::scenes from last week::

We survived the historic flooding here in RI with nothing but some inconvenience. We were supposed to keep our sewer use low for a few days (no showers, dishwashers, clothes washers, flush the toilet "only when necessary"--yuck). I never appreciate that stuff enough until I can't use it.
We were also kind of stuck--most of the roads out of Warwick got closed at some point, including the freeway.
But though it took Kris two hours to get to work one morning, he got there. And now the roads are all open, yay!
Here are a couple of scenes from last week:

National Guard guys standing at the corner of one of the streets in Warwick. They were all over the place with their hummers and trucks, directing traffic and keeping people safe.

A lake, submerging a freeway exit. Lucky for me I could get on there, but nobody was getting off. Isn't it crazy?

And last but not least:

Grandma Kathy sent Max a new "car quilt" to add to his current collection. It's a race car track and he loves it. She sent it just in time. We were trapped inside by the rain and the flooding, and after monday Max's school was cancelled for the whole week. So it was nice to have some new entertainment that wasn't on the TV.


I wish I could have gotten some interesting and spectacular pictures of the flooding, but it was next to impossible to get to any of the really flooded areas. Plus, I'm not that dedicated. I'd rather stay warm and dry. And luckily now for us out here, the sun is shining and it's warm. Hopefully it'll stay that way so everybody can dry out.

::happy easter::

Happy Easter from us here at our house.


It's been a wonderful weekend. If only every weekend could be like this!

::mama fishes::

(I drew the heart, he drew everything else)
See why I love this boy? Aren't those the cutest fish you've ever seen?

::still dry enough::

Just a quick update on our status out here in the Ocean State today:
It's been raining a LOT and evidently there has been some river flooding--not just this week, but a week or so ago too. Lucky for us weren't not near any rivers--we're much closer to the bay than anything else where we are now. So we've just been seeing piles and piles of rain. And Sultan is going nuts stuck inside! Luckily he's good at "holding it" if you know what I mean.
And Max's school just got cancelled for today--that's the first cancellation due to rain I've ever been involved in. Crazy!

Anyway, just thought I'd let everybody know that we're dry enough. No flooding here. We are glad we're not living in our last house though--that basement would flood if you spat on it basically. So I can only imagine it's horrible right now. We don't have a basement here and so far we're all dry inside. Hopefully it stays that way. And hopefully the rain stops soon for all the poor people who are dealing with flooding!

A couple of not particularly interesting pictures, just to illustrate:

Out front with the little river running down the gutter.

The backyard is basically a swamp with pools of standing water. Luckily our soil is really sandy out here so it doesn't make for a ton of mud. Usually anyway.
You can see the grass is starting to green up in these pictures. It's about time!

::staycation activity #5--swimming and a huge shake::

On monday we drove up North of Boston so that we could go to an "indoor water park." One of those places attached to a hotel. This one had a bunch of water slides--from little kid ones to ones that were too big for Max, splash park areas, a lazy river and fountain things. Anyway, all kinds of stuff. And it was nice to be someplace warm for a while. I don't have any pictures of us playing in the water, but that's ok. Some things are better imagined anyway.
Max had a blast, and after four hours still wasn't even close to wanting to leave! He told us he wants to move to Massachusetts when he grows up, in order to be close to that place.
We told him that there are other places like that--hopefully a little closer to (our future) home.
Such a silly little boy.

Before our waterpark fun we went and had some delicious burgers. Max had the option of upgrading his drink to a shake, so since were on "vacation" we told him he could. It was HUGE and he was delighted.

Burger places are the best!

And that concludes my staycation report. Fun stuff.

::staycation activity #4--kite flying::

I don't know why it's taken me so long to post this! Maybe it's just the volume of photos, but that doesn't usually slow me down.
Anyway, here I am.
On Saturday we met some friends at a park in Newport to do some kite flying. We've been to this park a couple times before. There are always lots of kites flying and it's really fun.
It was nice nice weather that day, high 60s where we live. Unfortunately in Newport it was quite a bit cooler, but the sun was still out, so that was nice.


