Mini Vacaition Weekend!

So this past weekend we packed up our little family and drove up North to New Hampshire to Lake Winnipasaukee for the weekend. We were attending Mark's cousin Dave's wedding to the adorably sweet Meg. We drove up Friday morning and hit a little traffic, but not to bad. Cam did pretty good stuck in the car for three hours. Nothing a few snacks couldn't handle!! We were staying a a hotel a few miles from the lake with my in-laws and by BIL Matt and his wife Katie. Seperate rooms, of course. The hotel was about a mile from an outlet mall, score! The rest of the family went to the rehearsal dinner that night, but we decided to go to dinner with Aunt Dori at the lake. It was so much fun. We ate on the water, laughed the whole time, spent some time walking on the docks, laughed some more, then met up with some more family for drinks and ice cream. It was truly well spent time!!

The next day was the wedding. In the morning we went to the outlets, then dropped Cameron off with a nanny at the hotel. I was super nervous about this, seeing as it was a stranger that neither he nor I had ever met, but according to her, they had a great time. She said "he was a doll" and they spent time walking outside and had dinner at a waterfall near by. Sounds like a date! We picked him up at around 7:00 and brought him to the wedding for a little bit of dancing. To cute.

And the wedding!! Oh my goodness, it was beautiful! It was at a place called The Inn at Church Landing and it was gorgeous! The weather was perfect and the lake in the background just made it that much more pretty! We had great food, fun with the family and loved watching Dave and Meg get married, finally!!

The next day, we went to Meg's parents lake house on Black Cat Island on the lake. It was adorable and fun with swimming, boat rides and BBQ. Beautifully calm and just what was needed after a busy wedding weekend. One cute thing were Meg's nieces and nephews, all who are a few years older then Cam, spent some time catching sunfish and putting them into a big bucket. Cam was obsessed!! I think right now, fish are one of his favorite things in the world and he spent forever reaching into the bucket saying "fish", or "thiss", with the Cammy lisp, over and over again. He loved it!

It was a great and prefect weekend that we did not want to end. We miss spending our summer vacations on the fresh water like we use to before we had the Cape house, and the baby. Maybe soon, but we are finishing our vacation back on the Cape in a few days through the weekend. Loving summer right now!

Gilbert

Cam got this blue monkey when he was born from a friend of Marks. His name is Gil, so we decided Gilbert was a perfect choice for the stuffies name. Now this stuffy has the softest fur with such a light color that we decided he would live on the side of the changing table, away from all dirty hands and teething mouths. In his 18 months of life, Cameron has never been a stuffy-type of boy. Every now and then he'd give his Glow Worm a hug or try and share his paci with his Elmo, but that was about it. Until the other night.

It was a Sunday night, after a fun Cape Cod weekend with our best friends, and Cam woke up crying at around midnight. I wasn't up for trying to ease him back to sleep, so into our bed he came. At around 4 that morning, I woke up to a fussing Cammy in a puddle of puke, on my pillow. With me still on it. Yum. So I brought him to his changing table to get him cleaned up and he was in the best mood! You would never have thought that he was sick! With all his energy, we decided that the day was starting then. As we got ready to leave the bedroom, he reached out and grabbed Gilbert, and I swear, right then he made a new best friend.

Since that day, Gilbert doesn't leave his side. He hugs him to sleep, feeds him food from his shopping cart, gives him rides on his firetruck and kisses him to a sloppy mess all day long. He even brings us diapers to put on him! I love seeing him play with this little monkey on his own, without Mark or myself having to ask him to do it. I think his imagination is starting to form, which is just precious. Maybe now all those stuffed animals that he received as an infant will finally get some use!

Fourth of July!

We decided to go down to the Cape House for the weekend. We had a great time! Usually the house is overstuffed with people, but this weekend it was just the three of us and my parents staying in the main house, with my brother Kevin and a few of his friends staying in "The Man Cave". It was great to be able to have some room to spread out and even give Cam his own room for sleeping.

When we got down on Friday, we had grilled chicken and pork ready right when we got there! Nice, right? Then we took a walk down to the beach for a look at the sunset. It's always a beautiful view from that beach! Cam was having a blast riding his tricyle, which he thinks is a bicyle and calls a "bike-el". Pretty cute to hear him say it! After that we had ice cream at what we think it the best ice cream place on the Cape, The Somerset Creamery. Awesome homemade waffle cones!

Saturday, Mark and my Dad took Cameron out to see the "choo-choo" go by, which he loved then brought him out on the boat for a little ride. This time, according to Mark, he loved it. They beached the boat at Toby's Island and went swimming, which you know Cam would love. He was so pooped by the end of the trip that he fell asleep on the boat, and even stayed asleep the whole walk back to the house!! Later in the day, The Kenney's came down for some Fourth of July celebrations! We went to the beach, then got lobsters and fried sea food from the Lobster Trap down the street, then out to (you guessed it) ice cream! They went home before the fireworks began, but we brought Cam down to the beach to watch the town's show across the bay. Cam loved them, but once people (aka my dad!) started lighting them off on the beach, he was not happy! Ten minutes later we walked back and he was asleep before we made it around the first turn!

Lets see, Sunday Mark, Cam, my dad and I took a boat ride across the bay for lunch, then a swim at their beach. Cam had a blast at the resturant and the beach, hamming it up for all that would watch, but on the boat, he was a bit of a beast!! I don't know if it was the fact that he was hungry on the way there and tired on the way back, the life jacket, or the small issue that his wonderful mother forgot his best friend: his paci! So grumpy as he was, I still think the trip was a 75% success. Next time! After the bbq that night, we opted to stay in and not to the local fireworks. I'm sure it was for the better, seeing as he was asleep on the very early side!

