Green Mountain State

We had a chance to visit Uncle Jeff in Vermont and we were long overdue! Luckily he switched jobs which gave him more free time to spend with us. We went up on Tuesday and Jeff met us at the condo where we were staying. He suggested we go to the Red Fox Inn. They let us into the bar with the little people on a sleepy Tuesday AND they made a shamrock on my Guinness. Love at first sip. It was nice to sit back and relax while catching up with Jeff.

On Wednesday, we had a lazy morning and ate breakfast at A Partridge in a Pantry (clever huh?) in Stratton Village and toured the area. Not much going on there during the summer months but that was perfect for us. Katie seems to like it.

We took the girls to nearby Bromley Mountain. They have a great little set up for summer activities- zip lines, alpine slides, water slides and a little spot for the under 48 inches crowd. Katie LOVED the bungee trampoline. They rest of the stuff she wasn't interested in. She went on this one a few times!

 

We headed back to Statton and cleaned up for a lovely dinner at Verde, the restaurant where Jeff works. Unfortunately, Marin wasn't interested in a fine dining experience so we contained her for as long as possible until we had to take turns bringing her outside or risk getting Jeff fired. Verde has an open kitchen and Jeff said he could see her peaking over the booth before we vacated her. Regardless, we had a fantastic meal! The food was excellent. Here is Marin chowing down on a chicken leg. She kept yelling until we riped it off the thigh to give to her. Holy bad parenting.



 

One highlight of the evening was getting the holy grail of photos. I'm the photographer of the family so I'm not in a ton of pictures. As we were leaving dinner, we took a few pictures with the sun setting and the mountains in the distance. I finally got a good one of me and my girls (thanks Chad!). A nice ending to a fun trip!

VACATION!

We decided to take off the weeks daycare is closed this year which means we are officially on vacation! This past weekend we went to Nana and Papa's house for some beaching and to spend some time with them. Katie said she was going to teach me how to surf. When I said I didn't have a surf board, she said I didn't need one. We did alot of pretend surfing but she was a surprisingly good teacher. Here she is being very zen with the water.


Marin spent the last two times at the beach on her towel but on Sunday she took a walk and went swimming (with my help). She loved the water! Chad discovered some of his old baby pictures that were stored at his parents. Does this look like an adorable 16 month old baby we know?


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15 months

I took Marin for her 15 month doctor's appointment last week. She weighed in at 19 lbs 15 oz.. just shy of 20 pounds. If you watch her eat you wouldn't be surprised by this. She eats and eats and eats but still looks like a peanut. She is 30.25 inches long and is hovering around the 50 percentile for both height and weight. She did a great job at the doctors. She was very agreeable and I kept her belly full while we waited.

The doctor asked me how many words she can say. My response was "what to have written down from her 12 month appointment. It's the same." We talked about her being a little delayed with her speech. i'm not worried at this point but felt I need to be a responsible parent and bring it up. I think she can say certain words but doesn't really want to. As I told the doctor, we try and try but she's on Marintime. She does it when she's ready and not one minute sooner. Of course, the following week she started to say comprehendable words and signing much more. She always does that! :) I'm still holding out for her to start saying Mom. C'mon, throw me a bone Marin!

Marin is getting more confidence and balance when she walks. It's only a matter of time before she gets off those knees, although she lightening fast when she crawls so she may not be giving that up too easily. She loves to be outside and go down the slide in our backyard. Marin loved the water: bath, water toys, swimming. She even likes to stick her hand in my glasses of water!

I love that she's still a cuddler and gives marathon hugs. Marin likes to find her way onto our laps to hang out for a while. She recently discovered her love of both television and books. Both can keep her attention for a loooong time. She's doing really well and we love seeing our Marinator personality shine each day!

P.S. Oh and she likes to climb into bins and insider her toys. Here she is trying to get into her baby doll's bassinet.

4th of July (2011)

We made it to the Cape for our first summer visit. We decide to leave on Friday evening to avoid the traffic and so the kids would sleep in the car. Both were wide awake when we reach Nana and Papa’s house! Every once in a while you would hear the two of them giggling as they passed toys and baby dolls back and forth to each other.

Saturday was a PERFECT beach day and Katie was itching to go. Our beach/nap/parking strategy was this. Nana, Katie and I went to the beach in Papa’s car which has a highly-coveted town beach sticker. Toys and gear came with us. We made a mental note of how many spots were available so we can time it right in the future.  Chad walked the dog and made lunches while Marin was slept. Papa dropped off Marin and Chad off around 11:30. Time for some beaching!

