Some Plum Fun at Plum Island Beach

I just may be an evening beach visit convert.  Saturday (after Collin helped at two very long moves) we drove up the coast to Newbury to try out a new beach.  I'd been feeling stuck in a rut after frequenting several of the same beaches.  I looked at a list of the top rated beaches in MA and found Plum Island in the top ten.  (Many of the top ten were far out on the Cape, so a little out of reach for a later afternoon trip with littles.)  Parking at most beaches is astronomical--in the range of $25 to $35--but is free after 5:00.  At Plum Island we still had to pay, though it was after 5:00.  A whopping $5.  So no biggie.   

Anyway, at evening the beach is not crowded, the sand is not scorching, the sun is golden and soft, and everything just glows.  Most importantly, Collin is not at work but playing with us.  I hope we'll have more evening visits with Collin in the future.

The sand was brown sugar fine and the waves were more foamy and, well, wavey, than some of the other beaches we'd been going to.  Davy loved wave jumping.  He has some new-found courage in the water after a couple weeks of swim lessons.  And when he's wearing a lifejacket.  Eddy loved digging and eating.  Eliza's second beach trip had her snoozing peacefully to the sound of the ocean and blissful in the arms of either mom or dad.

Davy and Edward were super excited about their new soaker guns.  Salt water hurts when it hits the eye, however.

Who doesn't love a rousing game of "chasing the waves?"

Oh, I loved the sight of this beach cruiser!

The sunset was divine.  Davy said it was the most incredible sunset he'd ever seen.  (It's likely one of the only ones he's ever seen, as he's usually sent to bed before the sun goes to bed.)  Eddy said, "there's a fire in the sky!"

Hot Week and Hallelujah Rain Dance

Oh it's been a scorcher.  Almost done me in, this killer weather.  Aside from Davy's swim class we did not want to move from in front if the window AC unit.  Lots of reading has been happening.  On the couch.  Directly in front of said AC unit.  Davy is learning to read this summer using the Bob books ('cause they were at Costco and I was curious).  So far they are actually pretty good and he's getting some great success and confidence.  As a learning to read reward we are also reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It's so not PC and so hilarious.  I'm loving reading it again and getting way more of the "adult humor" in the story.

We did venture as far as Salisbury beach on Friday.  It was at least 10 degree cooler and the water was FINE!  Loved it.  No pictures as it was all I could do to keep an eye on two boys and nurse the baby (twice).  Luckily we went with friends who helped lifeguard the kiddos and hold the baby so I could enjoy the water.  I'm pretty confident that Eliza was the youngest person at the beach that day (except perhaps a baby or two in utero).

 

We also stayed cool in our usual Lambourne way.  Ice cream.  Oh yeah, baby.  ;) 

We tried out a new (to us) place in Cambridge called Toscanini's.  It has been hailed as the best ice cream in the world (according to the New York Times, no less).  It was good as far as ice cream goes.  I don't know.  It went down really fast as it melted really fast.  I think I'm a fan of Ranc's mango sorbet more than any of the flavors and textures at Toscanini's--at least among the six flavors we collectively had. 

The boys loved running wild in the little plaza across the street as the sun set and the cool(er) evening approached.

We put our van through its paces with a curb side love seat find.  After a clean up it settled pretty well into our living room. 

Our old IKEA couch found a home in the boys room and they are thrilled.  Davy made a bid for it by saying they would use it all the time for reading. 

He is such a good negotiator. 

So far they've mostly used it for jumping. 

Saw that one coming.

After church today the heat wave finally broke a little with a rain shower.  There may or may not have been a hallelujah rain dance performed by yours truly as Eddy caught the rain with his tongue.

 

This next week promises (on weather.com--not sure how well I trust those guys) to be more pleasant weather wise.  Davy has a morning summer "space" camp and Eddy will be playing with friends at the park at least two days of the week.  Eliza will continue to grow in her lovely baby way.  I ambitiously pulled out a stack of sewing projects that have been nagging me.  Collin has several moves to coordinate and help with.

Eliza is One Month

Baby girl is one month old today.  The time has flown!  She's such a pleasure to have in our home. Even when she's keeping me up til all hours.  Actually she is sleeping pretty well still for a newbie but it is still rather unpredictable.  Hence typing one handed at midnight.

She's smiling so beautifully.  Her attention span for smiling is much longer every day.  She's tracking people and things and the bys love to make a game of it with her.  She is a pretty quiet baby, though she talks and coos with her daddy in the evening.  She loves songs and quiets down and smiles when I sing to her or with the boys.

