Builder Jack

Jack was very busy today working in the backyard.  

He helped Rob with the deck...

 All of this work really made him thirsty...so he asked us to keep his sippy cup within reach at all times.

Once he was done with the deck for the day, he worked on the lawn.

He had really worked up an appetite by the end of the day....

And by the end of the day, he was also sick of the paparazzi... 

The beach in 13 steps

1.  Pack water, snack, towel, hat, toys, blanket, umbrella, sunscreen, swim diaper, bathing suit, extra clothes into the car. (I don't bother with my chair or reading material anymore since I know that I won't be doing any sitting.)

2.  Change Jack and lather him up with sunscreen...oh wait, I already put it in the car.

3.  Go out to the car to get the sunscreen.

4.  Wrangle Jack up and hold him down to put sunscreen on him.

5.  Strap Jack into his carseat and open all the windows and sunroof.

6.  Drive to the beach while singing Brandi Carlile songs at the top of my lungs.  Jack drums along in the back seat.

7.  Get to the beach.  Unpack blanket, umbrella, toys, bags and set everything up.

8.  Put Jack's hat on and let him go to town digging in the sand.

9.  After 5 minutes, he gets bored, so we walk down to the water and put our feet in.  I ask if he wants to go swimming, he says, "Nooo," very matter-of-factly.

10.  Jack has a snack.  Goldfish.  Then he puts a fistful of sand into his snack trap...that's the end of the snack.

11. Jack digs some more and we argue about keeping his hat on.  He finally leaves it on his head.

12. We do a little more walking and Jack flirts with a little girl.  He waves and says "Hiieee," with a big smile on his face.  It was cute.

13.  We are both hungry and I didn't pack lunch, so we pack up and head home.

It was a very nice 40 minutes at the beach!  :)

Mila's Daydreams

I came across this really sweet blog the other day...

It's snapshots of baby Mila's dreams, as imagined by her Mama.

Go have a look, it will make you smile.  

Ice cream

Once we got home from our road trip on Sunday, we went out for ice cream.  If we didn't take it away, I think Jack would have completely downed Rob's chocolate malt.

Road trip to the Poconos

We took a road trip to the Poconos for Aunt Clair's surprise 70th birthday party last weekend and yes, she was surprised!  She really, really deserved a day that we could all celebrate her and I think it was a day that we'll all remember.

Surprise!

Here she is opening her gift...It was a bracelet with a stone representing each her five children and five grandchildren with room for more grandkids!  (That's her youngest son, Tommy, on the left, and her oldest grandson, Liam, on the right.)

Jack and Maia were such troopers!  It was a looong day in the car and they were both up until about 10!  Jack hardly napped all day.  In fact, he only fell asleep in the car as we were exiting from the highway! Go figure. They didn't complain though and had fun running (yes, running!) around the pond with Rob and Sam.

The only thing that Jack would eat at the party were crackers...

See the crumbs?

If we tried to feed him something else, he made this face:

 It was late by the time we got to the hotel. We set up Jack's pack and play and put him in...He always cries when we put him to bed in a place other than his own room.  So we've learned to just put the TV on in order to keep him from waking up everyone in the hotel.  He stood up watching with his head resting on his hands on the rail of the pack and play.  Within two minutes he was down and OUT!  Rob and I were able to continue watching the movie (Shrek the 2nd) without a peep from our Jack.  He's a good little traveler.

Friday cuteness

Last Sunday we went out for dinner in honor of Rob's last day of vacation...Jack was quite a ham and very adorable, I might add.  A complete stranger even came up to us to let us know that he's the most beautiful baby she's ever seen!  I am not making that up...

Here's a short video of Jack hamming it up!

Happy Friday!  

Homemade lemonade

I discovered homemade lemonade last week!  Where has this been all of my life? It is so refreshing...it was the perfect thing to sip while sitting in our new pool.  I actually tripled the recipe and filled a huge jug to keep in the fridge so we'd have an endless supply all week...It's really good with mashed up raspberries and I imagine that strawberries (or any berry) would be delicious in this. It's yummy with a little vodka or rum too!  ;)

Here is the recipe...