Katie loves the beach so she was thrilled. For Marin’s first time on the beach, she did well. She didn’t like touching the sand which her feet and didn’t come within 10 feet of the water but she sat on her towel and soaked it all in…while eating her raisin bread of course! When she was on our beach blanket she played with the sand and let it run through her fingers. After that, she realized she could stand up while holding on to the beach umbrella. Our cute little pole dancer! We headed home around 1pm since both girls looked tired. They crashed for their afternoon naps. Not a long visit to the beach but a successful one. We had a great dinner on the porch later on. A perfect Cape Cod day.

The next day was a little cloudy so we opted to stay home. Chad and I took Katie to the playground and dock while Marin slept. We went to the Cape Cod Children’s museum with Nana for a few hours in the afternoon. The kids seem to enjoy it. Katie is in a pirate phase so she loved the pirate ship. Yo Ho! Marin was a huge fan of the mini piano! Mozart Marin!

Joanna, Rob and Ella joined us for dinner. Katie had her first batch of steamers and she seemed to like them. She is clearly a product of me and Chad - we love steamers. We had another fun evening!

We headed back in the morning since I’m traffic-phobic and we like to travel during naptime. In the afternoon we caught up around the house by mowing the lawn, going grocery shopping and doing laundry. Boring! Fortunately, we were invited over to my Aunt Sheila and Uncle Bob’s to enjoy the rest of July 4th by their pool. Katie was hesitant to show off her Mini Minnow Swim Class moves but I think over time she’ll venture out from the stairs and the edge of the pool. Marin took her first official dip and did so by dunking her face in…twice. I think she was trying to drink the pool water. She loved it!

Don't Leave Without Me

We are headed down to the Cape this weekend to visit Chad's parents. Look who is the first one in the car. Abby loves Cape Cod!


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We Survived The Crawl!

A crawl is only as good as its crawlers and we had the best!. Thanks to all of our family and friends that came to celebrate Chad turning 40. You were great sports for going with the flow, drinking quickly and honoring the 5 minute warning. Chad had a GREAT time and I suspect many of you did too! Should we do it again next year??

First stop: The Cedar Street Tavern. Better known as our house. Everyone gathered there and once they got settled, I kicked everyone out.

Second stop: The Old Timer. At one point I looked around and saw the other patrons sitting at the bar watching us. They were smiling so they didn't seem to mind the intrusion of 25 people on a sleepy Saturday afternoon.


Everyone is just getting warmed up. We still look relatively put together, don't ya think?

Third stop: The Simple Man Saloon. This can be summed up in one word: FOOD (or maybe Keno)! They had it hot and ready for our arrival. Everyone was able to relax and enjoy some chow. Those wings were yummmmmmmy!  

Fourth Stop: The Spillway. This is was our last stop (technically) and it was a great one. We could sit and relax without me and Dana yelling "everybody out!" at the end of each hour. This is where the music, and later, dancing came into play. Oh, and Grateful Deads. So we settled in for the evening and dessert was served in the form of flag-themed cupcakes. Sean and Susan made it their personal mission to make sure that we had a wide selection of tunes. They made some great picks and even chose many chart toppers from 1971 which was a nice nod to Chad. Some people bravely tried to squeeze in their selections. Congrats to those who were successful!

Fifth stop: The Elks. Our unofficial last bar was the smoketacular Elks! I'll leave it at that.

From my perspective, many people contributed to this event. Thanks to my mom for forgoing the event almost entirely to babysit my girls. And thanks to those who contributed both food and beverages. Jess and Dana were our volunteer photographers which was a huge help to me and very entertaining for everyone else. There are many more pictures on our Shutterfly site. http://perusse.shutterfly.com/. 


THANK YOU!  See you next year for Chad's 41st Birthday Pub Crawl!

California Pals

My friend Diane and her family were visiting last week from California. They came over one night to spend some time with us. After we played on the swing set, we had dinner and headed back outside for more playtime and s'mores. 

This is Marin's first time seeing the fire pit and having a s'more. She hung out in the chair and ate her graham cracker. I think we'll see alot of her in this chair come summer.

This is Marin and Will. This was our first time meeting Will. He's 5 months old and ADORABLE. It's fun to see them together. Marin seems to have eyes for him.  

This is my attempt to get a picture of the crew.  Marin is reading my mind.