Transportation

Alasdair takes the bus to work, and the girls love getting a chance to ride it themselves.  Here they are on our way to pick up the car at the mechanic earlier this month.

They also love to play in the car, which I have outlawed after a number of drained battery experiences.  (On the bright side, I am a pro at jump starting the car.)  I'm sure my discipline was less effective for it, but I just had to take a picture when I found them here.

C'mon!

Have I mentioned that Adara is a little opinionated? :)  Lately she really let's me know if she's not happy about something.  "Das not nice Emily! Dat hurts me."  "Mommy, goWAY, no help me, I do it myself."   

My favorite is when she's frustrated and she says in her little mad voice, "C'mon!"  She doesn't really do it on command, but here's a happier version.

Eowyn, Ben & Nick Visit

It was a fun weekend of visitors! Nick had already planned to be here Saturday afternoon when we heard that Eowyn & Ben would be able to drive up from DC.  They drove all night on Friday and arrived just before we woke up on Saturday.  (Seriously, how lucky are we to have siblings willing to drive hours to hang out with us??)  We went up Balch Hill and cooked out on Saturday, Sunday was church, pinochle, playground time, and Silver Linings Playbook at night.

Girls Day

The girls & I took a day trip to Westford last Friday to visit my mom, my grandmother and my cousin Angie and her two sweet girls, and my Auntie Cindy.  My mom fed us fabulously, and we spent most of the day by the pool.  The girls had fun playing and I had a great time just relaxing and catching up.  We even let Sydney & Adara skip their naps so we could prolong the visit. :) Such a perfect day, I can't believe this is the first time all summer we've gotten together!

 Emily (4), Sydney (20mo), Adara (22mo)

 My girls love their baby cousin

 Getting pretty confident with the new life jacket

 Tea party with GG

 Mimi's whipped up a batch of purple play-do

 Can you tell Adara missed her nap? :)

How could I not?

Westport Week

We just spent our 'birthday week' in Westport with my parents.  :)  We'd been looking forward to it all summer, and it was so good to really get away for a stretch of time.   The girls didn't sleep well (Adara is just done with the pack & play, which meant a lot of putting her back in bed every evening) so it wasn't as restful as we'd hoped, but we still came home refreshed.... which was very good timing since we've had some unexpected challenges at work on top of a very full schedule going into this busy fall.

The only thing I wanted for my birthday was to have quiet & reading time on the lower deck with coffee and an apple cinnamon muffin from Ernie's.  Since we didn't arrive until the afternoon of the 2nd, I did this the next day (and actually, most mornings!).  

The week is a bit of a blur in my mind, but here are some highlights.

Lots of time by the fire pit after dinner.

 

The fair!  It's completely mind boggling to me that the first time we took Emily to the fair, Adara was in my belly, and this year they rode all the rides together!  How did that happen??

 

We climbed Cronks (apparently a first for my dad as well as the kids!) and showed the girls a little bit of Stoneysides.   Adara fell asleep in my arms on the way up, and slept all the way through snacks at the top and most of the hike down.

Uncle Alden came to visit for a couple days!!  The girls were ecstatic, and Adara has asked for him every day since.  "I miss Uncle Awden mommy."

Emily favorite activity catching frogs, especially with Papa's help.  She also loved going with him into town to pick up his paper, using the key to open his post office box. 

Adara's favorite thing to do was ride on the Gator, and Alasdair took the girls on a number of early morning rides.  

We spent a lot of time on the Palace Rocks, and did a lot of paddle boarding (my favorite).  On our last day, the Palace Rocks were full of family.  The girls loved playing with Steve & Pat's dog Jasmine, and Emily was fascinated watching cousin Michael et. al clean the day's catch of perch.

Quiet time in the gazebo.

In addition to all the time they spent with the girls throughout the week, my parents graciously kept them for 24 hours so that Alasdair & I could have a little getaway.  We went on a long bike ride (from the Crown Point Bridge to the Basic Harbor Club), had lunch at Sama's Cafe, swam in a great swimming hole in the Otter Creek.  We stayed at the Middlebury Inn, which we loved.  It was very historic/old fashioned but comfortable, the staff was really friendly and it's right in town so we could walk to dinner and breakfast.  We had dinner at the Two Brother's Tavern (simple but really good local food) and breakfast at the Middlebury Deli & Bagel (really good fresh made bagels).  It was fun to stop in at all these places we drive by all the time on the way to the lake.  And again, so refreshing to get some time away!

Overall, a great week and we feel so lucky to be able to spend so much time in a wonderful place with family!  The girls were both so sad to leave.  Adara keeps asking where Mimi & Papa are, and asking to go "home."

ps. More pictures and a bunch of short videos if you click the links on the right hand side of the page.

Raspberry Picking

Emily and I share a love of raspberries, and we finally made it out to pick some!  There's a nice little PYO place just a few minutes from our house.  We spent about an hour the

re and Emily picked most of the berries while I wandered around with Adara.  Definitely something we will do again.