Two beauties at the cookout
It’s been a busy week for us. Last weekend, we traveled to Massachusetts for Crystal and Paul’s annual cookout. We left on Saturday morning and arrived at our hotel in Auburn around 1 PM. After dropping off our stuff, we headed over to their house. The kids wanted to go right into the pool so they were definitely busy. We all ate plenty and enjoyed the company of my cousins. As the day passed Chloe started to feel ill. This was probably due to the all the water she swallowed while swimming. So, she sat and played on my phone for a bit while Gabriel and I played badminton and chatted with family. After the majority of family left we sat in the screened-in tent and listened to music with the Clarksons and the Crossmans. I had a few beers and we had a great time just being silly while the kids played inside (the mosquitoes were crazy-bad!). We returned to our hotel (Robyn drove!) around 11:30 and all promptly fell asleep.
The next day, we planned to visit Vinny and John in Malden but we actually had some time to kill after eating breakfast and packing our stuff up so we stopped by Deb and Bruce’s place for a bit. It was a quick visit but it’s always nice to catch up and see everyone.
Then it was off to Vinny and John’s. Chloe was so wiped out that she slept for most of the 75 minute ride. Once we got there, the kids were enthralled by their three dachshunds and John’s vast array of electronic gadgets while we caught up and chatted. After some snacks and a late lunch/early dinner and dessert, it was time to hop back in the car for the long ride home. Since we had an extra hour of travel back from the Boston area, we didn’t pull into the driveway until about 11 PM. Robyn and I got the kids to bed and unpacked our stuff. I had work the next day and the kids had their swim lessons in the morning so we hit the sack ourselves.
Monday turned out to be a beautiful dry and seasonably cool day so I figured it would be a good night to set up the tent and camp out in our back yard. After work, I pulled out the sleeping bags, extra pillows, comforter and blankets and my new sleeping pad and put the tent together with help from Chloe and Gabriel. They were super excited since we had so much fun last year. Robyn wasn’t going to be staying in the tent and she had some errands to run so the three of us went out to the tent right after dinner and stayed there as the sun set and the night grew darker. We must have played 20 rounds of 20 Questions. Robyn eventually came back with some snacks and dropped them off to us. As I had expected, it was a beautiful cool night with bright stars visible through the ceiling flap. Chloe and Gabriel crawled into their sleeping backs and I covered up in mine. Listening to the chorus of cicadas made us tired and we were all asleep by 10:30 and didn’t wake up until almost 8 o’clock the next morning.
Ready for some outdoor sleeping!
After a day of work, Wednesday looked like it was going to be a light workload and a good day to head to the beach for some fun. I worked until noon and we got ourselves ready to go after lunch. After getting to Point Pleasant around 3, it was obvious that the cool weather wasn’t keeping anyone away because all the parking lots were full. We managed to find one a little out of the way and then had to fight with the municipal parking machine to make it work. The kids love most of the rides but it was sad to see Chloe not want to go on any of the “baby rides” anymore. Gabriel could not have cared less and enjoyed the ones he’s always loved in the past while Chloe went with me on The Moby Dick and the “big” roller coaster twice! We always have fun at Jenkinson’s boardwalk and the weather was perfect – slightly overcast with a nice breeze from the ocean.
After dinner we played some more games and walked down to the water for a bit.
After knocking the sand out of our shoes we took a long walk down to the northern end of the Point Pleasant boardwalk. Sometimes we focus so much on the games and rides that we forget where we are. That stroll reminded me of all the things I like about the beach. Now that we had burned off some calories, it was time for the end of the night ice cream. The kids wanted to get into their pajamas for the ride home so they changed in the back of the CR-V and we were off!
What a beautiful few days it’s been!