Lots of people had their kites high up in the air--the were eating lunch with their kites tethered to the ground next to them.
This made it a little bit embarrassing when we couldn't get ours up. We could get ours up about halfway to the others and then they would just crash. We're definitely no kite experts.



But we are experts at picnics, deserts and kids and dogs. So we were having fun anyway.


The kids chased each other around a whole bunch--Zach stood in for the little brother that Max doesn't have and tried to drive him crazy. It was very funny to watch.


There was also some lacrosse practice going on, as you can see in the background.

Then, finally when it was starting to get cold and the sun was going down, and we were in the midst of some potty emergencies, the kites finally went up. Well, ours never really did, but our friends' did, and they were awesome,


This particular kite looked like an army jet and was flown using two hands. It was super fun to fly. It felt like you were really controlling something strong up there.

Max kept wanting to fly it, but every time I gave it to him it would nosedive.

I think what happened is that finally when it was getting cold all the people cleared out and we got to use some of the "good air."
Here's our kite, finally sort of up.


Fun stuff.

It's such a pretty place. We're definitely hoping to go back again soon. Maybe it'll be warmer next time.

::megs::

We're going to take a short break from the Staycation coverage (it's over now by the way, Kris is back at work, boo hoo.) to talk about Megan for a minute.
Megan is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We grew up together. We lived down the street from each other our whole lives and really are much more like cousins than anything else. We had tons of fun together, except for any of those times that I made her cry.
Megan is hilarious and fun and crazy. And even better, today is her birthday, yay!
This is Megan back in the day. She and her brother came over to see us on Christmas day. I think this was 1988 or 1987? Not sure. Anyway, I had just gotten my very first camera, and I think this may have been my very first picture ever taken.

Awesome, right?
And here's Megan at girl's camp. She's making one of her classic photo faces.

Oh Megan, you must never stop with your faces. Never ever.

But to the point. When I was in UT I got to visit Megan. She has three adorable little kiddos. I got to hang out for a while and take some pictures.
Look at how beautiful Megan is!

And check out how cute her kids are.
Maggie:

Will: (well I'm pretty sure this is Will anyway)

Here are the boys (Will & Coleman) getting ready for lunch. Megs has developed an excellent method for this. Strip down and eat.

This is a really good idea because twin boys + pbjs = the following:


Sticky, messy, cute little twins.

Megan, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Love you tons!!

::staycation activity #3--practicing::

I love to see these two guys playing together. Even though getting Max to play what you want him to is a little like pulling teeth (well, really I should ask Kris about that, but that's what I think.)
Max is the king of procrastinators. He'd much rather play anything--anything else in the world than what you want him too.
But that's ok. When he finally plays with Kris it's really fun. He's getting better and better too.

::staycation activity #2--sultan on the tramp::

Whenever Max is out playing in the backyard and gets up on the trampoline, Sultan always looks at him with this kind of sad and wistful glance. I always think he's wishing he could be up there bouncing around.
But does he really?
On Saturday we thought we'd test it out. See if he really liked the tramp or not. When Kris was growing up his dog would hop on tramp whenever anybody got on it and bounce around driving everybody crazy.

So Kris grabbed that lovely section of fencing that's just been sitting around making our yard look so nice, and made a little ramp. Sultan didn't think the ramp looked like much fun, but he went up it anyway after a little encouragement.
He walked around a bit and then jumped off.
Then we asked him to do it again, and he did.
He was rewarded by some pats, and he liked that.
Then he jumped off--not via the ramp, but just from the bouncy part of the trampoline to the ground.
THEN we asked him to get up again. And he completely bypassed the ramp. He really didn't like that ramp. He just jumped straight up from the ground to the tramp! It was quite impressive.
And then he spent some time reveling in the love and attention he got for being such an amazing stunt dog.




Then, after he rolled around and got the trampoline all hairy he lept off. Probably never to get up again. He's a bit of a pleaser. If everybody's cheering him on he'll do something he would never otherwise do.
But we don't care. He was awesome with his leaping. Way to go Sultan!