Monday, August 30, 2010

8/29/10: Water Fun and a Train Ride

As always we have a great time on our annual vacation to the White Mountains. Our stay at the Christmas Farm Inn was great as usual.
And we headed over to Jackson Falls as we always do to play a bit in the water.
Lauren striking a pose.
The family.
It is so beautiful there and the water is so clear.
Evan with his favorite walking stick.
Then we headed over to get some ice cream.
Evan's favorite part of the trip, going to see the trains and take a train ride.
Excited to ride, hey it goes with his shirt perfectly!
Lauren lounging on the train.
The beautiful view from the train.

8/28/10: Ho, Ho, Ho in August!

One of our favorite things to do while in the White Mountains is going to Santa's Village. This is another annual tradition. Here we are on the Sleigh ride.
The kids proudly holding their certificates from completing the Elphabet game. You basically go around the park and get a card punched with all the letters of the alphabet. Perfect timing right before school.
Visiting Santa! Always good to get your requests in early.
Telling Santa what they want.
Feeding reindeers is always fun. Mommy especially thought they were adorable.
Laurens turn.
Posing with a huge rabbit.
And of course with the big Snowman.
This is the new water park that was just built for 2010. We didn't have time to go in the water, maybe next time.
The kids having fun on the Reindeer carousel.
The Gingerbread family of Evan, Lauren and Daddy.
The Gingerbread family of Evan, Lauren and Mommy.
Lauren posing.Evan posing with E for Evan.

8/26-27/10 - Where Humpty stays on the Wall!

Of course no trip to the White Mountains would be complete without a visit to see Humpty and all of his friends. Here he stays on the wall and doesn't fall. This was last year's visit.
And of course the pose in the Pumpkin.And with Mommy.
And with Daddy making a stinky face in the background.
In front of the cool sign.
We even bumped in to one of Evan's classmates from last year (and Mommy's friend from high school).
Hanging with the clown.
And with Cinderella. Quite confusing after going to Disney World. My did the castle look different.
Kids being funny.
Evan being silly.
Riding the tractors. Always a favorite. This year the kids went on the Polar Coaster for the first time. Despite the fact that Evan didn't want to ride at first, he ended up doing it twice and said it was his favorite ride. Something Mommy loves to hear as she loves roller coasters!
Lauren was very proud she could go on the raft ride, she was finally tall enough this year!
Lauren on the tractors.
Lauren giving some love.
A pretty picture of the park that I probably take every year.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

8/22/10: Rest in Peace Powder Blue Oakley Sunglasses

I was never one to buy expensive sunglasses being too worried that I would lose them/break them/ drop them, etc, however John convinced me when we got married that I should get a good pair of sunglasses finally and that they truly made a difference. So he bought me my first pair of Oakleys. I had them for believe it or not 9 years! I believed now I could truly be trusted with such an investment. So last year's birthday he bought me a new pair. A pair of Powder Blue Oakleys with Blue Iridium lenses. He invested a lot of work in these sunglasses as the first pair came with a different pair of lenses that were actually not that great in bright sun so he bought the Iridium lenses. Unfortunately when they arrived the first pair of lenses were scratched and the Ebay seller would not take a return on them so he then had to buy another pair of lenses. These glasses were quite a lot of work.
I mentioned in an earlier post we went to York's Wild Kingdom. What I didn't bring up is what happened after that beautiful picture of the beach. Just to back track, when we arrived there it was very busy and we had to park at the first parking lot near the sign which was about a 1/2 mile from the park itself. This didn't seem too bad and was a nice walk getting there, however at 9 pm after dinner walking back it was not as pleasant. There was not a light on the street making it a bit of a scary walk back to the car. When we went out to dinner I put the sunglasses in a bag in the stroller. By the time we got to the car I made sure my Flip and Phone were in the bag but forgot to check if my sunglasses were there. By then we were all tired and the kids were a bit freaked about the walk that we just couldn't wait to hit the road. The next day I went to look for my sunglasses and found they were not in the stroller, not in the bag and not in my purse. A sinking feeling came over me and realized either they fell out on our dark walk back to the car or someone took them while we were eating. So sad, I had done such a good job with my last pair, it was sad to say goodbye to this pair so soon before it's time. In fact I have gone back to my old pair now despite a few scratches and an almost worn off Oakley name.
So here is my tribute to my sunglasses. I will miss you very much and so will my eyes. You were such a pretty blue and I tried to take care of you the best I could I just hope someone found you and have taken care of you and you didn't get crunched by a car.

8/22/10: A Little Rain Never Hurt Anyone, Now Play Ball!

Being the planner I am I bough Lowell Spinners tickets way back when they first went on sale. Unfortunately the first game I bought tickets to was during our vacation to Sunset Beach so I had to sell those tickets. When I found out those tickets were during vacation I bought another set of tickets for today's game. Of course about a month later found out this was also my husband's sister's kids birthday. Anyways, to make a long story short we made an effort despite the rain drops to attend this game. There were two rain delays before they started playing, but they finally could play. For being good sports they gave us tickets to another game the first week of September so that was cool.
Here are the kids outside with the cool Mystery Machine (a throwback to Scooby Doo).
And with Herbie with the Spinners logo.
Lauren looking cute in front of the field with the tarp on.
Evan happy in his Red Sox shirt. There was a lot of funny cartoons that popped up on the big screen and fun times to make noise. It is a fun place to take young kids with Fenway Park being so pricey it is a great alternative.
Lauren when we finally got to see the game start (and had a break in the rain).
And Evan.

We are not sure if they won. They were leading when we left but we had to leave to go to the birthday party.

8/19-20/10: Company Picnic, Visit to Mommy's Work and the Zoo

On Thursday my department had our picnic. The kids wanted to meet some of my friends from work and see my new office so we ventured in. Here they are checking out my office. They were probably not too impressed as they saw my old office which was much larger with windows, and well let's face it an actual office, not a cubicle. Note my End of an Era post, I am still at PTC now just in a different role. Hard to believe I have been here 12 years. Either way they liked checking it out and drawing on my whiteboard and visiting some of my friends who I used to work with. One of my friends wasn't in his office but was connected to his machine so we had fun writing back and forth to him on his computer from his office.
Here were the kids at the picnic having fun. Here is Lauren showing off her Gymnastics skills.
And Evan loves climbing.
Then on Friday went to the Franklin Park Zoo. That was lots of fun as always.
The kids hanging out with a Gorilla.
And Zebras.