So I think we had a great weekend! For once it didn't feel like it flew by! Maybe because it was a long weekend, but also, maybe because I'm working on my summer schedule now: Thursday and Friday OFF!! So not only was it a holiday weekend, but for me it was a 5 day weekend for me!! Loving it!

Gross, hot, weather!

So this weekend was pretty gross out. For New England, we haven't been struck with the normal summer humidity all that much yet. Until this weekend that is. It was high in the 90's most of the weekend! The air conditioner worked overtime and still didn't make the house all that comfortable. What can you do I guess, right? I'd rather sunny and hot then cold and rainy.

So Friday we decided to go out to Chillies for dinner. Just the three of us. Cam does pretty awesome at resturants. I don't know if its just him, or the fact that we have been bringing him out to eat consistantly since he was a little infant. He loves looking around and interacting with the people around him. And he does it in such a good mood. We have yet to witness a meltdown before the bill comes! (Knock on wood!) I guess it doesn't hurt that there is food involved! He's a better kid ANYTIME food is involved!!

Saturday, after staying in the house for most of the hot day, we decided to have a water play date at Steph, Justin and Ashlyn's house. They filled up there little pool and water table and we brought over our beach ball sprinkler. They kids had a ton of fun, while we sat back and watched. The guys grilled later on then went out and got us ice cream. I think, for that night at least, us girls had it made!!

*About to Kiss!*

Sunday we were celebrating my nephew Ryan's First Birthday! My sister and her husband had a cookout at there house. It was a beautiful day out, but man was it hot!! There was a tent, which helped a little, but we were still sweating and gross. The kids were even starting to feel it so I sent Mark home to get Cameron's water table and we filled it up and let the kids go crazy. And they did! No one was prepared with a bathing suit or anything, but the kids go SOAKED none the less! I'd walk over and Cam would be dumping buckets of water on his head, or Ryan's head, or attempting to dump it on mine. It didn't matter that they were soaked though. The hot air dried them up in two minutes once they stopped playing! It was a great party. Ryan got tons of awesome presents, that Cameron helped open, and got to smash a huge piece of cake! Oh and Tina made an adorable slide show of pics of Ryan from birth to now. Sooo cute!!

Quite time

Today was my last day of school! I'm without that batch of kids for the whole summer! I can't believe its done and I can't believe I'm going to have all this time to spend with my baby! So as you can imagine, I got home from work super tired. And I mean crazy, lay on the couch right then tired! Mark understood, and decided Chinese would be a good alternative to cooking. Oh how I love him. Right after dinner, Mark offered (without me even asking!) to give Cam a bath. Well, a shower actually. So after I set out Cammy's jammies and got myself in mine, I came back down stairs and got myself caught up on all the blogs I try and visit. Without a little toddlers hand slamming shut my beloved Mac, without the Wiggles "singing" in the background, and without one of his hundreds of battery operated toys repeating itself over and over and over. It was peaceful and unordinary and necessary.

But while I sat there, I was all of the sudden distracted by a noise. It took me a minute to realize what it was, but when I did I nearly cried. I heard Cameron, having just gotten out of the shower and naked I'm sure, running from the bathroom across the hard wood floor into his bedroom above me. His teeny tiny legs, moving his feet at a turbo speed to keep up with Daddy, made the most adorable sound! Soft, yet sturdy sounding. The sound of a toddler having fun. Back and forth he went, with a smile on his face I'm sure, as his Daddy tried to catch him to get him dressed. A few minutes went by and I went up to try and catch a picture, but they were already walking down the stairs. It is times like these that, although I was happy to have been given a few minutes off of mommyhood, I wish I put my selfishness aside and just had fun with him. He won't always be this little and carefree. But for now he is, and I will eat it up for as long as I can!!!

(Awful Pic, I know!!)

The Update part 2 (Final!)

As you may have figured out from the last post, these aren't exactly big milestone happenings that NEED to be written about. I just like to post pics of my mini family for everyone to see and as a place for me to remember all that goes on! It may be a long post, but just be happy its not alot of words! I could re-cap all that happens on each of these days, but you'd never come back again! I just have a few more, and I'll be all caught up and finally back to talking about the present!

And I'm off...

I spent my first night away from Cameron for a friends wedding in Newport, RI. After 15 months! Tons of fun (and OK, only a tiny bit sad!)

Cameron started playing WITH other kids, not just next to them! We walked into the room for Cam trying to hug Miss Ashlyn, but I missed it on camera!

I had my second Mother's Day! We celebrated it by going for a picnic at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. It was great weather and Cameron had a blast exploring the park.

The only Mommy and Son pic taken on MOTHER'S DAY!! Sigh.

Kissing Daddy's head. :)

Sniffing the flowers.

Then off to my parents to wish Happy Mothers Day to my mom.

We went down to the Cape house for the first time this year.

We discovered mini ice cream cones!! Perfect size for little hands and perfect serving for little bellies!

We went our first cookout of the year! Cam got to spend some big boy play time with his cousin Ryan. They even got to share some fruit!

We bought Cam some new "Big Boy" toys. First, we got him a cute little trike that can be pushed by us. He sits on it and makes the "vroom vroom" noise the whole time, hence the facial expression.

Then we got him his very own pirate ship water table. This is his new favorite toy, hands down!

Ok guys, that was a long one, but I'm pretty much up to date! Back to shorter, hopefully more entertaining, posts!