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups sugar

8 cups water

1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice ( from about 8 - 10 lemons)

Directions

1.  In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and stir to dissolve sugar.  Allow to cool.

2. In pitcher, stir together chilled syrup, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups water.

YUM

Heat wave week

Rob had all of last week off, so we tried to spend lots of time relaxing and doing fun summer stuff.  Since there was a heat wave to start off the week (and at that point we were without AC), we were in desperate need of a way to cool off. So we went on the hunt for an inflatable pool big enough to fit all of us, plus more!  After about 5 stores that were sold out, we finally found one and seriously, it was the best 40 bucks we've spent in awhile!  We did eventually break down and buy two air conditioners.  Our thermostat upstairs reached 92 and Jack's room was even warmer since his room gets the morning sun.  I scored the last two units at Sears!

Here is Jack cooling off in our pool. Gotta love his hair! 

Dining al fresco...

We took a trip to Gooseberry Beach in Newport and had a blast.  This beach is amazing and perfect for little ones since the water is calm and warm.  Jack really had a ball digging in the sand and swimming with us.  He LOVED throwing rocks in the water. I think he could've done that over and over for hours.  

Del's

Jack had his first taste of Del's Lemonade the other day...He loved it!  I was intending for him to have just a  couple of sips of mine, but after every taste he had, he was frantically yelling, "mo-wa, mo-wa, mo-wa!" He ended up having just about half!  Next time, he's getting his own!

Only in Rhode Island

Ummm...

Seacoast dreamin...

Not only has Jack started walking, but we've had another first over the last couple of weeks. Rob and I got away for a whole two nights without Jack!  Yup, we dove right in.  Sure, we've gone out to dinner a few times in the last 20 months without Jack, but we've always put him to bed first and then headed out.  My parents stayed at our house for the weekend taking on all of the Jack duties...meals, play, diapers, naps, bedtime. Rob and I knew that Jack would do just dandy, I just wasn't sure how I would be when we drove away.  Turns out, I was completely fine and I really enjoyed our time away.  Of course we called a few times a day, and I did miss Jack like crazy. When we got home on Sunday, Jack was just waking up from his nap. Rob and I went upstairs to surprise him, expecting he'd be over the moon to see us. He smiled at us and promptly pointed at the door, yelling for Mimi!  Ha.  He didn't miss us at all.

We did have a fantastic two days up on the Seacoast!  We drove up Friday afternoon and our first stop was Red Hook where we sat on the patio for lunch and enjoyed a couple pints!  We thought about places to go that we normally wouldn't take Jack and we decided to head to the Wentworth by the Sea to sit on the patio overlooking the harbor, since it was such an incredible day.  We sipped wine and munched on a couple of appetizers...it was so nice.  Turns out, it would have been completely fine to take Jack there...This is a shot of the hotel from the road (taken out of the car window).  

Next we headed to the Ice House for dessert!  Moosetracks ice cream...YUM!

Next stop was the beach...It was one of those nights that only happen a couple of times a year around here.

Then we took a leisurely drive around Newcastle and Portsmouth...

View of Portsmouth from route 1B at sunset...This is definitely my favorite place in the world!

Colorful homes are all over this place! 

Market St. as seen through the windshield.

We stayed with our wonderful friends, Kara and Paul, who we had an incredible day with on Saturday...

Beachin' it at Fort Foster...

This sumac tree sort of reminds me of the lone cypress on the 17-mile drive at Pebble Beach... :)

Paul drove us around in his awesome 71' avocado green Chevelle Convertible (he's taking the picture here).  We were fortunate to have the bridge go up so we could bask in the sun with an amazing view for a few minutes!  

View of Chauncey Creek from the Chevelle.

Cruisin...

Thanks for driving us around, Paul!

Next stop...the Portsmouth Brewery...

That night the four of us met our friends, Keith and Alison, at my favorite restaurant, Jumpin' Jays.  Another YUM!  We walked back to Kara and Paul's across the Memorial Bridge to end a fantastic day...

We were home the afternoon of July 4th...Just in time to snap Jack's 20 month photo!