sunflowers

On Saturday we took a little road trip to Buttonwood Farm where they are known for their incredible field of sunflowers (over 300,000 of them!) and their homemade ice cream.

First up was a walk through the sunflower field, which was just gorgeous! 

 Next we joined the line for ice cream...We waited in that line for at least 30 minutes, but it was so worth it. The ice cream was amazing...It was actually our lunch!

Rob ordered the sunflower ice cream and it was seriously good...who would have thought? 

Jack was all smiles with his chocolate ice cream.

And here he is back at the car for clean up! I was actually impressed with how little he got on his t-shirt this time... :)

Today, I am linking up here:

Road trip to Mystic

At the last minute on Sunday, we decided to take a little road trip to Mystic.  It was around lunch time when we left. Jack had already eaten and we hoped he'd sleep most of the hour drive. We wanted to stroll through the downtown area and hit some of the cute shops. Lunch was a must do as well. We were imagining ourselves having a nice lunch outside, under an umbrella, with some wine, enjoying the view with our toddler, who would be his usual, mellow, and happy self. We weren't really thinking about the fact that it was a weekend, or the fact that it was HOT. Jack only napped for about 20 minutes and all the restaurants were packed, so we decided to throw in the towel and give up our hope of eating outside. Instead, we went to Mystic Pizza where it was air conditioned and Jack could color on the placemat. I really can't complain...The pizza was tasty and Jack was a little angel toddler once he was in the air conditioning!  :)

This is where we were hoping to have lunch...right under that umbrella...

I am linking to Sailor and Company for the Raw(e) photo challenge where the theme this week is yellow.

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.

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!