Vacation week.

Things started off slowly in Jefferson due the fact the campers needed to recover a bit from their trip. On Wednesday, we went to Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester for the day. What a great time we had! The sand is really soft and the beach goes out for a long way without hitting deep water. The ocean was calm, so there wasn't a lot of playing in the waves, but the kids still had a lot of fun swimming and playing in the sand. We went shopping on Thursday and bought many things we didn't really need, but wanted anyway! Dinner at Barber's Crossing ended the day. Friday, Tony took Liz, Danielle and Matthew deep sea fishing. They left the house at 5:30am to get to the boat by 7:30 for the half-day trip. After fishing, they went to Rockport and looked around the art gallery and ate snacks. I received a phone call on their way home and asked if we were having fish for dinner. I was told to cook the chicken I had defrosted! It wasn't a good fishing day at all. Only 1 person on the entire boat caught a haddock that they could take home. The rest of the bunch ended up catching "dog fish" which look like sand sharks and have to be thrown back. Oh well, at least they tried!

The NH camping trip.

This was the first week of the summer that we didn't have lots of rain! Tony was on vacation all week and his time began with the NH camping trip. He and the 3 big kids came home on Monday pretty tired, but full of stories. It turns out our friends the Dionnes, decided to camp at Lost River too and ended up at the campsite right next to Tony's. Saturday the kids went fishing and hung out in preparation for the big hike. The actual hike up Mount Lafayette on Sunday was great! They started with a big diner breakfast and got to the trail head at 9:30. They reached the AMC hut (Greenleaf) at lunchtime and had their sandwiches and soup (followed by Skittles!). They continued the hike to the summit where it was really windy, but the view was incredible! By the time they hiked back down it was around 3:30, so they had a very busy and tiring day. Oh but there was a bit more drama to be had! When they retired to the tent Sunday night, all was calm for a little while. Then they heard rustling across the stream and splashing water followed by loud "snuffling" right outside the tent! Apparently a black bear came to visit and was looking for food right outside the tent near Matt's head! They tried to get pictures of the bear's footprints the next morning and if you look really hard, you can see the nail marks and paw prints. Scary stuff!

A weekend with Katie and Sophia.

Tony has taken Elizabeth, Danielle and Matthew to Lost River campground in NH for the weekend. They left on Friday and are scheduled to return on Monday, so that leaves Mom and the little girls on their own. We started off with dinner at Friendly's (always a big hit) and sleeping at a "campground" of our own in the girls' bedroom. They set up the campground on the floor (there's not 1 square inch of floor not covered by sleeping bags), but I got to sleep in Sophia's bed. You'd think that wouldn't be too bad, but we might as well have been outside in a tent with the amount of sleep I had! The frogs were unbelievably loud last night, the bed isn't too comfortable and Katie grinds her teeth. I think sleeping arrangements will be different tonight!

Sophia is Three!

August 11th marked Sophia's third birthday and we celebrated with the Terranova Family over dinner and cake (or "pake" as Sophia calls it. We've fixed that speech problem :) ). She received cute outfits, bath paints, new school shoes, various kitchen appliances, and a Stuff-a-Friend teddy bear. Overall, she really seemed to enjoy the day. The potty-training on the other hand, has come to a total stand still. It doesn't matter that she said she'd try again when she was 3. She is still refusing to even attempt using the potty and is very happy to put a new diaper on. Hopefully she'll change her tune when preschool starts in a few weeks and all the other kids are using the bathroom. We can hope, right??

Six Flags

It looked to be a fun day at Six Flags, since we had the kids' free tickets from the Davis Hill reading club and Tony's leftover company outing tickets and coupons. We arrived at the park in time for lunch and then proceeded to wait in the ride lines. We all went on the Carousel to start the day off. Sophia's face lit up as soon as we started to move. That alone made the entire day worthwhile! The big kids and Tony went on the "Thunderbolt" rollercoaster and a few other wild rides. Katie had no desire to go on ANY rides at all, but she was content to watch the others. The game area was lots of fun because everyone won a prize! They through darts and shot water pistols and tried to walk up the rope ladder. It was great fun until the sky opened up and drenched us all!

Sleepover at the grandparents' house...

Another week has passed in a relatively uneventful way! The cousins from Delaware decided to spend an extra week with Grammie and Grampa in Melrose, so we invited them over on Friday. Tony and Grampa took the 7 big kids to Wachusett Mountain for a hike while Grammie, Sophia and I stayed home and rested. We were surprised to hear that Grampa hiked up the trail with the kids instead of driving to the top with the water and snacks. Tony also had to remind Grampa NOT to jog down the mountain road for fear of his getting injured. When they returned, the kids took a swim and had dinner before heading back to Melrose. It turned out they wanted our kids to spend the night with them, so Tony and I took them over yesterday afternoon and came home with only Sophia. On the way back, we stopped at Jordan's Furniture and looked at bedroom and living room sets. No purchases were made, but we decided that when we get a new mattress, it will be KING sized! Sophia really enjoyed the musical water show and the acrobatic school. She did ask where Katie and the kids were because I think she missed them. It was VERY quiet here last night at dinner. Tony and Sophia have gone to get the troops and they may stop off at the North End for some sweet treats. We'll see!