I love this one where she's just peeking out at the world to see if it is worth waking up for.  And her belly button--I could just gobble her up she is so yummy! (That doesn't really sound like me, that cannibalistic phrase.  It's late and I'm getting punchy.)

I love how seriously Eliza takes sleeping.  So focused! Just like her mama.

Happy first month, sweetie!

Eddy's Words

Davy kept teasing Eddy and I kept suggesting that Edward just ignore his older brother.  A little while later I heard Eddy yelling at his annoying brother, "Davy, I'm noring you!  I'm noring you right now!"

"I have two hands.  Jesus made me two hands so I can pick up two things at the same time."

Eddy is such a sweet singer.  He will sing to himself when he is bored in the car when it's Davy's turn to choose what we listen to.  Or I catch him singing quietly to himself around the house, while he's playing, while he's eating, while he's in the bathroom.  His favorites to sing are:  Leaving on a Jet Plane, Nephi's Courage, Wise Man and Foolish Man, Book of Mormon Stories, Scripture Scouts.

And after nine months (well, four or five) of asking Edward to please sit sideways on my lap--or not at all, now he's taken to saying frequently, "Mommy, you don't have a baby in your tummy any more?  I can sit not sideways on your lap?"

In Davy's Words (and Gestures)

I cannot get enough of Davy's hand gestures and eyebrows.  He is such a funny kid when he feels strongly about something.  Which is most of the time!

WaterFire in Providence, RI

Yesterday there was nothing on our calendar--no moves to help with, no errands to run, no image of being responsible to maintain. So we packed up the family and drove down to Providence, RI for the day.

We started at the Roger Williams Park Zoo.  What a great little zoo with tons of big-ticket animals!  It is so impossible to get good shots of both the kids and the animals.  Collin was our photographer for the day, though, and I think he did a great job.  When I was editing through the photos I had fun peering in the background to try and figure out what animals we were looking at.  For example, the one above was the zebra (and wildebeest) pen.

Davy was reporting on our trip to Nana and Abba and the rest of the Dollahite family on Facetime today, listing off his favorite animals.  Top favorite were the African wild dogs.  He liked that they fought over a steak while we watched.  He was also listening way more attentively than I had the impression of him doing while I was reading various labels, because he came up with all sorts of facts from the labels for his audience.  So the zoo really is educational as well as entertaining!

(Giraffes in the background.  Those were Collin's favorite.)

Seeing how far the kids could jump.  As far as a flea at 4 feet?  Or a rabbit at 6?

Eliza was a good sport the whole day.  She pretty much did what she does at home: Eat, sleep, charm the whole world.  The usual.

My favorite were the red pandas.  So adorable.  The boys were impressed with their tree house.  I was in love with their ears.  Have you all seen the video of the scared red panda? 

After the zoo we went into downtown Providence and did "something Mommy wants to do" (in Collin's words).  We went to the RI School of Design Art Museum and enjoyed their collection.  (Tangent:  The sister missionaries came over the other evening.  We have a new sister in our area and as she walked into our house and looked around she said, "Oh, are you the one who likes art?"  I was taken a little aback and didn't really know how to respond, though I think I was flattered?)

Then we walked down to the merging of the three rivers which run through the city, where the bonfires for the fire walk event were being set up.  We had a couple hours til sunset and the lighting of the fires, so we strolled along the river, found Girl Scout cookie Crunch bars at CVS (have you tried them?  I love the Samoa one!) and had dinner at Fire and Ice.  A perfect fit for our fire night. 

We found a perfect place to watch the start of the event.  We still had an hour to kill, but the boys took full advantage of the time to look at the police boats and gondolas (complete with Italian men in full gondolier uniform), jump from the tall walls, run across the path in between people walking and generally make nuisances of themselves, and learn to play hand clapping games that I hadn't thought of in twenty years.

Davy's attempt on Collin's iPhone to get a picture of me and Collin.  I love the blur and Eddy running toward us in the foreground.

At last dusk arrived, and the fire lighters descended.  With great pomp and ceremony (it was actually kind of funny, I thought, the accompanying music they chose.  All solemn like--even an eerie Alleluia chorus.  Taking it all remarkably seriously and setting an interesting mood.) boats came by to gather the fire from the fire lighters on shore and bring it to the floating braziers on the river. 

