Monday, June 25, 2012

Adventure Chronicles: Beach Day

Summer has arrived in New England... after the heat wave last week, the beautiful weather continued through the weekend.  Sunday morning we headed out to the beach for the day.  As you can see on the kids faces, we had a great day, in fact one of the best beach days we've ever had!  The weather was perfect - not too hot, but hot enough to get in the water.  It was crowded, but lots of kids and friendly families.





Friday, June 22, 2012

Norah News: Something Magical at the Beach

Something crazy and magical happened last night at the beach… maybe it was the summer solstice, or maybe my baby girl is growing up.  Norah girl totally forgot I existed…just for a little while, and it was a good thing.
It’s been pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit here over the past few days, so last night we packed the kids up and headed to our neighborhood beach for the evening.  The local pizza joint delivers there, it’s the longest day of the year, not to mention HOT out… as we like to say, “This is Livin’! “ 
I was paddling around in the water with Norah, when a girl around Norah’s age dog paddled by.  As I showed Norah how she was swimming,  the girl informed us that this was her first day swimming without her lifejacket. I asked Shelby, who starts first grade in the fall, her name and introduced her to Norah, and soon the girls were comparing notes on their water-skills.  As I watched them chat, I realized that I was no longer needed (aside from water safety) and in fact neither girl was even aware of my existence any longer!  I floated around in the vicinity for a while, then headed for shore to get a piece of pizza. 
I kept an eye on them, but the great thing about our neighborhood beach is that there are lots of parental eyes on the water at all times – better than any lifeguard!  While Norah can’t swim, she is comfortable in the water, and I wasn’t too worried about her.  That said, I saw her trying things to keep up with Shelby that I couldn’t convince her to try earlier -  Peer pressure may be the best swim lesson of all. 
Best of all, I saw Norah walk up and introduce herself to another little girl, and realized my girl is growing up and becoming her won person!  She did eventually remember my existence, and I’m coming to terms with the fact that this new phase is a good thing.

Foto Finish Friday: 2012 Week 25

Friday, June 15, 2012

Foto Finish Friday: 2012 Week 24


*can't figure out why Blogger turns these sideways... any ideas?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Adventure Chronicles: Local Hike

Things have been extra busy around our house again this June - the short version is I started another new job that involves some travel this month and Matt is working towards another deadline.  I can't speak for Matt, but what's keeping me going is some really great weekends.  This past Sunday Matt had to go into the office in anticipation of my travel and both sets of grandparents visiting, so it was just me and the kids for most of the day.  We were up early and headed off to 7:30 am mass.  On the way, Norah requested that we visit a local conservation area, called Grassy Pond.  I thought it was a great idea, and the kids and I ended up spending nearly 2 hours there, playing in the woods.

I saved my favorite picture from the day for Foto Friday, but here are a few others.