::bye to summer::

Tomorrow is the first day of school for us out here. Kind of a bummer in so many ways. Good in so many ways too. But's it's sad to lose the opportunity to sleep in a bit and bum around and spend time with friends and at the pool. I think we should move to a four day school week. Really. Kids need a little more time just to be kids.

Kids need to bum around and watch Pixar movies with friends and have fun.

Good thing we can do all that and school too I guess, though squeezing it all in is a trick.

Really our summer was super busy with work and summer camps, so we didn't get to laze around much. Maybe that makes the coming to an end part even harder.

You should probably look for a first day of school post coming soon. I'm sure Mr Second Grade will be adorable as he always is.

::i can't think of a title::

Well, you might've thought I quit blogging completely, but I haven't!
We're back from our long complicated UT trip. It was really fun. I was ready to come home, but once we got here I was ready to go right back. It's really hot and humid here right now, and our house is really uncomfortable. We don't have central air--just a little window unit that doesn't do much. We're using it in the kitchen so we don't all die of heat exhaustion when we cook.
It's been too hot and uncomfortable for me to even use the computer much. I have a lot of fun photos to post from the trip, so hopefully it'll cool down a little here and I can do some work!

I officially quit my loan processing job last week. I haven't been doing much of anything the last few months anyway, so really it wasn't any loss to quit. It feels good though, to not have it hanging over my head all the time like it has been for the last 5 or 6 years. The welcome end of an era!

We went to the beach this weekend for the first time all summer. This has been such a weird summer for weather--cold for months, super rainy, really foggy and muggy. Anyway, finally it's hot enough for the beach, but we went down there saturday morning and the beach was totally foggy and cold, while our house was so hot we couldn't even move. So crazy!

The best news of all since we got back is this. Sultan got groomed. At the end of his stay at the kennel (which he seems to realy like, by the way) we had them wash and groom him--grooming for him was long overdue. It's really expensive because of how big and hairy he is.
He looked so awesome when Kris picked him up--all sleek and slim and clean. Like a different dog almost!



I love the silly little kerchief they put on him.

Getting back into real life after a long trip is tough--for Max as well as for me--we've had a lot of melt downs. But we're almost all unpacked, almost all the laundry is done (though not quite put away) and I've almost remembered how to cook. We're getting there.
Now it's off to the gym. Later.

::the 4th part 2::

After the parade we went home, relaxed and watched some bike racing. Then in the late afternoon we headed outside to start cooking our delicious hot dogs. The temperature was so nice, and it was fun to spend time out back. Really it's amazing it wasn't pouring outside, the 4th was one of the first non rainy days we've had.
Kris picked up poop. Which, contrary to (Max's) popular belief, he does do. See, I have photographic proof. Just for the records.

We played a little ball.
Max is getting better at catching, though I don't have much photographic evidence of that, unfortunately.







And if anybody is wondering what I was doing, I was taking pictures. Just so you know.
There was some work being done. Some diet coke drinking being done also.

And some companionable relaxing, evidently.

Then there was some trampoline jumping.







(Max, momentarily contemplative. Why? Who knows.)

Then it was dinner time.
The Trader Joe's hot dogs are so dang good. They're the best hot dogs I've ever had. And add in some of their relish? Wow, that's a delish dog. And watermelon is a must on the 4th.

Sultan thought they would be good too. Please overlook the weird bread slicey eastern buns. They're weird.
Bad Max came to dinner.
He's usually not invited, but I made an exception since it's a holiday.

We were so glad to have Ken and Kathy with us for the holiday. It was so fun. We love having family around!

And the fact that he posed for this photo means he deserves to have it posted for all the world to see. So world? Enjoy.

::the 4th part 1::

I'm a little behind, but that's ok, right?

The fourth of july was one of the first days all summer that's been truly sunny and quite hot actually. We got up and headed over to the other side of the bay for the Bristol parade. Supposedly this parade has been happening since 1785 (wow). So it's quite the institution. We went last year and had a really good time, so we didn't want to miss out this year.
We had to drive separately since Kris was on call (boo). But luckily since Kris's parents were here we all had people to keep us company.

Max is lucky to have a strong dad who can still carry him up on shoulders. It won't work for too much longer I'm afraid!
We got there after things had already started. We walked up the sidewalk as far as we could, then at some point it was just so crowded we had to just stop and stand and watch from the sidewalk. Which was great as far as the view went, but terrible as far as shade. We were in full sun. Luckily there were some whispy clouds in the sky, but not enough to make us comfortable.

