once again enjoyed a summer visit to Story Land. Everyone HAS to take this picture with Humpty Dumpty at the entrance to the park! It's a perfect park for the age 10 and under crowd - no ride is too big for the girls and yet Brenna was still very entertained. Molly kept falling a hair under the "48" to ride alone" bar (even though she measured 49" at her 6 yr old checkup) but I can't say I minded riding with her! It did mean I didn't take very many pictures though.

Another "must" picture with the pumpkin coach. I can't wait to get home to put these shots with ones from years past.

Story Land also added a circus this year which was wonderful!

This morning was rainy so we finished our vacation with a round of mini golf at our hotel.

Now we're back to Nana and Papa's and we are tired!!

Rewind: Downtown

Here are a few more pictures from our day downtown last week. We'll be heading back to Boston Common for a Redcoat encampment (the first since 1776!) on Aug 15 but here are some shots we took while playing tourists.

At the State House (where Daddy worked for a while)

George Washington statue

Playing in the sprayer at the Frog Pond on the Common

Molly on the Swan Boats - she loved watching the ducks

The plantings in the Public Garden looked better than I've ever seen them.

My camera died at the Old Granary Burying Ground -how appropriate! I was surprised at their interest but the girls really enjoyed visiting there and finding the graves of Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock and Crispus Attucks among others. Brenna especially enjoyed it since she's a Paul Revere buff.

Our weather has been beautiful and we're enjoying being out and about. We're off to New Hampshire tomorrow to visit StoryLand and a few other places. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Connor

Our "cousins" come in all shapes and sizes and Connor is proof of that. He's a dog!

My cousin Jeff and his wife Caroline have a King Charles spaniel that the girls just adore. Connor has the sweetest temperment and a fabulous wardrobe to boot (not to mention the funniest name I've heard on a dog!) He came in his Red Sox shirt today to welcome us. Molly thought that was hilarious! I think the poor thing was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention but he was awesome with the girls.

Oh - and Happy Birthday Jeff!

Pool Fun

We spent the day today visiting with our cousins at their house. As usual, they had a ball together swimming and just generally enjoying each other's company. Days like this really make me wish we lived closer together. Here's most of the gang horsing around on the deck . . .

Thanks for a great day John and Coleman! And let's not forget Miss Nora. Could she be any cuter? She was just thrilled to have some girls around to play with.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Yesterday we drove to Connecticut with some cousins to see the stage show of Walking With Dinosaurs. Amazing!!! The effects were fantastic and we all enjoyed the show no matter what our age. We highly recommend it!

And of course because nothing is ever simple with us, what was meant to be a 2 hr. ride each way turned into a 12 hour day-long adventure with traffic and bad weather. I feel bad for the ones in our group who had to head back to work today but I personally enjoyed getting to spend time with my cousins and I thought the (*Ahem* 4+ hour) rides passed quickly!