Once the fires in the center of the river were lit the party started.  By this time, sadly, our little crew was done for the day.  We walked the half mile along the river back to our car and enjoyed the snapping and popping sound and the cheery campfire smell the whole way.

Camp Joseph on the 4th

Our ward had its annual camp out at Camp Joseph in Vermont over the 4th.  We joined the fun for one night and two part days.

We actually went prepared to spend a whole lot longer than that, but quickly realized that our (my) pioneer spirit was sorely lacking.  I honestly have no idea how those pioneer ladies handled their life.  Seriously.  Nursing a newborn in the oppressive heat and humidity of a suffocating cabin while ants, spiders, mosquitoes and perhaps lice crawled around?  Ugh.  Nevermind the fact that we had bug spray.  And a refrigerator with easy-to-prepare and eat food.  And a lighter to make a fire of soggy logs.  I just could not even last 24 hours before I had a full scale whine and get-me-out-of-here! breakdown.

But anyways . . .

While we were there we had a great time! 

Lots of chocolate for breakfast (Nutella on bagels and hot chocolate), as well as donuts and sweetened oatmeal, made for a "successful" camping morning.

We spent most of the time we were at camp at the Waters of Mormon aka the little mud hole.  (I was pretty grumpy, even in the shade.)  The boys loved the frogs and salamanders.  Then something truly lovely happened and restored my faith in the magic of Camp Joseph.

A swarm (is that the plural?) of butterflies descended.  Beautiful, lazy butterflies, which let the children catch and hold them for minutes at a time.  The boys immediately left the frogs and salamanders to chase after the butterflies for the privilege of holding one--or some.  I got to hold one too, and it is really magical.

 

The first few hours of Camp Joseph--setting up camp and the cabin, playing at the pond, running around the grass with friends, etc.--we so fun, but I kept hearing Davy ask, "when are we going camping?"  I was like, "honey, we are camping.  What more do you want?"  I got the answer that evening as we took a moonlit stroll down to a friend's campfire and fireworks.  What Davy was waiting for all along were hotdogs and s'mores at a campfire.  So the next morning after lunch we pulled out our ginormous marshmallows for some roasting.  One was way more than enough.

After we came home early, to the great and loud disappointment of the boys all the way home, we did more s'mores in the oven.  Just stick those marshmallow babies under the broiler for ten seconds and voila! s'mores in the comfort of home with an AC unit blowing cheerfully and faithfully all the while.  Bliss.

Adventures in Babyland

We are fully in the throes of babyland.  My mom and sister are home and Collin is back at work.  The baby is two weeks old and starting to find her voice a little bit more.  The boys are adjusting to a whole lot of time playing inside by themselves while I nurse the baby.  I did venture to the grocery store by myself with three children to get stuff for our ward camping trip this week, and we made it out alive.  Plus we got to a park for 45 minutes today, but then it was back home--partially because of the heat and partially because it was time to start the baby rounds of eat, change, sleep again.

I've shed the easy baby weight (the baby herself, obviously) but am down to the other part that will be up to me to actually get rid of.  I did ten minutes of yoga this morning and it felt awesome.

We're about an hour behind our usual pace.  Meaning, if we were used to get out the door to go somewhere by 9:00 we are finally making it out by 10:00 or so.

I have a whole bunch of books piled up physically on my shelf and on my Kindle for reading material while feeding the baby.  I am enjoying the time reading, but a lot of the time I just gaze at her in wonder.  And I watch the boys play and talk together with much more attention and entertainment than I have for a long time.

 

I got the naked baby pictures I wanted this week.  Who knew the afternoon light in my room was so amazing?  Love it.

The other morning I had a minor breakdown after way too much bodily fluid incidents before 8:30 am.  Eliza was up at 5:30 with a diaper blowout that utterly defied gravity.  Davy made a huge mess when he sleepily missed the toilet.  Then Edward knocked over his full potty.  Poor Eddy was the scape goat of all of this.  I just kick myself over and over about hurting his feelings.  He forgave me and helped me clean it up, dear boy.

This is life with three children--a whole lot more love and a whole lot more crazy.

We celebrated Collin's birthday last week with root beer floats.  The big 3-0.  I watched him grapple with the reality that he is where his parents were at this age.  Old but really so very young.  Three kids before thirty.  Whoa.

Collin got his year-end evaluation rating.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that he was rated a 1 (the highest and hardest rating) for the second year in a row.  He's pretty much amazing.  I love this man's work--and play--ethic.  He's a stud.