Anyway.
One of the first things we saw were guys dressed up like old time baseball players. This guy was throwing a ball to people in the crowd. They looked really fun.


We saw pretty horses that I know my mom will appreciate.

These guys are gorgeous:



Every time a horse came along Max would yell, "UH OH!!" and tell me that I needed to hold my breath so I wouldn't sneeze.

Max found a little friend to talk to for a bit.



I always like to see the marching bands--especially the sharp looking groups with lots of members. They come from all over for this parade. I especially liked the uniforms on the following bands:



I'm glad it wasn't me wearing those unis marching in the sun though. Torture.

The Navy guys looked sharp. There are a lot of military in the parade since there are a lot of bases and stuff nearby. It's fun to see them marching in uniform.

We always like the Shriners in their little cars.

And Max liked seeing a scotty dog--what's a parade without at least one dog?

And the reinactors are fun to see--lots of drum and fife groups and soldiers and maidens/wenches.
I like the drums.


What we don't like? The guns and the cannons. They are SO SO loud, and so startling. So at some point Max just kept his hands over his ears constantly.

I don't blame him. I had my ears covered most of the time too. I'm just glad he's big enough to cover his own so that I can keep my hearing.

POW!!

We left before it was all over--crazy that we could stay for two hours and get there after it started and leave before it was done. It's a long long parade. We didn't have a lot of traffic getting home which was nice.
To sum it up, we had a good morning.

More to hopefully follow soon!

::time travel::

It seems like we're slipping backwards in time somehow.
This was May:

(at least the end of it)

Warm sun, sweaty boys, popsicles, pink cheeks, blue skies.

Panting dogs.

But June? So far June has been really disappointing. I don't even have any photos to illustrate my point. It seems to have been raining pretty much the whole month, and I don't think it's gotten warmer than about 75 degrees. Even on the sunny days (like when we got the tramp) it's rained either at the beginning or the end of the day! It's been grey and soggy and sometimes chilly.

We're not sure if summer is ever going to actually get here. And I'm worried that once it's here I'll want it to go away again. I like heat in small doses.

Really we've just been hoping it would be nice enough that we could go to the beach with our friends before they graduate and move away in a week. It's not looking good for that though.
Remind me in August that I was wishing for heat and sun now!

(for some reason lately when Max is out playing hard and gets hot and sweaty he comes in panting and says "there's one dead animal looking for a popsicle" I'm not sure where he got it, but it happens all the time. Dead animals keep showing up, and they want popsicles morning and night.)

.::Bummed::.

Today Max and I were supposed to be going to the beach with our friends from church.
Kris started to feel sick with a cold last night, so of course when Max woke up this morning he was sick and floppy. It seems to always happen this way. I really wanted to go to the beach today because we're in the middle of a New England "heat wave" which means that temps are up above 90 degrees.

To all of you folks who live anywhere but here that sounds like normal summer weather, right? Well it is. But youguys probably all have some sort of air conditioning or cooling system.
We don't! And neither do a lot of places here in RI, including a few of the local libraries which closed yesterday and won't open up until things cool down.

So our house gets hot. We've invested in a lot of different kinds of fans. These fans help, but they can't really deal with 95 degree weather.
I was hoping to escape the hot house by hanging out at the beach all day. But it was not to be. Instead I had to stay home in the hot and sweaty cave of our house (we have to keep all the blinds closed so the sun doesn't get things even hotter.)

I was bummed. But I finally took out my little personal sized blender, which I've had for a couple of months but never have gotten a chance to use. I made myself a delicious smoothie in the style of my dad. That made me happy.
Pretend like I made you one too.

mmmmmmm

It was so cold and nice.

Max made himself into a car wash. I'm not sure how the play dough fits into the car wash situation, but it's what inspired him to do it in the first place.

At about 1PM I wished I was in a car wash. I'm not too good in the heat.




We ended up hanging out, holding still (mostly me) and watching movies for most of the day. I made Max take a cool bath which I think helped. He felt prettymuch fine by the end of the day.
Then when Kris was done with work we went and picked him up and drove straight to the movie theater so Kris could see WallE with us. Max and I saw it a few weeks ago. It was great to sit in the cool movie theater for a while.

Hopefully we'll make it back to the beach soon, but even more I hope this heat wave doesn't last very long! I might melt.

::Happy Fourth::

I think the 4th of July is one of the funnest holidays that there is. I think this is mainly because my parents always celebrated it in really fun exciting ways, (please see my mom's post about this for more details). We would have big huge parties, go to parades and hot air balloon festivals, eat all sorts of delicious food and enjoy lots of fireworks.

This kind of celebrating leaves a lot to live up to. Sometimes the 4th just doesn't cut it, no matter how hard we try. This year though, it was great!

We were planning on heading to Bristol RI in the morning with our friends Chad and Melissa to see a famous parade that's been going on there for years and years (supposedly since 1785). But we woke up in the morning and there was a lot of rain outside. And it kept raining.
Finally the rain let up a bit. Unfortunately by that time the parade was already supposed to have started. We decided we would just go out there anyway, and see what there was to see.

We got there an hour or more after the official start time, but after we parked and walked out to the parade route we realized that the parade was going strong! And as we watched and watched we figured out that we really hadn't missed much at all.
It was a great parade. The first thing we saw and heard when we walked up was a fun marching band.
This was Max's reaction.

Yes, it's a super dorky face that he's making, but those of you that know him may be able to tell that he's really excited (but I think he knew I was taking pictures, so he had to be a little bummy.)
He was rather transfixed.

Lucky for Max dad is tall and so Max can actually see over the crowds at the edge of the sidewalk.

This parade was really great and very long. We got to see tons of stuff, and as people got tired and left we got to move closer and closer to the edge of the street, and finally ended up right up there. I was so glad that we went! It really made the holiday for me. It reminded me of the good old days at the Freedom Festival parade, and my time in high school marching band too!
Here are a few highlights:
There were a good amount of little "re-enactment" type groups that marched by. Several drum and fife bands, some platoons of soldiers. I thought this drummer looked pretty authentic.

This group wasn't very small actually.

Max didn't like it when they shot off their guns. It was really loud. And he really didn't like the canons. And WOW were those canons loud, so I can't blame him. He kept his ears covered for quite a while after the canon had gone, just in case.

Chad and Melissa's baby, on the other hand, didn't mind the explosions at all. He just slept through them and hardly flinched. In fact, he enjoyed most of the parade that way.

Just like a good and adorable newish baby should do.


There were a lot of old people in the parade. Lots of veterans from different wars, riding in cars or marching. It was neat to see them--they definitely deserve our applause.
I liked these guys with their flags. They looked so serious.

There were a lot of free masons in the parade as well, my favorite out of all of them was the "oriental band"--a whole bunch of old men playing crazy out of tune weird instruments. It sounded terrible, and they were having a blast as you can see.

The best old people I didn't get a picture of, unfortunately. There was a van from a rest home filled with old ladies with their faces painted up like clowns. They were blowing bubbles and having such a fabulous time. It was awesome.

UPDATE***
Melissa sent me a picture they took of the old ladies, so here you go! It was really funny and cute.

















There was a fabulous chinese dragon.

It was skimming along the sides of the parade route greeting all the kids. I was really hoping it would come and see Max. It did, but of course I wasn't quick enough to get the moment.

It was a fabulous dragon. Max was delighted as you can see.


Please enjoy the ugliest color guard outfits ever. There were guys in this color guard. (Actually in pretty much all the color guards.) I don't get it.

Poor girls.

Everybody enjoyed watching the parade. Here's Chad and Matt taking in the sights.


This band was awesome. They were like a crazy mardi gras group with banjos and the big string bass and crazy outfits. So entertaining to look at. They were having tons of fun.

Just look at the bari sax player down there. He's having the time of his life!


The rain kept the weather relatively cool, and the sun was behind clouds so it wasn't too bright. We didn't get rained on at all during the parade though. All in all it was perfect I think.

One of our friends has an aunt who lives in Bristol who was hosting a BBQ. She invited us to come and join in. We did and it was great.
Watermelon and hot dogs are necessary for a proper 4th.

Max got really really messy after eating several slices. He only dropped one slice all over the host's floor, and only spilled two people's drinks. Pretty good I'd say.

We were so tired by the time we got home we basically just took it easy for the rest of the evening, and didn't even go out looking for fireworks when it got dark. But that's ok. We had a great fourth of july! Thanks for joining in!